A Riot of Color!

[Ironflight]

OK, for everyone reading this that has a flyable airplane and lives within a couple hundred miles of northeastern Minnesota, CALL IN SICK TOMORROW and fly up to the Arrowhead!

I'm sitting here this evening in Grand Marais, listening to the sound of surf on the gravel beach, enjoying the mid-50 temperature, and thinking about the incredible views I had today. I left the Twin Cities in the morning, and flew up to visit relatives on the Iron Range. The colors were simply outstanding all the way. I landed at the old ancestral home in Tower, MN, where the pattern for runway 26 kind of wraps around a hill behind the town. The hill looked like it was on fire, the colors in the trees were so bright! (Yeah, I know, pictures are worth a thousand words, but I left my camera-to-PC cable at home.....sorry).

After a Minnesota lunch (for those not from God's Country, that is wild rice casserole, orange jello with little mandarin oranges in it, and rhubarb cake for desert - it's a Lake Wobegon thing!), I departed Tower, flew up over Ely, then down to the north Shore of Lake Superior, and up to Grand Marais. The color was even better than down south, the yellows giving way to much orange, and lots of red. With the clear blue skys tinting the waters of the many lakes a deep blue, it was just magnificent.

The Grand Marais airport is a ways out of town, up over the ridge, but I was able to talk one of the hotels on the lake into driving up to get me, and taking me back up in the morning. I can't imagine you'll find any hotel rooms on a weekend up here for another couple weeks however.

Tomorrow morning, I plan to fly down the North Shore to Duluth - with the sun from the east, the shore line should be intense! (Assuming, of course, the weather doesn't change, and I have to file IFR to get out.... )

From on the road....

Paul

[ChiefPilot]

Yup, very pretty this time of year. My wife and I spent the weekend at a resort near Beaver Bay. Hiking on the trail and around the state parks was awesome.

Post your pictures when you are able! I didn't have the presence of mind to bring a camera along for the trip - it was packed safely in the bags in back :-(.

[kaceyd9plus]

Paul, you didn't miss anything here in Texas! It was 95 degrees today and will continue in the 90's for the rest of the week, at least up here in the Dallas area.

[DanB]

Stop! You're making me drool :>) I used to spend a bit of time up in Ely canoeing and having a blast. Duluth holds many memories as well...cool little town! We in the deserts of AZ would love to see some of the pictures. We might just get below 95 this week. Arrrg!
Dan
Mesa, AZ
RV-Dreamer, Kitfox IV Builder
www.azshowersolutions.com/Kitfox1.html

[FrankK90989]

Paul,
You should of been here 3 weeks ago, It was on fire. we had a dry year and had a few big fires up in the boundry waters.


Regards,
Frank K
N Mn (Ely Boy)
RV-9A 90989
All Done! airwothy yesterday----

[Ironflight]

Having a few computer problems on the road here, but here is one poorly-framed shot that will give an idea of the colors. This is just inland from Silver Bay, Minnesota, up on top of the hills.



And here is a shot of (in my opinion) one of the most scenic lighthouses in the world, Split Rock Lighthouse - going by at 160 knots. Sorry, it's out of focus - I really needed Doug's image stabilizer for that one.



And finally, a shot of the Valkyrie sitting on the ramp at Tower Municipal, on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The pattern wraps around that hill in the background.



I'm headed back to Houston in the morning - looks like a boring, CAVU trip all the way home.....maybe I'll have some tailwinds to make it interesting! I have found that flying into small airports in a nice RV really helps to start conversations, and you get to meet and talk with a lot of interesting folks. I got a chance to chat with a antique aircraft restorer in Grand Marais who has produced a couple of Oshkosh Grand Champions. I spent an hour yesterday with Alex Peterson and his beautiful RV-6A, which shows no appreciable wear after 800 hours of flight. And I paid a visit to Steinair, where Stein and the gang showed me several cool RV projects, and some panels being built that will blow your minds when they show up in their new airframes.

Hope to see many more people at LOE next week!

Paul

[frankh]

Well I called in Sick Monday like you said Paul...Cus I got the flu and I been in bed for days..!

My new IO360 has not been started in two weeks......At least its dry here.

I drove to Burger King for lunch intending to go the airport and pull the plane out....I had the sense to realise I am in no shape to be driving an airplane.

Hope my cam lobes haven't rusted off by the time I get better....Grrr

Frank

[Ironflight]

I guess the single biggest advantage of installing all of the avionics I need to dependably go when and where I want in all kinds of weather is that it is just like carrying an umbrella - as long as you have it, the rain stays away! Such seems to have been the case during this week of flying. The only bad weather I encountered was in racing some thunderstorms into Wadena the other day, and the nice thing about catching the leading edge of the rain is that it washed all the bugs off!

Today's flight from Minneapolis to Houston took just shy of 5.5 hours, with one fuel stop in Neosho, MO. Cruise was mostly at 8500 to catch some winds, and I was leaned out to about 8.2 gph. The EFIS was showing an MPG of 19.5 to 20 most of the way, with an SFC of 0.40 - sometimes 0.39. By all indications (EGT, Fuel Flow), I was running about 0.5 gph below the line on the Lycoming curve for my power settings, and as best I could tell, was running smoothly about 50 degrees LOP - with a carb! The power was right about 71%, so according to everything I have read, I couldn't be hurting the engine, it seemed happy, and the CHT's were right about 350.

The only bumps I encountered were on descent into Houston in the middle of the afternoon, which is normal - the rest of the trip was smooth as glass. I found the wind data from the XM weather service on my 396 to be useful for picking an altitude, and while the magnitudes were pretty good, the directions were off by about 40 degrees. They are forecasts after all, and not actuals (I think).

Total flying time for the week of travel and sightseeing was 22.5 hours - now I can spend a couple of days to make sure she's ready to go for LOE next weekend!

I've said it before, and I'll say it again....it is an amazing machine! Everyone builds and equips their plane to satisfy their own needs, and I really got the reliable, capable, and flexible traveling machine I wanted with the Valkyrie!

Paul

[N162RV]

Talking about a riot of colors, My wife and I just returned from the Gatlineburg area and the Smokeys were breath taking. I had planned to go in the RV but the weather didn't cooperate so we took the next best thing, our 04 Mach I Mustang. Talking about an RV on wheels, this thing will move. Anyway, we made it to the Clingmens Dome on Saturday and it was beautiful but the traffic was a nightmare . Just as we turned off route 40 on friday, it was an instant traffic jam till we got back on 40 on the way home. Overall it was a good trip that would have been better if we could have flown the <3hrs one way Vs >9hr one way.