Titan Missile Museum

This post was intended to be a trip report on visiting the Titan II missile museum in Tuscon Az, with stops in Sedona and Las Vegas.  We did some of that, but this trip has actually turned out to be about adapting plans on the fly, pun intended.

We planned this trip at the very last moment, barely 48 hours before we left.  When I'm planning a trip like this I try to pack in more stuff than is at all reasonable, much to Carol's chagrin.  She sometimes asks me why we have to do so much stuff per trip.  Well here's the reason:  Plans don't often go right.  There are a million different ways a trip can be ruined if contingencies aren't considered.  I like to have an itinerary that allows some flexibility.  I'll make a stretch goal of ten items, for example.  If I actually check off 6 of them, I'll call the mission a success!

My initial route called for an overflight of the Furnace Creek airport in Death Valley.  A stop at Lake Havasu would follow, and then we would be on to Tuscon in the early afternoon.  The next day would start with an overflight of Meteor Crater, Arizona. We would then hop over to Sedona where we would enjoy most of the day before moving on to Las Vegas in the late afternoon.  After which, we would spend Saturday night in Sin City before returning home to Grass Valley.  Simple, right?

Spoiler alert: There were a few changes.  Here is the route as flown:

I wanted to get started early, but the dog kennel doesn't open until 8:00 am.  And without a lot of prior notice we couldn't get our two children, ah hem, I mean dogs, into their regular doggy spa. So, we had to take them to a new kennel where we were further delayed with forms to fill out and, of course, there were pleasantries to be exchanged.  Eventually, we made it to the airport, but the weather didn't look so promising in the direction of the Sierra mountains when we got there.  I had already received an online weather briefing so I knew that there wasn't any precipitation forecast along our route, but there was an AIRMET (AIRirmen's METteorlogical information potentially affecting safety) for the mid and southern Sierras for moderate turbulence below 15,000'.

Looking out toward the mountains the ceiling looked too low to get across and I wasn't looking forward to the turbulence.  The winds aloft were forecast to be 25Kt to 30Kt at 9000'.  That is usually enough for a bumpy ride on the leeward side of the mountains.  Since our route would be south along the eastern slope of the Sierras, we would be on the downwind side of the mountains all the way to Furnace Creek.  This is almost guaranteed to be a rough ride.  Plus, I wasn't completely sure that we could even get over them anyway because of the cloud cover.

We elected instead, to fly along the western slope of the Sierras until the weather improved.  By not crossing the mountains immediately, we could fly at a lower altitude that would allow us to avoid the high winds and we could stay on the smoother upwind side of the mountains most of the way.

We departed Grass Valley about 9:00 am and flew at about 5,500' all the way down to Fresno under a broken cloud layer.

At Fresno the ceiling was turning into a solid overcast, prompting us to fly higher.  Somewhere around Porterville we turned east and crossed the southern Sierras at 9,500' direct to Inyokern where we had previously attended an ice cream social.  On the eastern side of the mountains the weather was clear.

Below left to right: Inyokern and China Lake airports and the city of Ridgecrest.  At Inyokern, we turned east to squeak through a narrow channel between two restricted airspaces, and then we had another decision to make.  

Furnace Creek airport (elev. -211) lies at the northern end of Death Valley, which would have been right on our way had we followed our original plan. Now that we had taken a different route south, I had to decide whether or not the novelty of flying below sea level was worth backtracking 40 nautical miles? No, of course not. We decided to go direct to Lake Havasu and refuel. After a quick pit stop, we were on our final leg to Tuscon International.

Climbing out of Lake Havasu, We did spot the famous London Bridge, but we were a bit too far away to get a decent picture.  The next hour and a half had us over the Arizona desert, passing west of Phoenix.  We crossed several parachute jumping areas as well as an area congested with gliders.

About 40 miles out I connected with a fairly busy Tuscon approach control so that we could enter the Tuscon class C.  At Tuscon International, we were offered a straight into runway 11 right, which was nice and easy.  The winds were calm and the temperature was 85F.  Perfect!

We taxied to Atlantic, the FBO we selected for this trip.  There were no signs or marshalers directing us where to park, so naturally, I attempted to park on the wrong side of their building.  What followed was a discussion on the UNICOM frequency between me and the receptionist inside:

"...Where are you", she asked.
"I'm right here", I answered. "In front of your building", I added. "Where do we park?"
"I can't see you."
"I'm looking straight at your big sign right now."
"Atlantic?"
"Yes!"
"Taxi to our ramp."
"???"

I was just about to try the other side of the building when a marshaler arrived in his cart.  OK, now we're making progress.  We followed him to the other side of the building and where we were met by the ground crew.

To my delight and surprise, they had special adapters to fit their rather large tow bar (which was accustomed to moving business jets around) to our little airplane.  After we unloaded, they moved our plane to covered parking.  Our rental car was waiting for us when we arrived and everyone was super nice, making our arrival a very low stress affair -- at least it was once we figured out where their ramp was hiding.

I had originally planned to go straight to the Titan Missile museum thinking that we would do the museum this afternoon and have the entire next day for Sedona.  It was now about 3:00 pm MST.  I failed to account for the switch to the mountain time zone so we had already lost an hour, but I thought we could still just make it. Their web site informs us that the last tour is at 3:45 pm and that they close at 5:00 pm.  Since our timing was tight, we decided to call the museum from the Atlantic lobby.  That is when we were told that the museum actually closes at 4:00 pm.  Since it's a twenty minute drive from the airport to the museum, that was that.

Well, on to plan C.  We will go to the museum in the morning when they open and still try to get to Sedona afterward.

Now our attention turned to checking into our hotel and finding a place to have dinner.  Once we were settled in, an internet search provided many possibilities for brewpubs as has become our custom on a trip like this.  We selected two since it was still quite early.

We drove into a business park not far from the center of Tuscon to find the 1912 Brewing Company.  From the outside, one would have never suspected that there was a celebration going on inside.  When we entered, there were balloons and party decorations on the tables.  U.S. Marines in dress uniforms were milling about looking very sharp, as were their wives and girlfriends.  I felt a bit out of place being dressed so casually as we wound our way through to the bar.  Before we sat down we asked the bartender if this was a private party?  "No", he said, "We're celebrating the Marine Corps 242nd birthday."  Awesome!  I have often marveled at how we run into the best stuff by pure chance.

I had the "Weapons Check" red ale and then Carol and I shared their sampler while we snacked on chips and salsa.  We were having a good time, but we needed to get on to our dinner location, which was Thunder Canyon Brewery in downtown Tuscon.

We had a pleasant dinner and I sampled their Wheat and Blonde ales.  Everything was fine, but I enjoyed the 1912 brewpub a little more than this one.  After dinner, we went for a walk through downtown, which at 9:00 pm, was just beginning to come alive on this Friday night.  I was wearing just a tee shirt and was very comfortable in the warm night air.  I remember remarking to Carol about how we would be wearing coats right now had we been back home in Grass Valley.  After stopping for some Ice Cream, we circled back to our car and then made our way back to the hotel by 10:00 pm.

The next morning we headed south out of Tuscon on the twenty minute drive to the Titan missile museum. The museum is located at the site of an actual ICBM silo and control center. When you arrive, what you see first is this building.   Inside the building is a small display area, a gift shop, and a class room like setting where you watch a short movie explaining the basics of the Titan II missile and launch complex.

Behind the building is a fenced off area that encircles the missile silo and the control complex's top side infrastructure.  The silo is behind the Jeep.

This is the silo door:

On entering the main building, one signs up for a tour and can then browse the exhibits until the tour begins. Here Carol stands next to a W-63 thermonuclear warhead that once sat atop the Titan II ICBMs. At 9 megatons it was the largest nuclear weapon in our arsenal.

When it is time for the tour to start your tour group is invited into a classroom where the scope of the tour is explained by a docent and then a short movie explains the history of the Titan II missile system. In the movie, we learned, how this base came online in 1963 and how it was upgraded while in service, and then finally became obsolete and was decommissioned in 1983. When the movie ends, the docent answers any questions and then the tour begins.  The group exits the rear of the building which is inside the fenced area.

We then walk across the graveled silo area to a simple staircase that leads down into the underground missile complex.  We descend four or five flights of stairs ending at a set of two 6000 lb blast doors.  Beyond the blast doors, the passageway tees into a long tubular hallway that connects the control room with the missile silo.  Turning left at the tee, the hallway ends in the control room.

The docent spends a fair amount of time explaining the function of the various control panels and security the measures that were in place to protect the nuclear missile and to prevent an unauthorized launch.  There were also elaborate physical measures taken to enhance the survivability of the missile in the event of an attack.  The huge blast doors previously mentioned, and the suspension of the entire complex on springs for seismic isolation.  Note the spring behind the docent (red shirt).

