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Craig & Rosie's Weekend Flying (Ferry) Trip

Rosie

Well Known Member
Hi All,
I'm here in Meridian (MEI), MS with new RV-6A owner Craig Jace who just bought a beautiful RV-6A this Saturday morning (for insurance purposes, he needed a pilot :) Craig's airborne with the seller right now but we are heading back towards CA shortly, and what better way to have 'flight following' than have all your eyes on us :)

My original plan was to head to the Dallas-Fort Worth area for an overnight with Martin & Claudia Sutter but the weather there is yucky....so, real-time flight planning has us flying to Grove (GMJ), OK for fuel (and a quick lunch with friends) then to Front Range (FTG), CO to 'beg' an overnight stay from Scott & Deb Mills :rolleyes: then into SoCAL on Sunday.

When it comes to weather (as Gary Sobek says), "I'd rather be a live chicken than a dead duck!" so Colorado (and nice Wx along the route), here we come :D Rosie

Here's the ground track that will show data for another few days;
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0RteQnV6MLbFHvA3FEhVf1aW0je5WmxsZ
 
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If I'd known you were going to fly right over my house I would have gone outside and waved.

From Rosie: Thanks Gil...we actually thought of Sam Walton as we flew over :D
 
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Hey Rosie - Stay clear of clouds and have a good trip back!

From Rosie: Jailbird, thank you for the tip....ah...that's the entire reason we ended up with the Mills....if your gonna' detour, detour to friends :D
 
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If you are heading southwest to cross the Rockies I may try an intercept. The problem is that the TAF looks iffy for early Sunday.

Remember, clock forward one hour tonight.

930 PM Saturday night. Fog of some sort around KFLY.
 
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It's pushing near midnight (we time-changed already) and Craig/I are here with the Mills (thank you very much!). The good news is that there are pictures, but the bad news is that Craig did not bring his cable...and it's proprietary connection :(

Here are a couple of pics that I put together to show our great circle route (that would have taken through some AWFUL weather they were having in Texas). We opted to head northwest towards Scott & Deb's house with a lunch stop in Grove (GMJ), OK with friends Gary and Concha Trippensee (former neighbors from the Rosamond Skypark).

Many thanks to the seller, Josh Glenn, for sending us this picture (plane built by John Furey);
Meridian03.JPG


Here's the mileage difference by flying around the weather to stay with friends (with many thanks to Craig for buying the 'detour' fuel ;-)

Great circle route;

Meridian01.JPG


Planned Route for Sunday;

Meridian02.JPG


Craig and I are planning a 1000 MDT from Front Range (Ron) but not yet sure which way we'll head (La Veta or Wolf Creek Pass). We will take a look at Weathermeister in the morning.

I'll be sure to get some pics up on Sunday night after we get home :D Rosie
 
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yea wx, you are just trying to rack up some extra hours to catch up to the turbo man. nice going. be safe out there. miss you all.

found an interesting wx site. http://www.stormpulse.com/ head west young man.
 
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yea wx, you are just trying to rack up some extra hours to catch up to the turbo man. nice going. be safe out there. miss you all.

found an interesting wx site. http://www.stormpulse.com/ head west young man.

Cool website Turbo! Here's what we'd of faced Sunday morning trying to leave Dallas (if we'd of even gotten to Dallas yesterday);

Meridian04.JPG


Looks much better getting out of the Denver area today;

Meridian05.JPG


I'm glad we ended up in the Denver area as we are having (had) a GREAT visit with the Mills :D Rosie
 
Looks like clear sailing if you can get around this stuff along the Front Range.

The path FROM MS is worse today than yesterday.
 
Morning Drop Off

Just got back from dropping the Ferry Masters off at KFTG. A breezy morning, around 15 Kts and a bit brisk. After deciphering the weather they departed and headed for a northerly route around the Rockies.

Snapped a pic once they got their gear loaded into Craig's new plane N133JL.

rosiecraigftg.jpg



Looked like it might be a BuMpY ride over the Rock Pile today. Winter weather is always a bit more challenging, but very doable if you are cautious and plan well. After their departure I went up and put an hour of "Cloud Chasing" on 339A. :cool:

It was our pleasure to have them bunk with us for the night. They reported that the basement digs aren't too bad if anyone else needs a place to "crash" :p
 
Thanks for giving me a day to vicariously enjoy this flight of two......Welcome home I am sure!!!!

Thanks for keeping an eye on us Frank! I told Craig that even though we couldn't get flight following through the 'Rock Pile' that we had LOTS of you keeping an 'eye' on us :) We had a nice breakfast with Scott & Deb Mills then it was off to Front Range (FTG) with a departure just after 10am local time.

