Ladybug Fly Away Home

I picked up a nice little kitty from Athens, GA and brought her back to Memphis. We had to divert to the Tunica airport because of some horrendous mid-day thunderstorms.










Next morning it was off to Mesquite, Texas on the outskirts of Dallas to ferry Ladybug to her new home and pick up a little sight-impaired dachshund named Harvey.  He's bound for a new home in Virginia, but he will spend a few days with my daughter's boyfriend, Jonathan, who is kind enough to foster him until his next plane ride





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Harvey seems to like people, and it appears that he forgot how to bark.  That's my kind of dog.
















It's time for summertime flying again.  In Memphis, that means playing cat-and-mouse with thunderstorms. Fortunately, the handy Garmin 696 makes avoiding these monsters much easier.

Buddy Moves to Chicago

After a week of skiing with my kids, I had a bit of a flying jones. Another doggie rescue flight was just the right fix.

This little pup ended up in a bad situation when he was no longer welcome in his home. So, off to the animal shelter he goes. Once again, an amazing network of people came together to find a new home for Buddy. Jacolyn Dadles contacted me via the Pilots N Paws website to get the ball rolling.

I left Memphis at about 0730 this morning, arriving about an hour and a half later at the airport in Wetumpka, Alabama. Mary Bray brought Buddy to me having rescued him from his uncertain fate. Buddy seemed a bit frightened at first, but settled down during the flight. He was a pretty good co-pilot, accepting treats and letting me pet him through the bars of his cage.

Enroute to Bowman Field in Louisville, I passed right over my birthplace of Gadsden, Alabama, "Queen City of the Coosa Valley."

Being from Alabama, I doubt that Buddy has seen much snow. This nice man at the Louisville airport FBO walked Buddy around for a bathroom break before his continuing journey to Chicago.

Elizabeth O'Connell had volunteered to foster Buddy if necessary, but Paul Berliner was able to make the trip from Chicago to Louisville in his Cherokee to meet me so that Buddy made it all the way to his new home in one day.

After refueling, I took off for Memphis. It was nice VFR weather the whole trip - not a ripple in the air the whole way. I got back a little before 3 in the afternoon. Tomorrow, it's back to work for six nights in the E.R.

Lab Puppies to Nashville

I made another animal rescue flight, ferrying 4 little lab puppies from Memphis to Nashville. Ferocious winds aloft made the trip from Dewitt Spain to John Tune airport a quick event with groundspeeds in excess of 230 kts (about 275 mph). The return trip, of course, was correspondingly slow.

Thanks to Linda Merideth and her "Arrf" rescue group in Mississippi for saving the pups and to Betty Mancini for driving them from Greenville, MS to my airport.

Romeo Victor To The Rescue!

Once upon a time, there were some very bad people who managed to make a living by selling puppies at a Mississippi flea market. These animals were not well cared for, to say the least. They also managed to abuse a few children along the way, resulting in the death of one. This atrocity was exposed and arrests were made. A popular television program, "America's Most Wanted" has recently shot a story about this because the culprits, Janet and Ramon Barreto, are now fugitives. During the filming of the story, a number of animals were borrowed from the Tupelo animal shelter to play the parts of some of the puppy mill dogs. One of the program's producers is Cindy Miller, who decided to find homes for all of the "actors" rather than return them to an uncertain fate at the animal shelter. One particular dog, a six year old shih tzu named Benjamin, was destined for a home with Cindy's friend, Andrea, in Columbia, South Carolina. The problem was how to get Benjamin there. I think you know where this is going.

When I was in Tampa last week, I met an administrator for the internet-based group, "Pilots NPaws." They have a forum where those needing to transport rescued animals can list the locations and desired destinations of the animals. Pilots on the forum can peruse the forum and volunteer their services to transport these critters. Experimental aircraft such as mine are no problem, unlike the other charitable aviation groups, which will not even let us carry a donor kidney. Since Pilots N Paws is a registered 501c3 corportion, all expenses incurred are tax deductible.

So, Cindy put a post about Benjamin on the web site. I read it and volunteered to take the lucky pup for a ride in my magic carpet to his new home.

