The Flying Hogs Fly 2200 Miles

        Article by Brian Gilomen
        Pictures by Brian, Vance Lorenzana and Barry Ward

For three years in a row, now, a certain sub-culture of FVFC members who also ride motorcycles has taken a late-February jaunt to Daytona, Florida to enjoy the sun and the bikes and the . . .  well, "what goes on in Daytona, stays in Daytona."  This year our group was up to seven:  the Charter Flying Hogs (Jim, Vance and Brian); veterans Barry and Bob; and noobies Bruce and Rich.  As was the case last year, we loaded up our 7 motorcycles onto a giant Ryder truck for transport to/from the Sunshine State.  But unlike last year, we were able to add private aviation into the mix:  Bob Beckstrom decided to fly his Cessna 210 Turbo Centurion to/from the festivities, with 3 seats available for others in each direction.

Barry and I drove the Big Truck down, so I can't personally report on the calamities that befell the 4 AeroNauts (Bob, Jim, Vance and Rich) who made the trip from the Chicago suburbs to the South.  Bob will be providing a full report to the enjoyment of those who attend the April FVFC Meeting.  I do, however, know that there was much "weather" on the trip down (isn't there always?), resulting in more icing than any of the 3 copilots had ever seen; a climb to 14,500 feet in an effort to elude the icing (with only Bob on O2 and the others passing out due to the thin air); and a required overnight in Jasper, Alabama where the locals experienced the first snow anyone had seen in five or six years.  Some representative pictures:

"I see NOTHEENG!!"
 

Vance starting to enjoy hypoxia
 

Rich nodding off
 

An unusual Winter Wonderland in Alabama
 

Snow-covered Caddy Limo Courtesy Car
(Funny; we also got a Caddy on the trip back up)
 

Away for the night...

Eight days later, history was to repeat itself.  Me, Bob, Vance and Jim left Florida on a beautiful day with one stop in Northern Georgia planned for what was to be about a 6-hour flight back to KLOT.  "Not so fast," decreed the Weather Gods.  Our flight to KAJR - Habersham County Airport in, Cornelia, GA was delightful, but the weatherscope picture of the remainder of our flightplan was a disaster.  Gusts to 60Kts, and hail up to 2 inches.  No thanks!  So, we found bunks and bedded down for the night.  Some shots of the days events:

Loading up in the AM
 

Flying over the Kennedy Space Center.
Vehicle Assembly Building in the foreground; Shuttle on the pad in the background
 

The Daytona Speedway
 

Look!  That's us!!
 

Fuel stop turns into overnight stop
 

After our unscheduled overnight, we took off in the morning on a rather nice day!  But the cloud cover increased to 100-percent by the time we were near our destination.

Groundfog hugs the valley
 

No sucker-holes here...

Hand-off after hand-off by air traffic control got us ever closer to KLOT.  I heard Barry audibly whimper when we descended into the cloud deck and stayed there for a lengthy period of time, with zero visibility along every axis.  It was truly amazing when we broke through the clouds on perhaps a 2 mile final, perfectly lined up for a landing.  Bob canceled his IFR plan and sagely flew a once-around to check for traffic.  No surprise:  nobody else had the cajones to be flying that day.

One interesting tid-bit:  the guys flying Sough had a spanking headwind, easily topping 200 mph at times.  Those of us flying North fought a headwind the entire way.  But the former flew longer, trying unsuccessfully to find a hole through the weather.  In the end, the fuel consumption difference between each leg was less than one gallon.

The Flying Hogs are nothing if not consistent!