Race #71 Experience at the Big Muddy
The winds were fairly calm when I looked at the 10 am race time forecast
Friday night. I looked at the winds aloft charts at
the surface, 3,000 and 6,000 feet before I went to bed and they looked like SFC
180@5, 3K 190@10 and 6K 240@15. I ran the numbers for minimum altitude then one
for minimum altitude ~900 ft, for the first 4 legs and 3000 ft for the rest and
both predicted 204 kts so I was torn between. When I got up at 4am I rechecked
the winds aloft charts the 3,000 direction was the same but the velocity was
up to 15 so I chose the low-high option. In the briefing Sam threw us a few new
minimums so in the margin on my flight plan I wrote the pop-up requirements for
those.
We tookoff on 18R and made our on-course turn to 339 at a perimeter road south
of the airport. I had planned 900 ft for the first leg but I thought, this is
dumb you have to pop-up to 1300 so you might as well take advantage of any tail
wind at the higher altitude on the whole leg and as I recall the ground speed was pretty
good - in the 180s. After I made the turn at Pinckneyville to 256 I dropped
down to 900 msl and I was happy to see the speed creep back up into the 180s
again.
At the Perryville airport where, I thought Sam had screwed up the drawing on the
cheat sheet (but he hadn't - he was presenting a track up image and I'm used to
seeing north up displays on paper) I popped up to 1300 called the turn to 131 an
shortly thereafter headed down to 900 ft msl again. Now, I look at the
sectionals and determine the ground elevation as well as I can based on marked
high points, obstruction height (msl and agl difference) but 900ft seemed a
little tight in a couple of places but not bad enough to turn off the altitude
hold. The speed was in the low 170s but I was OK with that.
The grand tower gas line suspension bridge was hiding behind a hill and I was
starting to get directional twitchy until I saw one of the towers beyond the
hill. I ran in close before the pop-up on this one because it was not an
airport traffic area (to coin a phrase) called the turn to 165 mid span and
immediately dropped back down to 900 msl.
This 42.2 nm leg ending at a country road overpass of a major highway would be
the longest and the one that would have the most direct head wind. I stayed
locked onto the current heading to the mysterious overpass flying along and
over the big muddy mississippi. I changing the least significant digit on the
autopilot once or twice to stay on target but I had to disengage the altitude
hold because the trees on a couple of ridges were squeezing into my comfort
zone. I did my usual worry but the overpass showed up right where Sam said it
would be, just as I had seen it on Google Earth and I disengaged the autopilot
in preparation for the turn.
In the last race I was under turning and as a result flew a longer course. I
was determined that I would not do that again so I really pulled it around the
86 degree course change to 079. Well, I over turned it and as always the
Pictorial Pilot heading display went to three dashes but my trusty DG also
tumbled and abandoned me. The only directional reference I had was the highway
so I aligned with it and rolled out around 45 degrees too far to the north. Not
a big hit but not pretty either.
I started my slow climb to 3,000 ft and I could see the end of Illinois but with
my unplanned perspective I did not know how the Ft. Defiance parking lot would
appear. I knew I did not want to cut a pylon so I turned toward the very tip of
the state where the mississippi and the Ohio rivers join (did I mention what a
geographic education this race was?) I would be going long but legal based on
course constraints. As I passed the tip of Illinois I saw the parking lot and
turned to 032 while continuing the slow climb.
As I passed 2,000 ft the speed in the climb was in the 180s and the 2,000 ft msl
TV tower was no longer a concern. Now I had to worry about spotting the parking
lot at the Pulaski County Park on the bank of the Ohio River. I was nearing
3,000 ft in the climb and i saw the turn point and stared focusing on it. The
speed was good, around 190kts. There was some discussion about this turn in the
briefing that this feature was the turn point and not that and penalties would
be assessed etc. so I made sure I passed the whole thing on the east side then I
turned to 333 and started worrying about finding the yellow smiley face water
tower with a black bow tie that was facing the opposite direction.
As soon as I completed the turn I noticed I was down to 2,200ft. I had a
momentary thought of climbing back to 3,000 but decided that would just compound
the error and I locked onto what I had. I changed to the Carbondale tower
frequency and called then for the approach to finish when I reached the water
tower.
I thought of a long gradual decent to the finish line but though better of it
when I remembered the many cell phone towers on the way in. After passing that
area I started trading altitude for speed all the way to the finish line and not
leveling off before that point.
The speed was 210.98 mph and I beat Ken Krebaum in his fast RV-8 by 4 seconds so
I think the outlet mod is good. I ran without tape, but I did have the fresh
air vents blocked and the nav antenna elements removed.
Bob Axsom
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