The control room portion of the tour concludes with a simulated launch of the missile, beginning with the reception and decoding of the launch order, and ending with the turning of the launch keys.

In this file cabinet, the launch codes were stored.  When a launch order is received, the two officers on duty would each use their private keys to open the cabinet.  If the received order matched the security code stored in the cabinet they were to proceed with the launch.



Looking down the length of the long hallway towards the missile in its silo.

When the control room presentation was complete our tour resumed at the missile silo.  Here the Titan II was visible up close from an open access door to the silo and from a window cut into the silo wall.  Here is the view standing in the access doorway looking up at the missile warhead with the half open silo door behind.

After a discussion about the missile that included topics ranging from the guidance platform to vehicle maintenance,  we were guided back out of the missile complex the same way we came in.  We were then allowed to finish our tour self guided within the fenced in area where there are several exhibits in addition to being able to look down through the half open silo door:

Note the square cut into the side of the warhead: This was explained as a requirement of a Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty with the former Soviet Union. As a part of that treaty, we (USA) destroyed all of these Titan silos, save this one.  The hole in the side of the warhead allowed the Soviets visual (satellite) assurance that the missile was not armed.  Of course, now that this is a museum, the Russians can just take the tour.

After looking down into the silo we briefly stopped at a Titan II engine exhibit.  They also have a  display showing how the missiles were fueled.

It was already beginning to get hot so we wasted little time getting back to the Tuscon airport.  We turned in the rental car and paid our fuel bill.  The overnight fee was waived because we purchased more than 15 gallons.

It was now approaching noon and nothing had gone wrong yet today.  Clearly, we were due.  OK, so here it is:  It turns out that I failed to turn off my landing and taxi lights when we shut down yesterday.  And, in my haste to leave, I didn't notice they came on when I flipped on the master.

I like to call clearance delivery and ground control before I start the engine because I can leave my tip up canopy open to stay cool a few minutes longer, and I can hear the radio more clearly without the engine running.

This turned out to be a big mistake this time because it took quite a while to get my turn with clearance delivery.  When I went to start up, nothing happened.  Then I noticed the battery voltage was low and that all of my lights were on. Doh!  I was having a flashback to our 48 state trip and all the battery issues we had then.  After that trip, I changed out our battery for a lithium Earth X battery that had been working great until now.  It surprised me that after only about ten minutes of lights on the battery would be so depleted.  It seems that the battery is either run down or broken.  The Atlantic ground crew was very helpful and offered to recharge our battery.  Since it would cost me nothing but time to recharge it, we opt for that and go to lunch.

After about an hour and a half, we return to the airport and attempt to leave once again.  Did the battery take the charge?  I turn the key and the plane rumbles to life.  Yea! Carol and I had already discussed skipping Sedona when we bumped the museum from Friday to Saturday.  Now that we've blown two hours on a dead battery we are in jeopardy of missing Meteor Crater as well.

This time I started the plane before I contacted anyone on the radio.  I wasn't going to take any chances.  The airport was less busy at this hour and I breeze through clearance delivery and ground control.  I'm next in line for departure at runway 21 behind a King Air.  When the King Air starts rolling, I call the tower and announce we're ready.  Nothing.  I call again. Crickets.  I call a third time without a response.  I look up at the tower and fully expect to see a light signal, but see nothing.  There was a Citation waiting behind me and I was feeling a lot of pressure to get going.  I hear someone, probably the Citation, call the tower and say something to the effect that he doesn't think the RV hears you.  At this point, I'm thinking that my radio has failed so I tune my second radio to the tower and call again.

The tower responds right away and has us line up and wait on 21.  While we were waiting, the tower mentioned that he heard all of my transmissions.  I let him know that I couldn't hear him (which I'm sure he had already guessed) and that I had switched to COM 2.

As soon as we were on our way and had achieved our cruise altitude, I switched back to COM 1 and asked Tuscon departure control for a radio check.  Loud and clear.  At this point, the only thing I can think of is that the wing or possibly a landing gear was blocking the radio signal from the tower, but not the Citation.  I guess I'll never know for sure.

Now with even more time wasted, we decide to forego Meteor Crater and just head directly to Las Vegas.  Our route takes us directly over Phoenix, and in a stroke of good luck just in time for Vegas, we are cleared through the Phoenix class B.

In about two hours we are landing at Henderson Executive airport which is about 14 miles from the Las Vegas strip.  The cab ride from the airport to the strip was about $40 plus tip.  Ouch!

After we settle into our hotel, we happen across a nice brewpub called Beerhaus behind New York New York casino.  Later we had a really great prime rib dinner at Lawry's.  I've always loved dining there, it's an experience that should not be missed.

The next morning I parted with another 50 bucks in cab fare to get back to Henderson.  Ouch again.  The forecast looked reasonable so we elected to chance the strong winds and turbulence and go more or less direct back to Grass Valley.  Here is a photo of Las Vegas as we skirt the inside ring of the class B airspace.

The trip home was about 340 nautical miles which we covered in about 2.5 hours with 10kt to 15 kt headwind all the way.  We received a few bumps over the Sierras as expected, but most of the flight was smooth.  

In the end, we visited the Titan missile museum, sampled some fine beers in both Tuscon and Vegas, and we had an awesome dinner at Lawry's.  Yes, we had to skip Meteor Crater and Sedona, but we had a great time anyway.  It's hard to believe that we managed to pack all of this into a trip lasting just a bit over 48 hours. This trip was a success for us in part because we visited some very interesting locations, but also because we were able to do it in a plane that we built ourselves.  

McMinnville, Oregon

I've been thinking about visiting the Evergreen Aviation & Space museum at McMinnville Oregon for quite some time.  And now that the story of our 48 state trip had hit the newspaper, I felt like it was only a matter of time before the paparazzi found us. Better to lay low in Oregon until my 15 minutes are over...

The flight up to Oregon was smooth and fairly clear.  Although there were lots of fire related TFRs (Temporary Flight Restricted areas), but there was no smoke anywhere which was a welcomed change. Along the way, I snapped this photo of Mt Lassen and Mt Shasta. 

I planned to fly over the TFRs which extended up to 11,000', but there was a 25 knot headwind at that altitude.  Instead, we flew lower at 8,500' where only 12 to 15 knots was blowing against us.  Of course, we had to fly around the TFRs, but the avoidance only added a few minutes to our flight.

As we crossed the Oregon border we flew under an overcast ceiling about 1500' above us.  It was almost like the clouds knew they weren't allowed in California.

A few minutes before reaching McMinnville the overcast ceiling broke up.   It was a nice sunny afternoon as we passed by the city of Salem.

After 2 hours and forty minutes we completed the 377 nautical mile trip.  The McMinnville airport is conveniently right across the street from the museum.  If one were planning just a day trip, one could easily walk the short distance.  However, we were going to spend the night, so we rented a car at the FBO.  Near the airport and museum, there were two hotels that were in the $180 per night range.  Just a couple of miles further, there were more reasonably priced hotels for $100 a night.  Renting the car actually saved us about $35 over walking, allowed us to see McMinnville, and gave us many more choices for dinner that night. 

Heading across the street to the museum, we found that it is composed of 3 large buildings and some outside exhibits.  To the left is the aircraft museum, in the center an IMAX theater, and to the right is the space museum.  We decided to start on the aircraft side.  The admission was $27.00 per adult, cough, cough.  That includes both museums and the theater.

Inside the expansive building, huge glass walls at either end admit streams of sunlight washing over the collected aircraft that are scattered haphazardly across the polished floor.

I suppose the big draw for the aviation museum is the Spruce Goose (Hercules H4).  The famed aircraft from Howard Hughes certainly is large and must have seemed awesomely large in 1947 when it made its one and only flight.  It still ranks with the A380, AN-225, and 747 as the largest aircraft ever to fly.  There are quite a few aircraft on display and consequently, it is difficult to get far enough away from the Spruce Goose to gain a vantage where its enormous size can be truly appreciated.  It's a little like sitting in the front row of a movie theater.

There are other interesting aircraft like the ME-262 parked under the Spruce Goose right wing.  I also enjoyed the Wright 1903 and Curtiss Model D replicas.  Even though they were not the actual articles, it was nice to see them in person, full size.  Although there were a lot of famous aircraft on display, I would guess that most people were there to see the Vans RV-6 prototype.  Just kidding.  I was a little surprised and delighted to see it there with such good company.  Sorry, no picture.

After a couple of hours we had seen every airplane, and in the interest of time, we skipped the helicopters.  The space museum is just a short walk across the parking lot, on the other side of the theater.  

