Big Dog, Little Airplane

Sassy is an 81 pound Bull Mastiff/Boxer mix who has found a new home in Antlers, Oklahoma.  The mission I had today was to get her there from Pulaski, TN. To tell you the truth, I wasn't absolutely certain that I could coax an 81 pound dog into position in Romeo Victor's available space. So, I decided to fly to Pulaski rather than have Jerry of Jerry's Rescues drive the four hours to Memphis and risk not being able to fit the dog in the airplane. I figured if Sassy wouldn't fit, I wouldn't have to feel too bad about leaving her with Jerry since he would not have to drive eight hours for nothing. This added two hours to my trip but gave me peace of mind.

Thankfully, it worked out just fine.  Sassy is a very well-mannered, lovable dog.  Here she is with Jerry of Jerry's Rescues.  Jerry said that a lot of people shied away from Sassy because they thought she had pit bull in her, but this is not the case. She may look a bit intimidating, but she has a marshmallow personality. So, Sassy gets a first-class ticket in N323RV to her new home in Oklahoma.










The day was good for flying, although it did require my instrument skills, and I had to file IFR for all three legs of the trip.  I made it to Pulaski in an hour, including shooting the GPS approach to runway 16 at Pulanski.  Jerry showed up with Sassy right on time, and Randy Jones, the airport manager, came in on his only day off just to fuel my airplane for the trip to Oklahoma.

One airborn, Sassy settled down nicely, occasionally sitting up to check out the scenery.

I used the harness that Jerry supplied me to secure Sassy to the baggage bulkhead.  This limited her forward movement so that she couldn't interfere with the flight controls.

If I had this dog, I wouldn't be afraid to take her along with me in the plane.

My trusty Garmin 696 depicts some nasty weather south of us, but we never hit a bump. It took almost three hours to cover the distance from Pulaski to Hugo, Oklahoma.  I chose Hugo because the runway at Antlers is listed as in "poor condition" on the airnav.com website. Also, the winds which were showing as 19 knots gusting to 27 knots, were directly out of the north, favoring the north facing runway at Hugo.

Rie is Sassy's new mom. Sassy jumped right into the back seat of her car, and off they went. I think she's found a new home.

I fueled Romeo Victor, filed a flight plan, grabbed a diet coke and winged off back to Memphis, arriving at about 2:45 in the afternoon.  It's been a busy week of flying, since I made the trip from Memphis to Goshen, Indiana two days prior to this trip to retrieve my friend, Wayne Breeden, who delivered a helicopter to its new owner there. And I still have a trip to Columbus, Georgia coming up this week!