Another aviation story - Today's flight

It was getting on towards 2:30 in the afternoon and my passenger was a
little anxious about getting his wife to a 3:30 doctor's appointment.
We had just fueled up at Shelton airport and were headed back to Port
Orchard and my pickup truck. I leveled off at 1,500' and pushed the
throttle in. . .

Two days ago at Sunday brunch, I was sitting next to a friend who had
been a B-17 navigator in the Fifteenth Air Force during WWII. He has
been wanting to go for another Emeraude ride, so I asked if he would
be up for committing aviation on Tuesday. The weather this morning
showed up as pretty as a maiden's bosom, so Ken drove over to my
house. We piled in my pickup and headed for the airport.

I had thought about spending an hour to fly down to Mc Minnville,
Oregon and touring the Hughes Hercules (Spruce Goose to most
non-aviation folks). Might even be able to stop in and buy Ousterhout
a cheeseburger. Ken told me that he had this three o'clock
appointment, so Oregon was out. We could make it there and back okay,
but wouldn't have enough time to really see the museum. So, on to plan
"B".

We took off and headed Southwest over Gig Harbor and the Tacoma Narows
bridge (seventh longest suspension bridge). Many of you may remember
the bridge that it replaced - the infamous "Galloping Gertie". Next on
the route was McChord Air Force Base. We had to be at least 2,800'
high to stay clear of the class "C" airspace over the base while
staying under the 3,000' floor of the Seattle class "B" airspace. All
this while trying to get Esmeralda trimmed out for cruise.

As we crossed the base filled with C-141's and C-17 Globemaster II's,
I got her settled down level at 2,900' and 2,400 rpm. Though the sun
was high and bright in the clear, blue sky, the OAT at this altitude
was hovering around 40°. The cold, dense air was adding tons of lift
to the wings and we were nose down and rolling! The GPS showed a
groundspeed of 150 mph in the calm air. Twenty minutes after takeoff
we were rolling into downwind at Eatonville airport, 25 miles West of
Mt. Rainier.

We landed on the 3,000' runway and turned around to taxi back to
Paul's house. We had to zig and zag to avoid the clumps of elk poop on
the runway. We shut down in front of the hangar, got out and saw Paul
walking down from the house. After we spent a while in his model shop,
Paul opened up his hangar door and rolled his RV-4 out on the ramp. My
navigator friend climbed in the back seat and they cranked up the 160
hp Lycoming.

I hung out and chatted with Paul's wife while they spent the next
thirty minutes flying near Mt. St. Helens and then wrung out the RV
with some rolls and stalls. As they landed, I got a good picture of
the grin on Ken's face. He may be 81 years old, but he sure loves to
fly. We critiqued the flight a bit and then had to hop in the Emeraude
and head for Shelton for fuel. I took it a bit easy as we passed South
of the restricted areas at Fort Lewis. We had plenty of fuel to make
it to Shelton, but if they didn't have fuel for some reason, I wanted
to have enough to get to another airport. Ecomomy cruise on that leg
was 2,100 rpm and 122 mph.

After landing and figuring out the self-serve fuel pumps we taxied
back out and took off for home. I leveled off at 1,500' and pushed the
throttle in. 23, 24, 25 - 2,550 rpm. Man! This thing really takes a
lot of down trim to keep from climbing! We got on track with the GPS
course for home and leaned it out. I checked the ground speed and we
were pushing 160! LOVE this Winter air. We blew across islands and
bays in South Puget Sound leaving squawking chickens and terrified
goats in our footprint. I nosed Essy down for a straight-in approach
to runway 36, then eased the throttle back to stay well under red
line. With a mile to go and the head temps nice and cool, I pulled the
go-handle all the way back and slowed to approach speed.

We touched down and rolled off the runway to my hangar. Ken commented
that while the RV was a sporty little plane, he'd much rather fly
cross-country in the Emeraude. Ken spent more hours crossing the
Pacific in C-124 Globemasters - on three engines - than I have total
time in the air, so he knows what's comfy for the long haul.

He made it home in time, so I guess his wife will let him come out and
play with us again.

Rich S.