The right half of the space museum is laid out roughly chronologically going counterclockwise from the main entrance. A replica of Goddard's liquid fuel rocket and a V-2 began our tour.  There were exhibits on Sputnik and some other satellites followed.  An unflown Mercury capsule allowed us a close up examination.  I was amazed that NASA was able to convince anyone to climb into one of those things.  It was much smaller than a sports car cockpit -- more like sitting in a single seat aircraft without all the windows and elbow room.  

There is a Titan II ICBM standing upright in a deep well that allows the one perspective of seeing the missile in its silo.  Another Titan missile is displayed on its side.  I'm guessing that the museum caught a two for one sale on the Titans.

A Soviet Lunokhod (moon rover).

We worked our way to the back of the museum and found this mock up of a lunar module.

On the left hand side of the space museum are some more aircraft that didn't seem to have a 'space' connection including an SR-71, which admittedly flew pretty fast and high, but not actually in space.  I never did get a photo of the SR-71 because it was so jammed in with other exhibits that no photo opportunity was forthcoming.

We finished with the space museum after about an hour and a half.  Then we drove into town to find our hotel.  After some zig-zagging and battling of one way streets, we finally arrived and checked in.  It was about dinner time so we didn't settle in, instead opting to go back out to a brewpub that we noticed when driving through town.

We ate a nice dinner at Golden Valley brewpub which was fairly busy and then we sampled some of the McMinnville nightlife on N.E. 3rd street, where there are many bars and restaurants.  We would like to think that we didn't stay out too late because we needed to get going early the next morning, but the truth is -- we're just getting old.

The next morning the weather was clear and again there was no smoke evident.  After availing ourselves of the continental breakfast we were on our way back to the airport.  The rental car return process might have been painless had we not been in Oregon.  It seems that in the Beaver state, pumping one's own gas is deemed too dangerous for us mere mortals.  Instead, they allow their most renewable resource, the pimply faced teenager, to do the dirty work.  Fortunately, I already knew about Oregon's peculiar fueling proclivity from my previous travels to the state.  All of which brings me to my embarrassing moment of the day:

Driving back to the airport I instinctively felt the need to top off the tank.  That is what you do in rental cars just before returning them. Right?  I pulled up to a pump at the first service station I saw.  I rolled down the window and smiled at the attendant. "Filler up, please", I beamed. For some reason, I felt that going to a full service station was not only a novelty, but somewhat amusing.  I'm odd that way.  Then I offered my credit card and in a few seconds, I heard the fuel begin to flow.  And then right away it shut off.  Just like that.  I heard the attendant try it again a few times, but the car wasn't having it.  By this time my amusement had turned to embarrassment as I realized that I probably didn't need any gas at all, having only driven a few miles to and from the airport and around town a bit.

The attendant returned and asked if I thought the car should take more than a gallon.  "Nope, that sounds about right", I answered with a straight face.  The attendant handed my card back slowly and  I signed the slip without any further discussion.  

Back at the airport we dropped off the keys and loaded the plane.  The morning air was cool and calm and soon we were in the air and headed south.

I punched in direct to Grass Valley and then we climbed up to 11,500' letting the autopilot log the PIC time.  The wind up there was still blowing pretty hard from the north giving us a nice 25 knot tailwind.  After about an hour we were in the vicinity of Crater Lake. There was still an active TFR over the lake although there was no fire and no other aircraft in the area.  At 11,500' I was over the top of it anyway, so we diverted a little to the east to fly by the lake.

The tailwind along with the slightly more direct route home allowed us back into Grass Valley in only 2 hours and 13 minutes.  Another quick trip made possible by the little plane that could.

Eclipse 2017

Although I've always been interested in astronomy, I've never had the opportunity to see a total solar eclipse until 21 August 2017.  Sometime back in 2015, I first read about the coming eclipse and committed the date to memory.  Then for the next two years, I tried at various times to get my friends as excited as I was that this was about to happen -- without any success whatsoever.  As Yogi Berra once said, "If the people don’t want to come out to the ballpark, nobody’s going to stop them."  And so it goes, Carol and I would have to experience this magnificent celestial alignment by ourselves.

We didn't begin any serious planning until after we had returned from our 48 state trip other than identifying possible airport destinations in Oregon and Idaho that happened to fall along the path of totality.

In the first couple of weeks of August, we decided on Weiser, ID (S87).  We were lucky to get a reservation there as many airports were closed for the event by then.  There was virtually no chance of any hotel accommodations being available at this late date, so we were going to be camping.  Unfortunately, we don't really have any camping equipment, but for this one night trip very little would be required.  We went out and bought a small tent, air mattress, and an air pump.  That, along with some sheets and pillows, rounded out our camping gear at about 25 pounds.  Not too bad.

We departed Grass Valley early Sunday afternoon for the two and a half hour flight.  From the ground, I could see the cumulus clouds that build every afternoon over the Sierras.  Once we're airborne it was obvious that most of the clouds would be south of our route and the weather ahead would be clear, but the visibility wasn't.  A heavy layer of forest fire smoke hung over the Sierras. 

We clawed our way above the smoke about the same time as we cleared the Sierras.  Once we were over the Nevada desert, the air was relatively clear.  We continued on for a while at 11,500', but then we decided to go lower at 9,500' since the smoke had dissipated.  There is not a whole lot to see along this route that transits the desert lands of northern Nevada and eastern Oregon.  Fortunately for us, the RV is pretty fast.  I couldn't help wondering how the earthbound travelers were faring with the anticipated eclipse traffic.

From about 100 miles out we began listening to the Weiser CTAF.  The frequency was buzzing with aircraft announcing their arrival.  I'm sure glad we had reservations.

The town of Weiser is at the northernmost tip of a long valley consisting mostly of farmland that extends to the south where the valley broadens to contain the city of Boise and its suburbs.

Weiser itself is a picturesque little town of 5,400 at the edge of the Snake River that forms the border between Idaho and Oregon.

We happened to arrive during a lull in the incoming traffic and landed runway 30 without delay.  We decided to refuel before we continued to the parking area as we were concerned that there might be a line for fuel if we waited.  The line never materialized so we needn't have been concerned, but it was comforting to know that we were ready to depart when the time came.  A helpful attendant did the fueling while I went to register for the event and pay our tie down fee of $3.00.  That was it?  Three dollars was all that I was asked to pay.  I could hardly believe it. I had heard of exorbitant fees being levied at other locations and was expecting to pay something similar.  They were accepting donations in a jar at the registration table, but I wonder, -- I hope, that they were able to recover their costs.  The jar didn't seem big enough for all the effort and material that obviously went into this event.

After fueling, we were marshaled to our parking area which was on the dry grass just off the taxiway.  We were about the first plane parked on this side of the airport so I guess that we were somewhere in the middle of the pack with regard to arrivals.  I was told that they were expecting 120 planes total, but some would be arriving Monday morning just before the airport closed.  It was about 4:30 pm.  Here we are just starting to unload.

I snapped this picture looking south before any of our neighbors arrived.

Compare to this picture that I took the next day from near the same place and direction.  The partial eclipse had already started by the time of this photo.

Once we unloaded, we walked across to the hangar and terminal building where most had congregated.  There were lots of people to meet and share our flying stories.  A few had seen eclipses before, but most hadn't.  Either way, everyone was excited about what would happen the next day.  Inside the hangar, there were tables of snacks and plenty of water to drink.  The organizers of this event had everything well thought out and the event was running smoothly.

After an hour or so of friendly chit chat at the hangar, Carol and I returned to our plane to set up the tent.  We had conducted a dry run in our living room at home to learn how the tent went together and how well the air mattress would fit the tent.  When the time came at Weiser, we hoped that we would actually look like we knew what we were doing.  The dry run at home didn't go so smoothly, so I guess the prep actually paid off for once.  The tent did not come with instructions.

About the time that we returned to the hangar, the food came out.  They're going to feed us too!  These guys were amazing.  The dinner was a hamburger and hot dog affair with lots of side dishes that were provided in part by the attendees, pot luck style.  There was so much food that the conscientious pilot might want to reconsider his weight and balance before departing.

After dinner, a man was introduced to the assembled crowd in the hangar. He was local to the area and a farmer.  A tall and slim man in his seventies dressed in a cowboy hat and boots.  I would not have guessed that he was about to provide our musical entertainment -- by himself.  He was a one man band demonstrating his musical mastery with a piano, bass drum, hi-hat, and trumpet.  As all of this was being set up, I remember thinking that I really didn't want to listen to this and was actively considering my other options.  But once he started, I was mesmerized.  This guy was very entertaining and I completely forgot about going anywhere else.  He encouraged the audience to shout out locations or countries and then he tried to match that with a piece of music from that area or at least come up with some kind of connection to it.  He also accepted specific requests and he played a very wide range of musical genres.