I left on Saturday morning and arrived at Tupelo around 8:30. Becky Paul from the Tupelo animal shelter arrived at 9:00 with Benjamin. After a brief introduction, we packed Benjamin into my carrier and loaded him into the baggage compartment of Romeo Victor. I removed the passenger seat to make loading and unloading the carrier easier.

By the way, a Petco 300 carrier is the largest size carrier that will easily fit in the RV-7. Benjamin could actually have fit into a smaller carrier, but this is what I had, and it worked very well.

As soon as we lifted off, Benjamin turned his back to me and appeared to go to sleep. There were no accidents involving doggie excrement or other bodily fluids. He was the perfect passenger.

The weather was perfect, with a nice 15 knot tailwind going eastbound. I decided to fly to Aiken, S.C. rather than Columbia in order to avoid all the air traffic going into Columbia for the football game between the Gamecocks and the Florida Gators.

Andrea and her daughter arrived shortly after I did, bringing my lunch with them. Benjamin emerged from his carrier and took right up with his new family. He likes to be petted and obviously enjoys human company.

So, Benjamin became my first non-human passenger. It was a nice feeling knowing that I had a part in delivering him to his new home with a loving family. However, the real hero here is Cindy Miller, who found homes for Benjamin and fifteen other residents of the Tupelo animal shelter. Thanks, Cindy.

I Love This Airplane

On Thursday of this week, I got up at 0 dark thirty and launched for Tampa to squander a couple of days at the AOPA Aviation Summit.

It was a great excuse to get a few hours in Romeo Victor. I contacted Memphis approach control after departing from Dewitt Spain, and a familiar voice greeted me by name. My friend, Roman Greene asked where I was off to and wished me a good trip. I had a nice tailwind the whole way, with ground speeds right at 200 knots (about 230 mph). I love watching the sun come up from 9,500 feet.

I was able to fly a direct route to Plant City, Florida because there are no restricted areas along this part of the west Florida coastline, unlike the panhandle area with all its military bases and training areas. As long as you stay within the ADIZ, which is clearly outlined on the Garmin 696, you don't have to worry about meeting one of our country's enforcement jets. I don't mind a short route out over the water.

I enjoyed me two days at the AOPA convention in the convention center. I was able to attend some interesting forums with topics on travel and pilot proficiency. I met up with an old friend, Dave Hirschman, who writes for the AOPA Pilot magazine. I bought a couple of inflatable floatation vests, so you can guess what I'm planning to do soon.

I left Saturday morning and made it home in time for a bike ride before the Alabama game. Roll Tide!

Carlsbad to Memphis

http://web.mac.com/rv8apilot/iWeb/Trip%20Pictures/Carlsbad%20.html


Click on the link above to go to more pictures from the Carlsbad trip. We picked New Mexico to visit because it had the best weather in the country. But wouldn't you know it, the weather turned stinky just in time for our return to Memphis. As you can see on the Garmin, the weather around Dallas and south of there was nasty. Fortunately, we were able to deviate to the north and avoid any significant weather, although our IFR skills were required.

So, we left Carlsbad mid morning, and landed in Oklahoma City at Sundance airport about two and a half hours later. After a delicious lunch consisting of crackers and a diet coke, we were back in the air enroute to Memphis.

Pardon me, but is that bat guano on your shoes?

We started the day by taking the hike up to the cave at Slaughter canyon. This was a nice, steep half-mile hike to the guided tour of one of the "unimproved" caves in this area. There are some great formations in this cave, and the two park rangers did a great job as guides. The most impressive formation is called "The Clansman."

Hiking back down after this tour, we drove over to the visitor's center at Carlsbad Caverns, and did the tour of the "Big Room." This was just incredible. I can't believe I've gone my whole life without doing this tour.

We had a little time left after this, so we decided to take a short flight to photograph some of the local mountainous geography. The weather was great with light winds, and this made for some nice photos. This is El Capitan, the peak near which we were hiking yesterday. It's impressive both from the ground and the air.

Just for the heck of it, we flew a practice ILS approach back into Carlsbad. Everything in Romeo Victor is working just fine.