Colin McG
Member
I don?t do camping. I just don?t.
Matt and I had decided to fly down from Ottawa (Canada) to Sun N Fun and having agreed not to camp, not that there was any real decision to make, I posted a note in the VAF forums for recommendations on the best hotels, where to get the rental car etc. The problem with this approach was that most of the responses suggested that we camp! This was a curved ball I wasn?t expecting and using our pilot enhanced decision making abilities we ?ummed and ahhed? for about a week before finally deciding to camp.
On the plus side it meant I could legitimately hang around Canadian Tire looking at all the things we would need for the expedition. It wasn?t long before I had so much stuff that it looked like we were organising a Haiti relief flight and not three nights camping in Florida. The back of an RV-7 bears little resemblance to the inside of a C-17 so, despite my fascination with the disposable underwear, most of it was put back on the shelves.
I spent the last few evenings before we left practicing my knots and watching episodes of Bear Ghrylls ?Man vs Wild?. I was as ready as I was going to be.
My only previous experience of long-haul RV travel didn?t turn out as expected. Our planned 2 nights at the Rough River Canard Fly-in turned into 2 nights in Portsmouth, Ohio and almost a week before we got the aircraft back to its hangar. I was therefore under no misapprehension that a trip to Lakeland, of over 1,100 nautical miles, would go according to plan. I had recently started flying Matt Pearson?s RV-7A and Matt and I would share the flying. This would be the first really long trip either of us had ever made.
We met at Carp (CYRP) on Wednesday morning and we were surprised to find most of what we had brought actually fitted into the back of the aircraft. Little did we know that there was a reason for this.
We had arranged to fly down in the company of another local RV pilot, Bill Reed, and his RV-8A. Bill had planned to go down earlier but had been delayed by a faulty fuel pump. We had all completed eApis, filled flight plans and we were ready to go. Matt and I would lead and, only 5 minutes later than planned, we departed Carp in brilliant sunshine and turned south towards the US border. Unfortunately, only 10 minutes after take-off, Bill had a hot cylinder and decided to make a precautionary landing at Smith Falls. Matt and I listened on the radio as Bill landed and we continued to Watertown (KART) to clear customs. We were now a flight of one and Bill flew down commercial to Florida a few days later.
Departing Watertown we were soon cruising at 8,500? in glorious sunshine. We initiated flight following and we were passed from one controller to another every 5 minutes. At one point the conversation went something like this. ?Canadian experimental India Mike Echo contact smugglebuggle approach of 123.4?. ?What approach did he say?? ?I have absolutely no idea. Just mumble smugglebuggle approach and you?ll be fine?.
Our next destination was Blue Ridge (KMTV) in Virginia but with about 100 miles to go the cloud cover started to get less scattered and we were soon over a solid overcast. We?d been airborne about two and a half hours when we turned around and headed back north to Charlottesville (KCHO), Virginia. Fuelled up we were soon ready to go with Brunswick Golden Isles (KBQK) as our next planned stop.
We routed around Savannah and flew low along the coast which made a great break from all the autopilot cruising. Flying along the coast was so different from our flying back home that it suddenly dawned on us how far we?d come.
I landed at KBQK but was too far up the runway to make the first exit so I continued to taxi. Unfortunately I didn?t realise the next exit was in another State and I taxied, much to the dismay of aircraft in the circuit, all the way up what is a very long runway. Despite this the FCO was exceptionally friendly and discounted the fuel by 10% for SNF visitors and provided free hot dogs!
Matt and I had decided to fly down from Ottawa (Canada) to Sun N Fun and having agreed not to camp, not that there was any real decision to make, I posted a note in the VAF forums for recommendations on the best hotels, where to get the rental car etc. The problem with this approach was that most of the responses suggested that we camp! This was a curved ball I wasn?t expecting and using our pilot enhanced decision making abilities we ?ummed and ahhed? for about a week before finally deciding to camp.
On the plus side it meant I could legitimately hang around Canadian Tire looking at all the things we would need for the expedition. It wasn?t long before I had so much stuff that it looked like we were organising a Haiti relief flight and not three nights camping in Florida. The back of an RV-7 bears little resemblance to the inside of a C-17 so, despite my fascination with the disposable underwear, most of it was put back on the shelves.
I spent the last few evenings before we left practicing my knots and watching episodes of Bear Ghrylls ?Man vs Wild?. I was as ready as I was going to be.
My only previous experience of long-haul RV travel didn?t turn out as expected. Our planned 2 nights at the Rough River Canard Fly-in turned into 2 nights in Portsmouth, Ohio and almost a week before we got the aircraft back to its hangar. I was therefore under no misapprehension that a trip to Lakeland, of over 1,100 nautical miles, would go according to plan. I had recently started flying Matt Pearson?s RV-7A and Matt and I would share the flying. This would be the first really long trip either of us had ever made.
We met at Carp (CYRP) on Wednesday morning and we were surprised to find most of what we had brought actually fitted into the back of the aircraft. Little did we know that there was a reason for this.
We had arranged to fly down in the company of another local RV pilot, Bill Reed, and his RV-8A. Bill had planned to go down earlier but had been delayed by a faulty fuel pump. We had all completed eApis, filled flight plans and we were ready to go. Matt and I would lead and, only 5 minutes later than planned, we departed Carp in brilliant sunshine and turned south towards the US border. Unfortunately, only 10 minutes after take-off, Bill had a hot cylinder and decided to make a precautionary landing at Smith Falls. Matt and I listened on the radio as Bill landed and we continued to Watertown (KART) to clear customs. We were now a flight of one and Bill flew down commercial to Florida a few days later.
Departing Watertown we were soon cruising at 8,500? in glorious sunshine. We initiated flight following and we were passed from one controller to another every 5 minutes. At one point the conversation went something like this. ?Canadian experimental India Mike Echo contact smugglebuggle approach of 123.4?. ?What approach did he say?? ?I have absolutely no idea. Just mumble smugglebuggle approach and you?ll be fine?.
Our next destination was Blue Ridge (KMTV) in Virginia but with about 100 miles to go the cloud cover started to get less scattered and we were soon over a solid overcast. We?d been airborne about two and a half hours when we turned around and headed back north to Charlottesville (KCHO), Virginia. Fuelled up we were soon ready to go with Brunswick Golden Isles (KBQK) as our next planned stop.
We routed around Savannah and flew low along the coast which made a great break from all the autopilot cruising. Flying along the coast was so different from our flying back home that it suddenly dawned on us how far we?d come.
I landed at KBQK but was too far up the runway to make the first exit so I continued to taxi. Unfortunately I didn?t realise the next exit was in another State and I taxied, much to the dismay of aircraft in the circuit, all the way up what is a very long runway. Despite this the FCO was exceptionally friendly and discounted the fuel by 10% for SNF visitors and provided free hot dogs!
Yep!....I've driven that piece of terrain in an airplane several times...you almost want to take off again to fly down to the other end of the field.