Later in the evening, well after darkness fell, the chairs were moved out and reassembled in front of the hangar where we were treated to a showing of "Air America" projected on to the hangar door.  We enjoyed the drive-in-like outdoor movie, popcorn included.

Following the movie, we all retired to our tents.  Tomorrow would be the big day.

The next morning we were treated to yet another meal,  pancakes, eggs, sausage, and orange juice. It was awesome.  After breakfast, Carol and I took the tent down and repacked the plane.  The start of the eclipse was still a couple of hours away at this point so we returned to the hangar and waited with everyone else.

It was a little after 10 am that we could see a tiny sliver of the sun beginning to be blocked.  Slowly, over the course of another hour, the moon progressed inexorably along its orbit blocking more and more of the sunlight.  For most of the partial eclipse, there was no discernible difference in the apparent light level.  Even when the sun was 90% blocked, our eyes adjust and it looks fairly normal outside.  But it wasn't normal, the temperature was already beginning to fall.  It was similar to when a cloud blocks the sun and we notice a dip in the temperature.

Here is a picture with the sun 90% blocked.  The remaining 10% is still so bright that it still doesn't look too unusual outside.  Only when you look away from the direction of the sun do you notice that the sky is a much darker blue than normal.

Carol chose her spot and waits for totality.  It's now just a minute or two away.  In the photo below, the camera has adjusted the light level considerably,  It seemed darker than this when I snapped the picture.  Never-the-less, there is still a lot of light coming from what was now the tiniest sliver of the sun peeking over the limb of the moon.

The moment of totality is indescribable.  The eclipse glasses come off and we drink in the unfettered spectacle that is like no other. Seeing the black moon high in the sky framed by the sun's glowing corona is absolutely eerie.  Now that I've seen it, it is not hard to understand people being frightened by the sight of it.

Slowly, I became aware of the sounds of the other people watching. Screams, gasps, and other exclamations were the norm.  It was not black outside like the dead of night, but more like a deep twilight.  The street lights had come on and I noticed the airport's rotating beacon sweeping its beam across the field, reflecting off of the parked aircraft as it passed.  I took time to look about the horizon and noted that the twilight extended all the way around.

And then I noticed that the temperature had really fallen.  Some said twenty degrees.  I don't know, but I have goosebumps on my arms.  Is it the temperature or just the awesomeness of the eclipse?

I looked for visible stars, but I could see only Venus.  Then I saw Santa Claus.  Wait, what?  Three skydivers landed during the totality, one dressed as Santa Claus.  It seems that everyone has their own way to enjoy the celestial alignment.  I did not take the photo below.  It was emailed to me by fellow EAAer, Frank Jackson, who indicated to me that it was actually taken by his son.  I thought the photo captured the totality as well as any that I have seen.  

The totality lasted only 2 minutes.  The sunlight once again blasted by the moon and we were re-illuminated as the moon's shadow raced eastward at nearly 2,000 miles per hour.  We still had another hour of partial eclipse to go. Quite frankly, after experiencing the totality, the partial variety held very little interest for me.  I barely took notice that it was still going on.

Instead, Carol and I shared our thoughts on what we just experienced and then we walked back over to the hangar to visit with our fellow eclipse gazers.  It was interesting to listen to people struggling to describe the ethereal and inexpressible qualities of what they had just witnessed.

The airport would remain closed for the duration of the eclipse, but when it reopened at about 12:30 p.m. MDT everyone was ready to go.  We were assigned departure groups when we registered.  This cut down on the number of aircraft trying to taxi at the same time.  There was a "controller" on the CTAF advising as to when each group should start up and taxi.  He kept the taxiway full and moving and it was all quite entertaining as he exhorted us to "keep it moving, boys" and "Hey you in the Skylane, close up that gap".  As it happened we were in line on the taxiway with another RV-7A.  The controller gave us the option to depart as a flight of two, which we accepted.  The other RV-7A had a smoke system and he left a nice smoke trail as we departed in formation.

The trip home was uneventful other than the entertainment of watching our traffic scope.  Leaving Weiser, the airspace looked like the Oklahoma land rush as seemingly all aircraft flying were headed back to California.

When we arrived back home in the early afternoon, barely more than 24 hours had elapsed.  We had 4.7 hours of flying time and about 700 nautical miles traveled.  We found out that the people at Weiser Idaho know how to throw a great eclipse.  They were friendly, well organized, and fun.  If they could do it again next year, I'd be there.

48 States part 4

Day 10, 24 July 2017

The morning of the 24th offered low overcast.  From our hotel room, I could clearly see tendrils of low clouds dangling as they whisked by overhead.  I guessed the cloud bottoms to be less than 1000'. We had quite a distance to cover this morning so we skipped breakfast.  The weather looked a little worse to the south than to the north so I was hopeful that by the time we got to the airport we would be good to go.  Online, there was no precipitation indicated anywhere along our route, but some of the airports were reporting IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) or MVFR (Marginal Visual Flight Rules).  Further north and west the weather was being reported solid VFR.  I felt that if we could just make it as far as Chicago we would be good all the way to Oshkosh.

KBKL to JYM 1.2 hours, departing 9:07 EDT

The weather was a little better at the airport so we loaded the plane and prepared to depart. The winds were light and favored runway 06, opposite the direction we had landed two days before. Turning left crosswind out over the lake we then turned left again making a downwind exit from Burke Lakefront traffic pattern to the west. The low clouds kept us from climbing any higher than about 1500'.  We mostly paralleled the Lake Erie shoreline, passing this amusement park.

At one point we had to turn inland briefly to avoid some restricted airspace rather than fly further offshore which would have been the more direct route.  We skirted the Toledo class C airspace to the north and then overflew a lot of green farmland in southern Michigan before arriving at Hillsdale. Although we were flying low, the visibility was fair and we did not have to divert for clouds or rain.

Hillsdale, Michigan

JYM to 05C 1.3 hours, departing 10:30 EDT

We didn't stop for long at Hillsdale, just long enough to snap a picture.  There didn't appear to be anyone around anyway.  From Hillsdale, we continued west on a course that would take us around the southern tip of Lake Michigan.  The weather did not seem to be improving, but we plodded on, lowering to about 1000' AGL to stay clear of the clouds above.  There were a few light rain showers on this leg but, we continued on without trying to dodge them.

Our path was going to take us right through the middle of the South Bend class C airspace, so rather than divert around I contacted South Bend Approach and they allowed me to pass almost directly overhead the airport and continue on my west-south-westerly course.  The weather did improve after we cleared the South Bend area.  By the time we arrived at Griffith Indiana, the overcast had mostly dissipated although we began to notice some turbulence.  I suspect that the turbulence in this case, was the mechanical variety that is caused by wind blowing over surface features rather than the convective type, which is caused by differential heating of the earth's surface since the winds were gusty and it was still fairly early in the day. 

I will remember Griffith, Indiana as being the place where I made my worst landing of the trip (somewhere has to be the worst, right?).  As I made my final approach and was in the flare, the gusting wind suddenly reversed and we plopped down pretty hard.  Easily the hardest landing this plane has ever experienced.  The spring steel landing gear wasn't having it though, and they launched us right back into the air and so I attempted to reestablish the flare.  We were back in the air alright, but only because the landing gear threw us up there.  We didn't have the energy to actually fly, so we were headed right back down to the pavement in short order.  This is the classic setup for Pilot Induced Oscillation.  This occurs in part because the pilot applies control inputs that are out of phase (and inappropriate) with the aircraft's current state due to the very rapid onset of this condition. If the wrong control inputs are applied, the bounces can get even larger.  I bounced a second time before I was fully aware that this was, or would lead to, a PIO situation.  

It was only then that I realized that what I was doing was not helping me to land.  My first inclination had been to continue the flare and try to remove energy by maintaining a nose-high attitude.  I had expected this to result in the bounces subsiding, but I think they were actually getting larger.  Since what I was doing wasn't working, my next plan was to apply power to either reestablish a nominal flare or initiate a go-around.

The tiniest amount of power was all that was necessary to cancel the PIO and reflare the landing. It was a scary couple of seconds, but we easily made the turn-off and parked in front of the FBO.  Exhale.

After that embarrassing exhibition, the advertised intro flight in the FBO's lobby didn't seem like such a bad idea.

Griffith, Indiana

05C to C81 .6 hours, departing 11:00 CDT

After a quick pit stop, we continued northward over the very industrialized area at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, passing just west of Gary Indiana.  On the horizon, we could see the Chicago Sky line.