The best weather for us was northwest bound towards Walton-Jackson (33V) around the northern tip of the weather then back towards Eagle (EGE) and "IFR" along I-70.

We overflew Grand Junction (GJT) and continued into Canyonlands (CNY) for fuel. No food there :( so we continued into Bryce Canyon (BCE) where Ruby's Inn sent a van to take us to lunch. From there, we continued to Boulder City (BVU: Too much ice tea!) then direct Barstow-Daggett (DAG). We 'turned' the corner westbound going around R-2515 (Edwards Air Force Base) then into Rosamond (L00), landing just after 7pm local time. Total flight time from Meridian (MEI), MS was 12.4 hours, and we flew 1822nm for an average speed of ~147 knots. It's been a long day, and I wanted to get some pics up for you before I call it a day. Craig had the camera so will have to wait for his pics but I have a few that include our trip long and pics of his plane in my hangar. We could not land at Agua Dulce (L70) as they have no lights (not so much for us to land but I knew that I'd not make it out with my plane to get home quick enough after sunset);

Our flight starts from the bottom up with the first entry the local flight Craig went on with Josh (the seller):
Meridian_06.JPG


Here are some more pictures to show the 'winner' that Craig can now call his:
Meridian_07.JPG


Meridian_08.JPG


Meridian_09.JPG


Here's the full ground track from the SPOT website;
Meridian_10.JPG


Had we been able to fly our proposed route (great circle) from MEI to L00, that distance was 1474 nm (what's an extra 348nm when it includes a visit with the Mills!?!)
Meridian_11.JPG


Many thanks to Craig for having me along as we had a great weekend trip! Craig will 'check in' later this week with his pics and hopefully his own write-up. Thanks again for following us along! :D Rosie

Monday morning update: Unknown to us at the time, there was a plane crash near Agua Dulce at 1845, 20 minutes before our ETA of 1905 to Agua Dulce. However, we diverted to to Rosamond for the reasons noted in the post below. It wasn't us!

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=8577209
 
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Runway lights, we don't need no stinkin' runway lights

Did you know that you can legally land and depart under Part 91 without runway lights - even without an aircraft landing light?

From Rosie: Yes, I do Mike, however, it's an airport issue (and a very sensitive one at that and well-known by local pilots) so we diverted to L00.
 
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Stormpulse

yea wx, you are just trying to rack up some extra hours to catch up to the turbo man. nice going. be safe out there. miss you all.

found an interesting wx site. http://www.stormpulse.com/ head west young man.

Nice find Turbo. Stormpulse looks to be another good weather link. I use Weathermeister and VAF Weather link the most but added this site to my weather tab. ps saw you posting on VAF at 3am the other day. what the heck are you doing up at 3am....LOL

See you Weds....
 
Follow up THANKS to Craig & Rosie's Flying Trip

Im the new guy (Craig Jace) with the 6A (N133JL). Rosie flew with me from MS to So California this last weekend. Cant think of anyone who I would rather have in the seat next to me avoiding bad weather and flying over the Rockies then Paul Rosales. The time he took to make sure I got the right plane and also get the plane home safely was above and beyond. (Doesn't matter that he kept yelling at me to look out for traffic and keep airspeed at 80 when landing over the last 2 days!:D)
Paul gave me my first ride in his plane over a year ago and has been in contact with me since that time. Since I got the plane, Paul already has ideas for my 6A that I would not have a clue to do without his help. And I still have some transition training to finish with him. Just wanted everyone to know the kind of guy Paul is! (but you all knew that:))

That said I need to also thank some RV guys on this list over the last year when I was trying to find an RV
Mike Starkey for opening up his home for a prebuy last year and Steve Barnard for doing that prebuy. Steve said to "wait for another RV".
I did, and he was right!
Last month I contacted Rick Gray for a possible pre buy of a plane (that he talked me out of thankfully) by his home. Rick talked to me for hours several times (up to 1am one night) about Rv's and what to look for. He said he usually "talks people out of using him" for a prebuy because he tells them everything on the phone! (he did);)
He told me bout the RV that I finally bought on friday. Rick gave his blessing on the plane because he knew the plane and the builder (John Furey) and the quality of the build. John Furey sold the plane some years ago but Rick remembered the plane when it was listed for sale
Rick also got me in touch with John and I have been "picking his brain" as well the last few weeks. Everyone has been so helpful.
Thanks guys, and also the ones I did not mention due to this long post!
Doug you have my donation!
 
Congratulations!!

Have fun with your new machine!!!!

And post some pictures when you get a chance.

Fly safe.
 
Congrats!!!!!!!!!!!!

Craig, glad you finally got a set of wings of your very own.

Take care, fly safe:D
 
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