Day 4 - Oklahoma City, OK to Indianapolis, IN
Today has been quite the experience already, and it’s only 9:30 in the morning.
I didn’t sleep well as I worried about the potential issue with the engine indications. Fortunately, the simplest solution was the correct one - loose connections. When I get back home, I am going to fire my mechanic since he had just finished working on it and promised everything was good to go. Oh, wait, I’m the mechanic…
Curtis picked me up then kept me company when I pulled the cowlings and fixed the issues. I left Oklahoma City right as the heat started to shoot back up.
This time of year, you always have to worry about the weather, and this trip is no exception. I saw a system building last night west of St Louis, which would be near my route, and sure enough, it grew substantially. Here is the national radar picture from right after I took off. The fact that I have access to near-real-time weather information is incredible. On another blog, I’ll talk about how changing technology over the last 40 years has dramatically altered aviation.
Because of the storm system and the fact that it is moving directly towards my destination, I have decided to turn North by Northwest (heading 345magnetic for the non- sailors) to pass behind and then track on the north side of the storm. No idea where I will end up tonight, but I hope it is near Indianapolis.
The dashed blue line is my initial heading to go behind the storm
Up until now, I have flown pretty much straight lines on this trip, except where I deviated away from inhospitable terrain should I be forced down. Although the Long-EZ has instrument capabilities that are as good as if not better than most commercial jets, I cannot handle icing, lightning, or heavy turbulence, so I stay away from bad weather.
One drawback to all the technology and pretty computer displays is that pilots forget to look out the window. In my case on today’s flight, I am running around the back of the storm. I try to stay as close as is safe to keep from having to fly any farther. Here are two images: my Nav display showing the local weather radar, while the second is my view outside. The slightly light just off my nose means that it is clear with likely only light rain. The foreboding dark patch to the right is the heavy weather over Topeka (KFOE) on the computer display.
Believe it or not, I actually prefer having to deal with weather like this. Clear blue skies can get monotonous, but with weather, I am having to think, apply knowledge and experience, and react. It ends up being me against Mother Nature. There are some advantages to weather in the Midwest: if you’re not actually in a storm, there’s cloud cover to keep you cool, strong winds that can be harnessed as a tailwind, and the air is often very smooth, like today.
It appears that my choice to cut around the north side of the storm will pay off. I am approaching Peoria, IL, which is just starting to feel the leading edge of the storm. Once at Peoria, though, I have clear air all the way to Indianapolis. Right now, though, I am wedged between cloud layers, with low undercast and high overcast. The combination of good visibility and reasonable temperatures is making me happy.
As I made the turn near Peoria, I computed that I had just enough fuel to make a straight shot into Indianapolis, but that it would be close on the fuel. As a result, I slowed down and really focused on managing the fuel. As a result, I ended up doing a five hour flight and landing with about three or 4 gallons of gas, which is still enough to fly for half an hour. My original plan had called for about a three hour and 30 minute flight.
I was met at the airport by Dana Gnagy, who is the person that I have known and stayed in touch with the longest in my life outside of my family. He and I met at summer camp and Switzerland when we were 11 years old. I lived in Brussels, Belgium, and he lived in Juneau Alaska. After camp, we became Pen Pals and wrote letters for many years, then as we got older and started our adult lives, we managed to meet up in a variety of different places. He worked for an airline and I had a job that supported airlines, so we quite often would meet in airports all over the world because that was the easiest way for us to get together.
We went back to his house where we caught up with his wife, Barbara. Over the course of the day and evening, we’ve talked about a wide range of things from comparing notes and how our respective pairs of children have grown up and set out on their own lives, to dealing with the loss of our mothers in the last year. We also had fun tonight remembering various stupid things that we had done together when in 1980, each of us spent time at the other’s house for part of the summer.
It’s really neat when you have known somebody that you’ve known for so long and are able to pick up the friendship right where you left off the last time you see them whether it was one year or 10 years ago. In our case, we have been doing this for 49 years.
As I was coming into land in Indianapolis, the air traffic controllers took me right over the top of Indianapolis international airport. Despite being quite busy, the least amount of traffic is directly overhead, so it’s not uncommon for airports to do something like this. It provided quite the view.