Our plan was to fly the shoreline route which keeps us well below the Chicago class B airspace.

As we approached the city, I maintained an altitude of about 1500' and stayed about a quarter-mile offshore. In the photo below, the Willis Tower (at right), formerly known as the Sears Tower, was the world's tallest from 1973 to 1998.  

We flew right over the top of the former Meigs Field airport that used to sit on a man-made peninsula that was constructed for that purpose in 1922.  The airport was (in)famously destroyed at the order of then Mayor Richard M. Daley in the middle of a Sunday night, 30 March 2003, stranding 16 aircraft. The hubris of that man apparently knew no bounds.  Adding insult to injury, FAA airport improvement funds were used to destroy this aviation jewel.  A legal battle ensued and Chicago was ultimately forced to repay $1 million dollars of the misappropriated FAA funds and an additional $33,000 dollar fine. I think Daley himself should have been forced to repair the damage he caused with a small shovel.

We also flew over Navy Pier, where I took two pictures.  One with good composition turned out blurry and this one, which doesn't show much.

After following the shoreline for some time we turned inland between Highland Park and Waukegan and went direct to Campbell airport, all the while staying below the Chicago Class B airspace floor at 3600'.  Here we are on final to Campbell at Grays Lake, IL.  Recent rains were evident.

The weather was definitely improving though.  I chose this location for refueling because of its proximity to Oshkosh, less than 1 hour flight time away.  I wanted to have plenty of fuel onboard in case we had an extended hold.

The gas pump at Campbell was operated remotely.  To get gas here you must call a number and ask the attendant to turn on the pump.  When you finish, you call the number again and tell the attendant how much gas you pumped, and then provide your credit card details.  It all works, but it took me a while to figure out the system.

Grays Lake, Illinois

C81 to KOSH 1.0 hours, departing 12:15 CDT

Four and one-half years of building and one year of flight testing and flying had all come down to this last short leg.  Every builder dreams of the day that he or she might fly the plane they built into Oshkosh, Airventure air show.  It really is the big leagues of experimental flying.  By paid attendance it's also in the big leagues of all other flying as well, drawing twice as many aviation enthusiasts as other big shows such as the Paris airshow or Farnborough in England.  

Carol and I used our time on the flight up to Oshkosh to brief the arrival NOTAM.  Although the NOTAM is lengthy, the pertinent information is easily digestible:  Fly to the town of Ripon at 90Kts and 1800', then follow the railroad tracks northeast to the FISK reporting point where the air traffic controller will call your aircraft by type and color.  Acknowledge with a wing rock and you are almost there.  The controller will have given you one of two approaches to follow culminating in a landing on runways at either end of Whitman field (KOSH).  On final for your given runway, the tower controller will assign one of several colored dots on the runway for your landing point.  Land on it or near it and you have arrived.

Seems simple enough, I thought.  Well, the first unexpected issue I had was that the town of Ripon did not show up on the G3X map at the zoom level I was using.  About then I was wishing that I had a paper sectional with me.  I knew that Ripon was southwest of Oshkosh so I just started flying in that direction.  In the meantime I started a -- well, I don't want to say frantic search, but let's say a concerned search for Ripon on my G3X.  Zooming in and out wishing the display would update about 5x faster. Eventually, I discovered that the G3X would display the name Ripon if I was zoomed way, way in.  At that zoom level, the map is really only useful for knowing which town you are currently flying over.  By chance, I happened to fly close enough to the town for its name to appear on my screen.  I did have a backup method for identifying Ripon and that was to spot the adjacent lake around which we might have to circle should a hold become necessary.  And there was one other way to spot Ripon, that is where all of the other planes were going.

I was relieved to have positively identified Ripon and once we were over it, I turned us northeast to follow the railroad tracks toward FISK.  Now, FISK is not an intersection of airways or an IFR identifier.  It is actually just a highway intersection of Fisk avenue and county road FF.  It is also listed as a VFR reporting point on the sectional, but I don't know how anyone unfamiliar with the area could identify the reporting point from the air.

By now we were sequenced into the flow following the railroad tracks.  I was too close to Whitman field to worry about the exact location of the FISK reporting point any longer.  All of the other aircraft were going much slower than the NOTAMed 90Kts.  I could see ahead of me where the planes were peeling off for a runway 27 arrival or going straight for a 36 arrival.

We were assigned runway 36 left and we were making a nominal approach when on short final the controller instructed me to go around.  I didn't see anything worrisome ahead of me.  There was another aircraft on my runway, but it was far down and didn't seem to be a factor.  At any rate, I quickly powered back up and flew a climbing right turn back to a right base and received an atta boy from the controller.  Then he squeezed me right back into the flow and we landed as instructed, on the purple dot.

I didn't think much about the fact that I was finally flying into Oshkosh, or that this was such a really big deal at the time.  It finally hit me though,  while we were taxiing to the homebuilt parking area. There were thousands of people lining the taxiway watching the arrivals.  Thank goodness I didn't screw up the landing.

We were then directed on to the grass and marshaled to a parking location.  As soon as we shut down the welcome-wagon came by and gave us our info packet and instructions for getting fuel and getting registered at the airshow.  The first order of business was to get the aircraft tied down.  I brought my own stakes along and this would be their first (and only) use.  Next time I think I'll just rent the stakes here and save 7 pounds of baggage.

Oshkosh, Wisconsin

Having tied down and registered, our next order of business was to pick up our rental car. I wasn't particularly looking forward to this next part because I thought that we would have to drag our luggage halfway across Oshkosh.  However, we found out that there was a tram (red line) that would take us to the north end of the field where we could then ask someone how to get to Basler (FBO) where our car was waiting. This sounded promising.  We got on the red tram which looked like a direct shot to where we needed to go.  As soon as we sat down the driver announced that he would be departing from the normal route, but would end up at the north terminus of the red line anyway. Rather than walk, Carol and I decided to go on the scenic tour with the tram.  As it turned out, this was not such a good idea as the tram broke down when we were about as far away from our destination as possible, and we ended up walking the greatly increased distance, dragging our luggage behind.  

When we arrived at the Red line terminus we were informed that a shuttle bus from Basler would stop here and in a short time a shuttle appeared.  Great! things were looking up.  At Basler, our vehicle was waiting as promised, and in just a few minutes we were driving it outside the airport back around to the Airventure entrance.  

Since it was beginning to get late in the afternoon, I was hoping that some may have already left for the day and that we would be able to park in the "blue" lot which is closest to the Airventure main entrance.  As we approached the blue lot we were able to catch a glimpse of the lot with plenty of empty spaces.  I was about to begin my 'we're going to park in front' celebratory dance when we were directed to turn left towards the "orange" lot -- far, far, away.  I tried pointing at the half-empty lot I wanted, but in return I got the squinty-eyed glare of a traffic director that's seen it all. He re-pointed with extreme emphasis.  Turn left or else!  Alright already, I didn't want to get in a fight on my first day.  Unfortunately, this would not be our last run-in with irrational traffic control at the show.

We had been on the ground at Oshkosh for over 3 hours now and I hadn't really seen any of it.  I felt like a kid at Disneyland whose dad can't find a parking space.

It all worked out and after a long hike in from the Orange lot I felt like we finally arrived.  We spent the balance of the afternoon looking at airplanes in the main square and at the forums.  You never know what you might see.  A B-1B bomber for example.

And the only two flying B-29s:

The remainder of our three days was pretty much like this:  Walk around and see some incredible aviation on the ground and in the air.  Eat.  Walk around some more.  Talk to vendors, buy stuff. Go to a forum or a vendor seminar.  Walk around and look at airplanes.  Talk to people from all over the world who you don't know, but with whom you share the common bond of aviation.  It's awesome!

Monday night we attended the RV beer social.  The beer social is advertised on vansairforce.net which is a website that hosts news and information about the Vans RV aircraft and it's an online forum that many RV owners and want-to-be owners frequent daily.  It was great to be able to put a face to the names that I've read so often.  The New Glarus Spotted Cow ale was excellent.

Tuesday night we attended the Vans banquet.  A nice dinner for RV owners and another opportunity to meet and discuss our favorite airplane.

On Wednesday I attended a Mike Busch forum on lean of peak operation.  That info will pay big dividends in fuel savings going forward.  And, being our last full day, we did most of our shopping.  We were doing pretty good not buying too much because of our baggage weight issue.  Then, our consumer defenses collapsed completely when we were convinced that our David Clark headsets were just too uncomfortable to fly another mile with.  We flew the remainder of our trip with our newly acquired Bose A20 headsets.  They are amazing and now I wonder what took me so long to switch.  Because of the baggage weight and space issues, we shipped the old headsets and most of the other stuff we bought, home via Fed Ex.

