First Angel Flight

Today, I had the opportunity to share the gift of flight with a young
burn survivor by taking her to a week long summer camp near Fresno, CA.
"Champ Camp" happens every year and when I figured out that the dates
lined up with an available flying day, I jumped at the chance for a mission.

I was supposed to pickup my passenger at Marysville, just a few miles up
the road from my home airport...but...the Golden West fly-in was going
on so plan-B was to pick her up at Sutter County, just a few miles away.

I filed IFR for the trip to and from Fresno. It was a good chance to
get some time in the IFR system and was my first single pilot IFR x-c.
All in all, things went well in the aviate/navigate/communicate
department. One "note to self" though would be to make sure I have
*all* of the arrival and departure procedures out of the binder when
calling for your clearance. I had the STARs but missed the fact that
there were two DPs from KFAT. Gee, they're on the same page...if you
flip it over, you'd see the other one! :-) When I clarified "Fresno
Five departure" with clearance delivery, they tossed me a bone and said
they could give me alternate departure instructions if I didn't have a
copy. I did have a copy but gladly accepted vectors to save digging it
out of my binder. KFAT clearance was really nice about it and, as it
turns out, the vectors were pretty much what was in the DP (first thing
I did getting home was to find the DP).

Our passenger did just fine the entire trip as she's done this camp for
the past 8 years. My wife was along for the ride as well and did a
great job explaining some things going on. She also baked some brownies
for our passenger. It was a nice touch. When we arrived at Fresno, it
was great to see our passenger recognize some friends from the camp.
She was very appreciative and asked if we'd be picking her up for the
return trip. Sure wish I could...an unfortunate "unable" for flying
next weekend.

Just for Jay B., two Marine F-18s landed as we were taxiing for
departure from Fresno. Sorry man, the camera was in the flight bag, in
the back seat. I didn't get to taxi close to the ANG ramp either or I'd
have some F-16 pix...well, as good as a $200 Cannon digital will do.
:-) A pair of T-38s took off as we getting established on a 6 mile
final. Didn't see them though, just thought "cool!" when the tower was
informing another plane about the departure.

While it felt good flying a 3.2 hour IFR x-c on a nice day, it was even
better that we were able to help get our passenger to camp. My wife
even made her some brownies to share with here friends. So, 3.4 hours
on Mr. Hobbs, 38.8 gallons of 100ll (I was running at 24/24 to see what
the fuel burn would be going "fast(er)"), a great day to fly, and last
but certainly not least, using the gift of flight in a very tangable
way...it doesn't get much better.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

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