Rosie & Tuppergal's Bahamas Trip 2011

[Chino Tom]

In the 70's, I was picking up new Cessnas in Strother, KS to bring to the west coast and would stop at Dalhart. Ingram's Beech dealership was there then!
I wonder if the sign is still in the men's restroom that instructs you to
"taxi up close if you have low manifold pressure"?

Have a great trip Rosie and Victoria!

[Mike Brewton]

I just talked to Rosie and he wanted me to let everyone know that He Victoria and the Plane are ok!! The first words out of his mouth were OMG!!! he said that he has never seen anything like that in his life, Heavy Heavy Rain and quarter size hail!!! He said that he is really happy that he had his baby in a hanger! He is going to wait out this next storm and re-group!!! It sounds to me like this will be a really good story!!! can't wait to hear more!!!

From Rosie (Day 3): It's Monday May 23rd and am just back from the airport here in Grove, OK. My friend's hangar has some minor flooding that we cleaned up. The airport is located about 35nm south of Joplin hit by the tornado.

Last night, we must have been feeling the 'outer' effects of the Joplin tornado here in Grove because we had wind, rain and hail (1") like I've never before seen in my life. We had just sat down at the Rib Crib for dinner when the tornado sirens went off and the staff told us to take cover in the bathroom or go home.

We drove home in about 5 minutes and we lost power not long after. We sat in the candlelight in the basement with the storm going full force. Power came back about 4 hours later so went to bed around 11pm.

This morning (Monday) at 10am, it was dark like the sun had set 30 minutes before: Street lights were on as were the store-front signs. The skies were dark and ominous looking...very eery. We have been getting pounded with rain and wind throughout the morning and midday.

We'll regroup for our flying trip as I don't want to fly NE anymore: That direction looks really, really scary! We are going to stay here in Grove another night and see what the weather does.

"It is better to be down here wishing we were up there than up there wishing we were down there".

Rosie & Tuppergal

Here's the snapshot I was able to get just before losing power. This snapshot was about an hour after the tornado;

[Brent Colvin]

Sign is still there, Everything is the same

From Rosie: I got to meet Brent and his friends in the diner. The sign is indeed still there, and I've read it many times in the last 10+ years:
"Pilots with short stacks or low manifold pressure, please taxi closer as the next pilot may not be float qualified!"

Here's a picture of us with Cecil Ingram, 86 years young:

[Ron Lee]

Strong storms now in the SE Kansas, SW Missouri, NE Oklahoma area. That is what concerns me about cross-counties to the east. I just heard about terrible loss of life from a hurricane in Joplin, MO yesterday.

[Laird]

You guys fly safe now.....hopefully that's all the nasty weather you'll encounter for the next two weeks.

We're all watching for updates. Wishing I was there with you.

Laird
(2001 Alpha Flight)

[Rosie]

Hi All,
It was quite a hectic day yesterday (Day 2, Sunday May 22) after departing Cleveland (OK). We tookoff around noontime landing Pryor (H71), OK for fuel then continued into Grove (GMJ), OK.

My friend Gary Trippensee was there to greet us. He said they were expecting thunderstorms later on and that we should put the plane in a hangar. For a moment, I thought, "Hmmm, thunderstorms...I just came from blue skies." But Gary is a longtime pilot (Vietnam, OV-1s) so I didn't hesitate other than for my thought. We put the plane in his hangar, and all you know by now what followed less than 4 hours later....a tornado hit Joplin (MO).

Looking back on the flight from Cleveland to Pryor Sunday morning: It was a short flight at 55nm (<20 minutes). We climbed to 5500' MSL to get above the 5-7 miles viz 'muck' (and Tulsa Class C), and at that altitude, we didn't see anything but blue skies, all around us, as far as we could see:



After fueling at Pryor, I elected to stay low for the short flight into Grove. I was getting ready to cross the hold short line and roll when I stopped and told Victoria, "I want to take some pictures for my trip report so I can show (share) that it's OK to fly in marginal VFR." I say that after having flown the Los Angeles basin for the last 31+ years: Sometimes it seems that 3 miles viz is 1.5 miles in front of you and 1.5 miles behind you.

Here we are on the ramp just after fueling at Pryor then at the hold short line looking north, east then south (note the blue skies above):









Now checkout the pictures after takeoff looking west, north and east (and keeping in mind that I had blue skies above me in less than 30 seconds climb at RV speeds: I was not flying under an overcast):







Why did I stay low for the flight to Grove? If I chose to fly VFR altitudes, I didn't want to climb to 5500' MSL then descend to pattern altitude (1800' MSL) for a 12 minute flight. Flying at 3500' MSL would have put me in the clouds: 1800' MSL worked just fine.

Grove airport is 35nm south of Joplin, and I can tell you it was quite a night here on Sunday! More rain, wind and hail (up to 1") than I've ever seen in my entire life....and yes...hearing Tornado sirens scared me!

I was absolutely amazed that such devastating weather could develop in less than 4 hours after having just flown in blue skies...

I TRULY have a new respect for weather. We just don't see this type of changing weather in the California desert.

Today (Day 3, Monday, the day after the tornado) has been very wet and windy and being ground-bound gave me time to get some pictures uploaded. That also gave us more time to hang-out with Gary and his wife Concha. I never tire of his now 49+ years of flying adventures ;-)

We'll be staying here another night and are replanning the trip with our first leg (Tuesday) now southbound to get away from this WX!

Yes, it's all still worth it so keep poundin' them rivets! Rosie & Tuppergal

[Ironflight]

Hey Rosie, I can always clean up the hanagr apartment here at Polly if you find you and Tuppergal hugging the coast....

[Andrew Sego]

Glad you guys are ok. Just as importantly, you have personalized shirts?! I knew I got into this hobby for a reason - there's so much to look forward to.

[pierre smith]

Rosie didn't get some gray hair because he's stupid. He's around because of his ..."We'll just stay here another night".. attitude.

As Paul said a few years ago, "Weather is what it is"...you can't make it something you want or would rather. It's the boss!

Best,

[Ron Lee]

Correct. I am a weather wuss and proud of it. That same area is being hit again by possible strong storms at 430 PM EDT.