One final observation about flying into Oshkosh.  It is awesome and I can't wait to do it again, but there is a problem with having your plane there.  It greatly increases the amount of walking that you will have to do at the show.  How's that?  Well, your plane serves as your personal storage locker for the duration of your stay.  Anytime you are anywhere near it, let's say 1/2 mile, you will find a reason to divert to the plane to pick something up or to drop something off.  I'm pretty sure we increased our steps this year by 50%.

Day 13, 27 July 2017

KOSH to KLXL 2.0 hours, departing 10:58 CDT

It was Thursday morning and we had planned to depart about 10 am.  We dropped the car at Basler and caught the shuttle back to the show.  Then we drug our baggage out to the plane.  We still had some time to kill so I went shopping for an Oshkosh 2017 hat as my Oshkosh 2016 hat was looking a bit worn.  We went to 4 different EAA gift shops including their "merchandise warehouse", but I could not find the "one."  And so it goes with hat fishing, sometimes they're just not biting.

To leave Oshkosh, you are required to receive a departure briefing.  Then you pull your plane out into the aisle and wait for a marshaler before starting up.  Then one just follows the other planes out to the departure runway.  I needed some help to pull our plane out because it had sunk a bit into the grass during our 3 night stay.  Taxiing out did not take too long even though we were directed to runway 36 which was the furthest away from homebuilt parking.

Taking off from runway 36 we retraced our path from Monday's go around 3 days before.  We made a climbing right turn 180 degrees and then depart to the south until we were clear of the Oshkosh class D airspace.  After which we continued climbing, but turned to the northwest towards Minnesota.

The weather was clear and reasonably smooth.  The verdant fields and blue lakes passed quietly beneath.  The alternator held most of my attention with its intermittent behavior.  By now I had resigned myself to living with it for the remainder of this trip if only it would cooperate by not getting any worse.  As it was it was only charging about 20% of the time.  But it was enough.

Minneapolis passed to the south of us and soon we were descending into Little Falls, Minnesota.

Little Falls, Minnesota

KLXL to KBWP .8 hours, departing 13:15 CDT

We set down in Wahpeton, North Dakota about lunchtime.  We couldn't find anything on the outside of the terminal building indicating the name of the city or the airport.  Consequently all we really have to prove that we were actually there is this photo of a plaque congratulating the politicians involved in the airport's construction.

Wahpeton, North Dakota

We were hoping to get a courtesy car into town, but like many of the airports we stopped at, the place was deserted.  The terminal building was open and they had a nice little lounge area and restrooms. There was a vending machine so I bought a soda and we ate some snacks that we carried with us.  I refueled the plane and we set out once again over checkered farmland in the direction of South Dakota.

KBWP to KCUT 2.3 hours, departing 14:28 CDT

This was going to be another fairly long leg.  Once I was at cruise altitude, the autopilot was doing the driving and my piloting workload dropped to near zero.  I'm basically just looking out the window seeing and avoiding.  Of course, I'm also doing the regular instrument scan, but that too seems to be on autopilot as I flip back and forth between the map page and the engine instrument page on the G3X  MFD (Multi Function Display).

One way that I found to entertain myself on a long leg like this one, where there is very little traffic is to listen to podcasts.  On this trip, I listened to two episodes of Airplane Geeks, numerous editions of Skeptoid, and some Big Picture Science.

I think the photo above is Lake Oahe on the Missouri River.  The weather got progressively hazy as we worked our way west.  In front of us, the NexRad was showing precipitation extending north and south centered over Rapid City which would be very near our destination.

But it looked like we were about to get weather lucky again as our course bisected the line of storm cells in a relatively clear area.  Next on the list is Mt. Rushmore.  As we approached from the east our course passed within just a few miles of the monument so I didn't think we would have any trouble spotting it, and we didn't.  There were two other aircraft that arrived at about the same time as we did and fortunately they were going in the same direction as us, making it easy to sequence our pass.  The only minor issue is that since we were turning left, the right wing blocks the view.  So it is necessary to stop the turn periodically to get a better view.  The sun broke through just as we arrived.

From Mt. Rushmore to Custer, South Dakota is just 11 miles.  We had to be careful here because we had dropped down to get a better view of Rushmore and there is a lot of granite sticking up out of the ground in this area.  The Custer ASOS was reporting some gusty winds that did rock us around a bit as we touched down.

Custer, South Dakota

While I refueled, a helicopter pilot came over to look at the plane.  Just like the helicopter pilot I talked to in West Virginia, this one wanted to build an RV as well.  He asked a lot of questions about how fast I could go and how much fuel I burn.  I guess the answers I gave must have seemed pretty attractive compared to a helicopter.  Luckily, he didn't ask me how well I hover.

We continued our streak of meeting the nicest people when the airport manager stepped out of the office to ask if we needed to tie down.  Yes, we are planning to spend the night, I answered.  He said he didn't have a courtesy car, but that he could drive us into town.  As it turned out, our hotel was willing to come and pick us up so we didn't avail ourselves of his generosity that evening.

When we arrived at our hotel, it was still fairly early at about 4:30 pm MDT.  I think this was our earliest arrival at a hotel on the entire trip. It was a pretty easy day as flying went with two fairly long legs and a low stress departure from Oshkosh.

There was a miniature golf course across the street which seemed like it might be fun (above).  The other alternative was margaritas on the deck of the adjacent restaurant.  We decided on the latter, naturally.  We enjoyed the natural beauty that surrounds Custer from the deck for a while, but it was starting to get cold so that was that.

We returned to the restaurant later that evening and enjoyed a very nice dinner.

Day 14, 28 July 2017

The next morning we attempted to get a cab ride to the airport and we were surprised to learn that Custer does not have cab service.  The hotel had generously provided transportation yesterday could we prevail on them to drive us back?  The answer was perhaps, but not until they are finished with the continental breakfast service. That was going to be at least another hour.  So Carolina called the airport and talked to the airport manager who had offered to drive us into town the day before.

In ten minutes he was in the hotel parking lot helping me load our luggage into his car. 

KCUT to W43 .6 hours, departing 8:28 MDT

During the preflight at Custer, I discovered that I was getting low on oil.  They didn't sell oil at Custer, but I figured we would be able to find some somewhere along the way.  We departed for Hulett, Wyoming into a scattered layer but the forecast was for better weather further west.

Below, climbing out of Custer, SD.

This leg was fairly short so I didn't bother to get above the clouds, we just kind of worked our way between them.  By the time we got to Hulett, the clouds were about gone.

Hulett, Wyoming

When we shut down at Hulett there was a loud alarm bell going off.  I thought it might be a burglar alarm at first, but it was coming from the area of the gas pumps.  We went inside the terminal building, but we didn't find anyone around.  There was a number written down to call for access to their courtesy car, so I called it.  I think the number went to someone working for the city of  Hulett.  From there I was given another number to call for someone that worked closer to the airport.  So I called that number and explained that I was at the airport.  Before I could finish, he asked if the alarm was going off.  Yes, that is why I am calling.  So then I found out that it "always does that after it rains and that I should not worry about it."  OK, So then I asked if he knew where I could get some oil,  Going west, the closest would be Gillette, Wyoming.

When I got off the phone I let Carol know that we would be diverting to Gillette and in a few minutes, we were airborne once again.

W43 to KGCC .4 hours, departing 9:21 MDT

On the way over to Gillette, we passed by Devil's Tower.

It's a weird thing just kind of sticking up out of nowhere.  It is readily visible for a considerable distance.  I've seen it from 30,000' while flying commercially.

It was a quick hop over to Gillette and we were able to get the oil I wanted and while I was there, I had the plane topped off.  It only needed about 10 gallons since we hadn't gotten too far from our last fill up at Custer.

KGCC to 32S 2.8 hours, departing 10:22 MDT

This would be a long leg for us.  Made even longer by a persistent 10Kt headwind.  I established an 8,500' cruise and then went to Lean Of Peak (LOP) mixture.  Since Oshkosh, this has become my standard procedure.  Doing the "big pull" as Mike Busch calls it, brings the mixture back all at once, avoiding the air/fuel regime that would put maximum stress on the engine.  Before the pull, the throttle is already wide open and the engine is making whatever power it will at the altitude we're at. When I do the pull the mixture comes back nearly to the point of engine roughness.  Then I push forward slightly until I reach the target power level, which is 50% to 55% and the much lower fuel consumption is my reward.  On this leg, I think I was at 7.6GPH  and 55% power.  The true airspeed dropped a few knots to 157Kts.

