I have been part of the Shuttle operations team here in Houston since STS-1. In reviewing my records, I have been actively assigned to one position or another on more than 80 of the approximately 120 flights that we have flown. What this means is that when you are assigned, you are in Houston ? and the net result for me is that I had never seen a Shuttle launch live and for real at the Kennedy Space Center. (Gene Kranz never saw one until he retired!) With the remaining flights in the Shuttle program rapidly counting down, I felt that it was time I get serious and find my way down to Florida for a launch. Finding myself without an assignment for STS-117 (except as the ?Rescue? Flight Director, and for that, I?d have time to get home?), I decide that there was no time like the present!
Louise had left her -6 in Houston a week and a half ago, her way to D.C. blocked by large weather systems. Knowing that we were planning to go to Florida for the launch, she made a good decision to leave the plane and use the orange and blue birds of SWA to get back to Washington to work, and then return here to pick up the plane. This meant that we?d fly a two-ship out to Cocoa Beach, enjoy the launch together and she would head on to Virginia when I headed back to Houston. I am used to flying this kind of trip alone, and it was an interesting experience to fly with someone on my wing for a change. The fact that we both had 396?s with XM weather gave us a chance to talk about what we were seeing, and I could share my rationale with her as we made minor deviations for building weather. The gulf coast at this time of year always presents scattered areas of thundershowers (and bigger), and flying early is the best way to assure that there will be holes. We pre-briefed the entire route together, including prime and backup fuel stops and weather strategy. Basically, we?d stay on top as long as we knew that we?d have scattered clouds to get into the fuel stops, but if there was doubt then head to the deck and either fly beneath the clouds if we had good visibility, or find a good alternate to set down and re-assess. This follows my theory of staying out of the clouds and VFR when there is convective activity in the area.
Fortunately, the weather stayed typical for us on Thursday for the trip out, and most of the showers we saw on the Nexrad included only one or two pixels of red surrounded by some yellow or green ? small stuff that was easy to divert around. We had planned a fuel stop for Bay Minnette, AL (1R8), based on Intel that it had a brand new self serve pump and the best prices around. That was right about half way, and just to the northwest of the restricted areas over Pensacola and Eglin ? an obvious break point for the trip. We set out ?Direct 1R8? after topping off with fuel at my favorite discount pump at Anahuac, but as we climbed out to 11.5K, we could see that Bay Minnette was right at the eastern edge of the developing weather. Our alternate was just a little beyond, at Defuniak Springs ? not quite as cheap, but recommended as a quiet and quick place to get in and out of along the route. After a few deviations around small cells (all on top in brilliant clear air), I elected to push on to 54J, since it was showing to be beyond all the weather. I didn?t want to get down at Bay Minnette and then get stuck as the storms spread.
I must say that I was really impressed by the performance of the RV-6! Cruising at 11.5K, wide open, I was truing about 167 knots in the -8, burning 7.2 gph and showing about 64% power. I only had to bring the power back about 1 inch and Louise was able to keep up with me ? although for some reason, she was burning more fuel (about 10 gph) than we expected for the slight difference in power settings. This difference held up for all the legs of the trip out, but when she was solo headed to Virginia, her fuel burn returned to more reasonable values at virtually the same speed. We were flying a nice cross-country spread formation so she didn?t have to work too hard for the hours required! The first leg clocked in at a little over 2:40 ? plenty of reserve time. In fact, my EFIS was showing that I could have made the trip non stop (we had between a 15 and 20 knot tailwind most of the way), but I knew I had more fuel than the -6, and I would have only had a 45 minute reserve at landing. Someday, I?ll one-hop it, just to say I did it!
The second leg of the trip out to KSC was over lower scattered cumulus, and cut across the Apalachee Bay. It was great having a geologist on my wing as we looked down and saw these circular ?lakes? in the panhandle of Florida. Seeing as how they were near Eglin, I half expected they were bomb craters from testing the big ?MOAB?s, but Louise set me straight ? they are sink holes and a very active area for cave diving. I?m not going to pretend to be able to explain them?.I?ll let her fill in the details! Suffice to say that it was nice it was a week day, and no one else was on the Air to Air frequency so that she could tell me what we were seeing ? a very cool way to get a geology lesson at 11.5K!
