ALABAMA BOUND
(a.k..a. “What the hell
is in Alabama?”)
Article and Pictures by Phil
"Papa Bravo" Bolenbaugh
What the hell is in Alabama? Actually, SERFI ’07 (South East Regional
Fly-In) is what was happening in Evergreen, Alabama from October 12, 2007 to
October 14, 2007. This event is hosted by fifteen (15) EAA chapters located in
the southeastern section of the USA and it took place at Middleton Field (GZH).
With my wife (Dee) traveling to South Padre Island with her aunt, cousin, and a
few friends for a week, I was left with me, myself and I to come up with my own
plan of action. I decided that I needed both a good “shakedown” cross-country
for myself and my new aircraft. I spotted this Alabama destination in one of our
many aircraft publications and decided to start making plans. They also
advertised “aircraft judging”……..the possibility of a bonus being added to the
adventure. Is this a great county or what!!!
The basic plan was to leave on Thursday (Oct. 11, 2007) and return on Monday
(Oct. 15, 2007). This would give me 1 ½ to 2 days of travel each way to cover
the estimated 725 mile trip (one-way). Obviously, weather is usually the
controlling factor when one sets out to take to the skies. Patience, patience
and more patience!
Thursday morning brought the usual ADM process into the equation………..the weather
was not looking the best ………..winds and low ceiling (1,900’) covering the top
half of Illinois. After much hand wringing, conversation w/Larry Gehrig, and
numerous talks with WX-BRIEF, I finally departed Cushing Field at 10:15 am. I
recalled the same feeling the first time that I headed out to Oshkosh…………NERVIOUS!!!!!!!!
With full fuel, maps, A/F Directory, HOBBS @ 80.6 hours and GPS set to the first
checkpoint (Effingham Co. Memorial), I was finally on my way. I had to fly at
about 1,600’ MSL to keep the proper 500’ clearance of the clouds. About 100
miles into the trip, I broke out from the cloud cover and climbed to the
“politically correct” altitude of 5,500’ on a course heading of 179*. The
Effingham checkpoint proved unnecessary (no bathroom or fuel needed) for landing
and I proceeded on a new course heading of 162* towards the city of Carmi,
Illinois (CLU). This airport had both skydiving and Mogas………….my Army experience
supplied me with enough of the jumping and I opted for the fuel end of the
program. At this point, I had covered 240 statute miles………the nautical thing
just seems to make me sea sick and then I get to relive the whole metric
business that come about during the height of my career in the machining
business. The sale of 8.4 gallons of fuel probably put Carmi over the hump
financially. Plus, this first leg averaged 29+ mpg……….you got to love
it!!!!!!!!!! Buy the way, the 5.500’ altitude put me on top of the scattered
clouds………..so beautiful and SMOOTH.
Further information: I planned my basic route to avoid large airspace and
military operations areas. It proved to cost very little in mileage and it
forced me to fly various headings and it offered other airports for emergency
purposes.
My next target was the
Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge which took me to the southwest corner of the
Campbell 2 MOA. This target offered me an airport bailout at Marion-Crittenden
Co. (5M9) in the city of Marion, Kentucky. One of the interesting points of this
path was the fact that at times I was flying over Illinois, then over Kentucky,
then back over Illinois, etc, etc…………..this was due to the meandering of the
massive Ohio River system. Pretty neat! The target path was 179* and vectored me
directly between the huge dams of Kentucky Lake and Barkley Lake and then right
over “the land between the lakes”. After the viewing of this marvelous sight,
the pucker factor of reality set in as I realized that the best “bail-out” would
be a sand bar in one of the lakes. Talk about the “two-stroke” phobia! Bring it
on down!!!!!!!!! There were pine trees and water for as far as you wanted to
view. In fact, the next 300 miles would be much of the same. Then, after a few
reflections about some recently departed friends, I decided to enjoy the view,
the trip and the experience and leave the “whatevers” to those in charge. At the
coordinates of the wildlife refuge, I turned to a heading of 166* to take me to
Humphrey’s Co. Airport (0M5) for a fuel stop. This airfield was located in
Waverly, Tennessee. More trees and water!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After a whooping 5 gallons of 100LL, I was off again into the wild blue. The
next leg was at 168* and covered a distance of 104 miles (regular miles) with a
destination of Cortland, Alabama (Lawrence Co. Airport). At the Lawrence Co.
Airport junction, I proceeded on a heading of 178* to my final stop for the
day…………Walker Co. airport at Jasper, Alabama. I landed in Jasper at 5:30 pm,
tied down the plane and was lucky enough to get an airport “loaner” from the
local in charge. He was helpful and directed me to the local Holiday Inn Express
(now you know someone who actually stayed at one for a measly $114.00 for the
evening). Man, it’s in the middle of nowhere in the middle of Alabama!!!!!!!!
Wow.