After establishing the LOP cruise, I zoomed the map out to see how far I could go, on the 36 usable gallons I still had in the tanks.  I think this is an amazing picture.  The outer ring is fuel exhaustion, the inner, with reserve.  I could have come close to making it home with reserve, but I still had 3 states to visit.

There was plenty of time to crank up some more podcasts.  The topography below turned mountainous just after we left Gillette.  Passing over Sheridan MT, we dodged some of the higher peaks as we made a diagonal path northward through the Rockies.

Our alternator had not be charging as much on this leg and the inevitable result was a slowly declining battery voltage.  I was beginning to squirm when the level dropped below 11V.  This really couldn't have happened at a worse time in this trip.  Over the Rockies!  I was starting to seriously look at diversion options when the autopilot kicked off due to low voltage.  Well, the autopilot makes an audible tone when this occurs and now Carol has been alerted as well.

Helena, MT was about 40 miles off our right wing and looked like our best bet for mechanical assistance.  If we couldn't get help there we could continue north to Great Falls.  I made the turn and the alternator started charging again.  It was like the airplane was saying "Hey, what are you doing?"

The alternator charged steadily for a few minutes while we flew towards Helena, so I turned back on course for Stevensville, Montana.

Although the alternator was now charging, I flew the rest of this leg and the next one by hand to give the battery every electron possible.

Along our route, there was a fire TFR that extended up to 12,000'.  We climbed to 12,500 and continued on, eyes glued to the voltage gauge.   The TFR extended almost all the way to the town of Stevensville which meant that we would arrive over the airport about 9,000' too high.  I took this as an opportunity to practice my emergency spiraling descent.  We circled down from 12,500' all the way to touch down, power off (idle).  I don't know how many circles we made, but it is surprising how long it takes to descend that many feet at best glide speed.

Stevensville, Montana

We hopped out and checked out an FBO, but did not find anyone around.  We were hoping for a courtesy car to go and get some lunch.  We saw someone enter a hangar not too far away, so we headed over there.  When we got there we knocked on the door and went in.  There were several people inside standing around.  I asked if there might be a courtesy car available on the field and that we would like to drive into town to get some lunch.  As it turns out one of the gentlemen in the group I was addressing was the airport manager.  We were in luck, there was a car available.  We got the combination to a lockbox containing the key and instructions on how to get to town.

We got lost on the way into town.  I guess I zigged when I should have zagged.  Either way, we were wasting a lot of time and seeing a lot of countryside, but we were not seeing the town of Stevensville.  After the appropriate amount of time had elapsed, I sought assistance.  We stopped at a large church with a car parked in front and its front doors open.  We walked in through the foyer and not seeing anyone, we continued on down a long hallway.  Dead end.  Let's go the other way.  Near the other end of the hallway, we could hear voices.  When we appeared in the doorway of the room they occupied, I think we startled them.

It was a woman and three children.  I announced that we were "lost" and then I thought about where I was and that it might not be the best choice of words for someone in a hurry.  So I quickly followed up that we were trying to get to Stevensville.  I needn't have been concerned, the woman cheerfully gave me the directions I needed and we were in town a few minutes later.

We stopped at a restaurant advertising pizza on their sign facing the main street.  After perusing the menu and not finding pizza, I queried the waitress, but she didn't think they offered pizza.  In fact, she was pretty sure they didn't.  Oh, well.  I had a really good pasta lunch instead.

32S to S68 .9 hours, departing 15:29 MDT

We didn't waste much time getting back to the airport after lunch, stopping only to put gas in the courtesy car.  Here we are taxiing out at Stevensville.  The mountains that rim this valley are in the 8 and 9 thousand foot range.  So the climb out was by necessity, fairly steep.  I followed the valley northward towards Missoula until we were high enough to resume our course to the west.  

There are fire TFRs on this side of the valley as well.

We head out over some rough country on this leg.  Fortunately, it is only 92 miles to our Idaho destination.

As we fly along we gradually see the peaks of the mountains falling away.  I am still hand flying, hoping that the battery will charge.  And it did charge off and on with the voltage level creeping back up to about 11.5V.  We snuck up on the airport at Orofino because it is located in a narrow valley beneath the Dworshak Reservoir.

My first attempt at landing Orofino failed because I couldn't get down fast enough.  I decided to go around and pulled up over the dam in a climbing right turn.  Then I flew away from the airport far enough so that I could get down into the canyon further to the east this time, giving myself more room for a straight in approach.   Although it took two tries it was well worth it.  This is a beautiful little airport.

It was hot in Idaho. We initially thought this would be just a quick pit stop, but I was beginning to think that the alternator issue was related to temperature. Inside the little terminal building we found no people, but the A.C. was going strong and it was refreshingly cool.  There was a bathroom, kitchen and a very nicely appointed living room area with couches and a TV.  Along the back wall a computer and desk.  The refrigerator was nicely stocked with water and sodas and on the kitchen table sat a basket full of candy and other snacks.  I was thinking that it wouldn't be so bad to live here.

Since it was so very comfortable, I decided to try letting the alternator cool down a bit before we continued.  I took the top cowl off and went back inside.

Orofino, Idaho

Altogether we spent about an hour and a half in Orofino.  Of all of the unattended terminals we visited, I think this was about the nicest.  I put the top cowl back on, but I wasn't convinced that the alternator had gotten much cooler since it was so very hot outside.  Never-the-less it was time to move on to our final stop for the day.  Pullman, Washington here we come.

S68 to KPUW .4 hours, departing 17:00 PDT

The flight to Pullman was short.  The airport lies behind some hills that completely block any view of it when approaching from the southeast.  There was a lot of dirt kicked up into the air by some heavy equipment in the direction of the airport that we could see from ten or fifteen miles out.  At first I thought it was a fire, but when we got very close, we could see that it was construction going on at the airport itself.  

We landed on runway 24 and parked near the FBO.  We unloaded our baggage for the last time.  Carol had already made hotel reservations while we were in Orofino, so all we had to do was call them to come to pick us up.

Pullman, Washington

I spoke briefly to the attendant at the FBO about having our plane fueled and that we would be departing about 9:00 am the next morning.  Then we found it cooler to wait outside for our ride where we could catch the occasional breeze.  The FBO's air conditioner was apparently no match for the unusually high temperature that day.

At the hotel, I spotted a display case of beers from a local brewpub called Paradise Creek.  I  am always excited to try new beers, so after cleaning up a bit we were able the get the hotel to chauffeur us to dinner.  The brewpub is located in an old post office.  It had the look of a public building from the '30s, a broad staircase leading to massive front double doors and flanked on either side by two Greek style columns. 

The food was very good and the beers I tried were -- very OK.  When we returned to the hotel we sat out on their patio for a while enjoying the warm evening breeze.  When we arrived at the patio there was already a couple out there with the same idea.  We chatted with them for a while until it came out that one of them was a private pilot. Well, that revelation propelled the conversation to a much more interesting level, much to my delight.  I'm not certain that the wives were equally enthusiastic.  

Day 15, 29 July 2017

We arrived at the airport the next morning a little earlier than was our norm for this trip.  Mostly because we were eager to get home, but also because we wanted to fly before it got too hot.  We were looking forward to being home and sleeping in our own bed and reuniting with our two dogs that have been staying in a kennel.

The first indication that there might be some trouble were the cones across the ramp blocking access to the taxiways.  It seems that the airport was closed due to the construction until 10:30 am.  It wasn't even 9:00 am yet so we had some time to kill.

I went to work cleaning bugs off the plane and Carol caught up on her U.S.A. map sticker.  The individual states had to be cut out from a larger backing.  She had little scissors that she brought along and periodically she would cut out a few states as we completed them.  Yes, we're flying with scissors. Take that TSA!

Well, that killed about twenty minutes.  With the baggage loaded and the plane having been fueled prior to our arrival,  we were ready to go.  I guess I need to get in the habit of reading the NOTAMs.

Or, maybe I shouldn't -- the contrarian in me says this:  Say it takes 1 minute to lookup a NOTAM and then a few more minutes to decode it.  After all, you have to figure out what time it is in the land of Zulu.  So for every flight you add 4 minutes to your the prep time.  On this day, we were delayed about 1 hour, 45 minutes.  In order for this to pay off in saved time, we would need to avoid a delay like this every 26 flights. In all my flying up to that point I had never encountered a delay due to being trapped at a closed airport. I realize the Duddley Do-gooders will point out that the NOTAMs could convey safety information and further, that the FAA requires that pilots collect all information pertinent to a flight prior to departing.  Realistically though, reading the NOTAMs for your destination is more likely to be of help than for your departing airport.