It was a smooth day, not only on top, but surprisingly, down below as well as we descended to duck under and through the VFR corridor across the north edge of Orlando?s airspace. We touched down at Merritt Island a little over two hours after leaving Defuniak Springs, for about a five hour flight from the south side of Houston. The Cape weather was gorgeous ? nice visibility, clearing skies, and a promise for ?GO? launch weather on Friday! We tied down the airplanes, picked up a rental car, and went off to enjoy the beach?.
For more pictures, go HERE
Louise had left her -6 in Houston a week and a half ago, her way to D.C. blocked by large weather systems. Knowing that we were planning to go to Florida for the launch, she made a good decision to leave the plane and use the orange and blue birds of SWA to get back to Washington to work, and then return here to pick up the plane. This meant that we?d fly a two-ship out to Cocoa Beach, enjoy the launch together and she would head on to Virginia when I headed back to Houston. I am used to flying this kind of trip alone, and it was an interesting experience to fly with someone on my wing for a change. The fact that we both had 396?s with XM weather gave us a chance to talk about what we were seeing, and I could share my rationale with her as we made minor deviations for building weather. The gulf coast at this time of year always presents scattered areas of thundershowers (and bigger), and flying early is the best way to assure that there will be holes. We pre-briefed the entire route together, including prime and backup fuel stops and weather strategy. Basically, we?d stay on top as long as we knew that we?d have scattered clouds to get into the fuel stops, but if there was doubt then head to the deck and either fly beneath the clouds if we had good visibility, or find a good alternate to set down and re-assess. This follows my theory of staying out of the clouds and VFR when there is convective activity in the area.
Fortunately, the weather stayed typical for us on Thursday for the trip out, and most of the showers we saw on the Nexrad included only one or two pixels of red surrounded by some yellow or green ? small stuff that was easy to divert around. We had planned a fuel stop for Bay Minnette, AL (1R8), based on Intel that it had a brand new self serve pump and the best prices around. That was right about half way, and just to the northwest of the restricted areas over Pensacola and Eglin ? an obvious break point for the trip. We set out ?Direct 1R8? after topping off with fuel at my favorite discount pump at Anahuac, but as we climbed out to 11.5K, we could see that Bay Minnette was right at the eastern edge of the developing weather. Our alternate was just a little beyond, at Defuniak Springs ? not quite as cheap, but recommended as a quiet and quick place to get in and out of along the route. After a few deviations around small cells (all on top in brilliant clear air), I elected to push on to 54J, since it was showing to be beyond all the weather. I didn?t want to get down at Bay Minnette and then get stuck as the storms spread.
I must say that I was really impressed by the performance of the RV-6! Cruising at 11.5K, wide open, I was truing about 167 knots in the -8, burning 7.2 gph and showing about 64% power. I only had to bring the power back about 1 inch and Louise was able to keep up with me ? although for some reason, she was burning more fuel (about 10 gph) than we expected for the slight difference in power settings. This difference held up for all the legs of the trip out, but when she was solo headed to Virginia, her fuel burn returned to more reasonable values at virtually the same speed. We were flying a nice cross-country spread formation so she didn?t have to work too hard for the hours required! The first leg clocked in at a little over 2:40 ? plenty of reserve time. In fact, my EFIS was showing that I could have made the trip non stop (we had between a 15 and 20 knot tailwind most of the way), but I knew I had more fuel than the -6, and I would have only had a 45 minute reserve at landing. Someday, I?ll one-hop it, just to say I did it!
The second leg of the trip out to KSC was over lower scattered cumulus, and cut across the Apalachee Bay. It was great having a geologist on my wing as we looked down and saw these circular ?lakes? in the panhandle of Florida. Seeing as how they were near Eglin, I half expected they were bomb craters from testing the big ?MOAB?s, but Louise set me straight ? they are sink holes and a very active area for cave diving. I?m not going to pretend to be able to explain them?.I?ll let her fill in the details! Suffice to say that it was nice it was a week day, and no one else was on the Air to Air frequency so that she could tell me what we were seeing ? a very cool way to get a geology lesson at 11.5K!
It was a smooth day, not only on top, but surprisingly, down below as well as we descended to duck under and through the VFR corridor across the north edge of Orlando?s airspace. We touched down at Merritt Island a little over two hours after leaving Defuniak Springs, for about a five hour flight from the south side of Houston. The Cape weather was gorgeous ? nice visibility, clearing skies, and a promise for ?GO? launch weather on Friday! We tied down the airplanes, picked up a rental car, and went off to enjoy the beach?.
For more pictures, go HERE