The next morning brought a good breakfast and a great looking day for flying to
the final destination of Evergreen, Alabama (Middleton Field). The same local
was tending to business at the field and after fueling, conversation and
settling of the bill, I proceeded with the business of preflighting (I have to
in my case since I don’t have a pre-flight eliminator, ie, BRS). By the way, I
pumped 7.1 gallons of fuel just to play it safe. My next destination was a small
town of Sixmile with a heading of 165*. This coordinate placed me at the
northeast corner of the Birmingham MOA………..thus avoiding flying through this
area for some 30 to 40 miles. At this junction, the new heading was 170* with a
target of Selma, Alabama…………that’s right….. the place where some history was
changed. The Selma (Craig) Airport appeared to have been some sort of large
military base because it had two 8,000’ runways (only one was operational),
thousands of square yards of concrete and very large hangers. It was basically
deserted except for fuel service and the basics. The reason for landing after
only 30+ miles was to get a current New Orleans sectional, top off the fuel (4
gallons) and call Flight Service to check for any NOTAMS that applied to
Middleton Field. This airport is located in the Pensacola North MOA and is not a
towered airport……………but lots of traffic heading that way for the fly-in. Anyway,
no special instructions…………..just the original ones that I downloaded on the
internet. It gave a 098* radial to fly to approach the runway and be able to
pick up the downwind for either 1 or 19 depending upon the wind. Made a good
landing even with all the “watchers”……………icing on the cake. I switched to ground
control after landing and was escorted to the “under-the-wing” camping area.
After another humbling experience in setting up a four-man tent, I looked up the
EAA registration booth, paid a few bucks for camping/entry fees, and signed up
to have the plane judged. It didn’t take long for the word to get around that
some “Yankee” came all the way from Illinois. I had tons of visitors…………thought
I was entertainer of the year! The chairman of the event came by and stated “I
understand that you’re in the running for the iron butt award”. At any rate, the
people were very friendly and shared lots of stories. I received an invite from
one of the EAA sponsors to join their group for a good ole fashion chili supper.
It turned out to be very tasty and quite spicy.......imagine that!!!!!!!!!!
Saturday, Oct. 13, 2007, walked around and viewed the 250 + aircraft………..man
were there lots of RV’s….a very popular plane. I entertained the judging crew
several times as well as numerous visitors. Also, I managed to flag down the
fuel truck for a total of 3.2 gallons. That evening provided a banquet with the
judging awards following the great beef dinner. I managed to receive the Grand
Champion Award for the light plane category. Not too much competition, but as
Bill Mills used to say “A win is a win!”.
Sunday proved the ole airport theory………….plenty of advice and plenty of help
makes for great fun, etc except when one needs to make time and get out of
Dodge. So much for that concept. By the time I got packed, entertained a few
dozen more southern folks, gathered my wits, figured out where the hell I was
supposed to be going……..I managed to lift off for the return trip at 11:30 am. I
forgot to mention that the trip down had a tail wind of 5 to 10 mph. I liked it.
So, reversing the trip and running reciprocal radials should take me back to
Cushing Field. Obviously, this is true since I have now been sighted around the
area. I flew to Jasper, Alabama (Walker County Airport) and fueled to the tune
of 7.3 gallons of 100LL. Back in the air, I made it to Humphrey’s County
(Waverly, Tenn.) around 4:00 pm in the afternoon after covering some 340 miles
(naturally statute in nature). I pumped a whooping 7.3 gallons of 100 LL, tied
down the plane and luckily found a nice young man to take me into the large city
of Waverly, Tennessee. He was kind enough to pick me up in the am and return me
to the airport as he wanted to see me take off. Actually, he had a RANS Courier
S-7S (tandem tail dragger) with a 100 HP Rotax ………….so we hit it off quite
nicely. I now believe that the meeting of various people along the way is what
makes these type of adventures most interesting.
The weather (Monday) had the promise of late afternoon showers in the Northern
Illinois area and I needed to make tracks! I left the Humphrey’s County airport
at 9:15 am in a somewhat brisk wind………….but not gusting. I climbed to 4,500’ to
put me where I needed to be to play it safe and found myself the recipient of a
25 – 35 mph tail wind. The Gods were smiling on ole Papa Bravo. Ground speed was
anywhere from 115 to 132 mph and I’m here to tell you that you can really cover
some ground when this happens. At least it certainly feels this way after
burning through the skies in my GT-400 in the range of 55-62 mph. It’s all just
a matter of perspective!
My first (and only) stop for the day was at Carmi, Illinois. I popped down a
granola bar and a soda pop, made the FOB rich with the pumping of 4.4 gallons of
“mogas”, and proceeded homeward bound. The weather treated me to grey skies,
great tail winds and no precipitation. I landed at Cushing and headed for the
gas pump. It was now 1:05 pm. I had covered almost 400 statute miles in a little
less than 4 hours, and that included the fuel stop in Carmi, Illinois. It just
doesn’t get any better than that………..well it would have been better if my wife
had accompanied me………….but that’s another story.
Now, for some “stats” for those of you who are keeping score, looking for a
challenge, etc:
1. Burned 56 gallons of fuel
2. Flew 1,450 (you guessed it) statute miles
3. Hobbs meter showed 16.8 hours in total
4. Spent $207.00 for fuel
5. Averaged 25.8 mpg
6. Averaged 93 mph going down
7. Averaged 103 mph coming home
8. Burn rate average of 3.34 gallons per hour
9. Met some really nice “southern” folks
10. And I took GRAND CHAMPION in the Light Sport Category (not near the
competition that shows up at Oshkosh)
Best Regards & “Get out there and fly!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Papa Bravo
Where To Now?