We waited out the rest of the delay in the FBO's lobby.  I had a nice conversation with a gentleman who I believe was the owner.  He lamented all his lost business since the airport had been under construction.  I felt for him, considering the airport would be closed all day today, save 1 hour.

I told the FBO guy about our 48 state trip and how we were almost home.  He seemed to be very interested and asked a lot of questions.  Then he gave me a pad a paper and wanted me write out a short description of our trip.  I had time, so why not.  He said something about the FBO's Facebook page or web page or something.  I never bothered to find out if the text ever made it to the internet.

When it was finally time to depart, he followed us out to the plane and took some pictures.  Then he wished us well and we departed to the southwest.  

KPUW to KLKV 2.2 hours, departing 10:44 PDT

Our destination on this leg is Lakeview, Oregon.  I knew that eastern Washington and Oregon are largely desert so I had imagined the topography of the high desert in the southwest.  What we saw was quite different.  It was quite mountainous along our entire route.  There were broad dry valleys with some dry lake beds, but most of what we were flying over was some pretty rough country.  Not a lot of green down there.

About twenty minutes into this leg the alternator stopped charging and I seriously thought that we were going to have to divert somewhere.  We inched along, choosing new diversion options as we went.  The G3X has information on various airports via an AOPA database.

The database allows one to check if there will be an FBO or restaurant on the field and it provides phone numbers in many cases.  Our route was pretty desolate so we didn't have a lot of options to begin with, much less options that include FBOs with mechanical assistance.

If we were to lose electrical power all together, we would also lose the G3X map, compass, and radios. We carried a handheld radio, but this far out in the sticks, well who knows?  It's a very small radio.  A complicating factor was poor visibility due to smoke from various fires going on to our south and west. I planned for losing the GX3 map at any moment.  I would follow certain roads that I could see from the map would lead to an airport.  The poor visibility was not helping those backup plans at all.

Every so often the alternator would kick on for a while and we just kind of maintained a level of 10.5V to 11V for the entire leg.  It was tiring mental work coming up with plan after plan as we plodded along. Ultimately, we arrived at Lake County airport which is located on the northern end of Goose Lake.  The Lake itself straddles the Oregon-California border and without all of the smoke it probably would be a nice area to visit.  I would definitely consider it in a different season.

Lakeview, Oregon

I topped off the tanks and Carol went to work on the sticker for our 48th state.

And there it is.  We've completed our objective of visiting all 48 conterminous states.  We have only one thing left to do.  Somehow make it back home.

KLKV to KGOO 1.5 hours, departing 13:25 PDT

I'd like to wrap this up and just say that we flew home without any further drama.  But, of course, the reality of flying is that something is happening all the time.  When we departed Lakeview, we discovered that there was a wasp flying around the cockpit that temporarily left us directionally challenged for a time.  After some struggle in the cockpit, Carol was able to subdue the little creature before any serious problems arose. 

Then, on the climb out from Lakeview, we entered a thick layer of forest fire smoke that extended from about 6000' to 11,500'.  We were climbing and climbing and there didn't seem to ever be an end to it.  I could barely see the ground, but the sky did seem bluer straight overhead, so we continued on expecting to break out above the layer at any time.

We had set a course for Redding, California because of the very poor condition of our battery charging system.  I thought that if I was about to get stuck that would be the largest city in the area and have the best chance of a speedy repair.  I also wanted to get out over the valley where there were many more options available for an emergency landing.

Once we broke out above the smoke layer, I turned my attention back to the battery voltage.  It was still hovering around 11.0V. That was actually a little better than the last time I looked at it.  So we turned south and passed by Mt. Lassen and then followed the edge of the valley south toward Oroville.

Before long, I felt confident that we could make it direct to Grass Valley on the remaining battery power if the alternator would fail completely.  By now a lot of the smoke had cleared out and it was relatively good visibility.

I knew this territory well enough at this point that I really didn't need the G3X map any longer.  But for the sake of this picture, I set the course direct to Nevada County airport to conclude this final leg.

We approached KGOO from the northwest, counterpoise the direction that we left two weeks prior.

We made a left downwind entry and landed runway 25 without much ado.  We taxied past the gas pump and terminal building on our way to our hangar.  The airport was dead quiet. I don't think anyone heard us arrive.  It kind of struck me at that moment that our airport was just as deserted as many of the others we had just visited.   

We pulled up in front of our hangar and shut down.  We were happy to have achieved our ambitious goals, and above all, we were happy to be home. 

Grass Valley, California

And so, this adventure is concluded.  Our little airplane has touched the ground in 48 states and has given Carolina and me the gift of time that we may achieve such wide-ranging travels.  The things that we saw and the people that we met are etched forever in rich and happy memories.  And to those who extended goodwill and assistance to us along the way, we will be eternally grateful.

Flight Statistics:

• According to skyvector.com our route length was 6583 nautical miles, or 7570 statute miles.
• We used about 518 gallons of 100LL.
• Our tach time was 54 hours.  The actual time was 55.9 hours.
• The statute gas mileage was 14.61 MPG.

Alternator addendum:

Throughout this trip report, I've been using the word alternator as a short hand notation for electrical charging system.  Although I knew the real reason for the failure as I wrote this, I wanted to convey as faithfully as possible what I was thinking at the time.

The next day I returned to our hangar to begin in earnest the diagnosis and repair of the electrical charging system.  I also needed to change the oil.  With the cowl off once again, I had another good look at the electrical connections to the alternator.  I rechecked the electrical resistance of each wire going to the alternator and of the ground connection through the engine case.  I also checked the connection at the VPX Sport.  Finding nothing once again, I went to the fountain of all RV knowledge, true and less true, vansairforce.net.  A quick search turned up an interesting thread regarding connector failures with the Plane Power alternator.  That certainly fit the symptoms, and the tests I ran in the field had not replaced that connector.  That must be it, I thought.

I ordered a new connector and waited.  When the new connector arrived I spliced it into the harness and I potted the rear of the connector as a preventative measure.  That was another thing I learned from the vansairforce research. Thanks to Mr. Dan Horton for another very informative article.  I put the cowl back on and went flying.

Success!  Nope, just kidding.  Like before, the alternator charged for a while and then went intermittent.

Well, I was beginning to wonder if this was just going to become a chronic condition of the plane.  I imagined myself trying to explain this to a prospective buyer years in the future. "Oh, it just does that."  Well, obviously, that was not going to fly, pun intended.  Reluctantly, I pulled the cowl off once again.

I had no reasonable ideas left.  Time to move on to the unreasonable.  I decided that I would completely replace each wire in the charging system.  I started with the B+ cable.  This was a 6# stranded cable that conveys the power from the alternator to the plane's master power relay.  I chose to start there because it was the most easily removed.  After I separated it from the plane, I was about to throw it into a junk pile of aircraft wire odds and ends (where it would never be seen again), but for some reason, I decided to dissect the ring terminal ends.  I removed the shrink tube from the ends and had a good look.  The alternator end looked somehow different...

With the shrink tube now removed I pulled hard on the ring terminal and it moved, a little.  I can't express how happy I was to see this.  Finally, there was a cause to go with the effect.  Order was about to be restored to the universe.  I stepped on one end of the cable, and then with pliers, I was then able to pull the ring terminal right off.  There was a fine powder of what looked like burnt copper that came out from under the crimp as well as some smaller broken pieces of copper wire.  I've never been happier to see a damaged part in my life.

I replace the cable and cowl and then went flying.  It was fixed and it stayed fixed thank goodness.

So why wasn't this problem identified earlier?  After all, on this trip alone, at least three different people pulled on the cable and deemed it to be OK.  In addition, the electrical resistance of the cable was measured twice and both times it failed to indicate any problem whatsoever.

I think the shrink tube helped to conceal the problem and given the installed location of the cable, it would have been difficult to pull on the cable hard enough to have shown any indication of looseness. 

The ultimate cause of this problem was my failure to properly crimp the connection in the first place. A secondary cause was my selection of a fairly stiff  6# stranded wire.  I've noticed that in automotive applications, the wire strands used for this particular connection are much finer, leading to a more flexible cable that is better able to withstand the engine vibration.

At the end of the day, I wasted money on a new alternator that I did not need.  I thought a lot of bad thoughts about Plane Power Alternators that they did not deserve.  And I wasted precious vacation time trying to diagnose an electrical problem in the field, all without success.

The truth is that I enjoyed every minute of our trip.  Perhaps I would have answered differently at various times, had I been asked.  But now in the coolness of my home office, having had some trouble on our 48 state adventure seems more like an unforgettable life experience than a significant hardship. When these kinds of issues pop up they add texture to our memories and ultimately help us to retain the details of the experience as a whole.  In hindsight, it's all OK.