Several people have pointed out that I forgot to explain the 4 pool noodles I brought to Montreal. The roll-up door at the back of the Otter is not original equipment. The cargo door that the aircraft comes with is not suitable for skydiving, so a home-made roll-up door is made out of plexiglass. But no matter how well they fit, there's a blast of cold air that comes through at the top to torment the people sitting on the floor at the back of the plane. The people who have it the worst are sitting on the floor across from the door. The air comes in at the top of the door, circles across the ceiling and dumps right onto them. But if you jam a pool noodle between the handle running the length of the top of the door and the door itself, it pushes it closed, and it's quite comfortable. Until you lose the noodle when the plane goes into a dive after everyone has left. Invariably it's a couple of small girls who wind up across from the door instead of a couple of big, tough, husky guys. I was sitting across from a wee thing named Kat for all the big-way jumps, and after the noodle disappeared from our plane after only one use, she sat there shivering in the back corner without a word of complaint for the rest of the jumps. 18,000 Feet, and the temperature drops 2 degrees centigrade for every 1,000 feet of altitude. She was sitting in one very cold corner.
Summer Vacation, Part II
Have Airplane, Will Travel.
Have Airplane, Will Travel.
Last year after we left Summerfest, Gerry, Diane and I spent a day at a little airshow in a place called Oshkosh. We had so much fun that when Mathieu Belanger invited me to fly into Oshkosh for this years show there was no way I was going to say no. When he offered me the pilots seat for the flight I thought I'd died and gone to pilot heaven. In truth, Oshkosh isn't actually a little show. 5 Percent of the general aviation aircraft in North America will put in an appearance at some time during the show. Most of the functioning, flyable, privately owned Warbirds will be there. Aircraft will be flying in from around the world for this. The show is hosted by the Experimental Aircraft Association, the umbrella association for home built airplanes. The owner of every home built aircraft owner within range will have rearranged their lives to attend this event at least once. The list goes on. If there is one place in the world that could be considered Mecca for pilots, this would be it.
I was still trying to get my head around that fact that I was going to be at the controls when we landed in Oshkosh when it started to sink that I was going to be at the controls when we landed in Oshkosh. Crap. I remembered going on You Tube once and searching "Oshkosh Air Traffic Control" The videos showed a non-stop barrage of instructions from a series of Air Traffic Controllers directing the airplanes following a set of railroad tracks into Oshkosh, and bringing them in for landing 3 at a time on the same runway. That means that if you're the guy in the middle you may have somebody landing a couple thousand feet in front of you at the same time that one is landing behind you. You rock your wings back and forth to acknowledge transmissions and follow all instructions without question. They hang a sign from the control tower reading "Worlds Busiest Control Tower" and it's no lie.
I've flown 4 times in the last 5 years, and last week when I landed Matt and Kim's 182 I'd bounced it down the runway like a ham fisted student. I was still stinging from the embarrassment of porpoising the plane up and down instead of making a smooth landing like I had done thousands of times before. Rusty? That ain't the word. Now I was going to land in front of a couple hundred thousand people? How do I get myself into these things? It's not that I mind making a fool out of myself in front of a crowd, but usually there's alcohol and skydivers involved so I blend right in with everybody else.
In the end we decided that I would do the Aviatin', while Matt would do the Navigatin' and Communicatin'. The most difficult parts of flying are navigating, dealing with control towers, and landing. A well trained monkey can hold a course and altitude. I will be the trained monkey, Matt will do all the complicated crap, pointing me in the right direction, and taking over the controls when we turn onto final. That also gives him bragging rights to landing at Oshkosh. The plane belongs to Matt and Kim, not me, he's the one who deserves the glory slot.
The plan was to leave early on Monday morning, fly to the Sault to clear US customs, and be on the ground in Oshkosh before the airport closed for the afternoon airshow at 2:30. That plan fell apart on Friday afternoon.
I had driven Matt down to Farnham that morning to pick up the plane after it had been serviced, and while we were there we wound up jumping with one of the local girls and a guy named Michel Lemay. He's a member of Evolution, the Formation Skydiving team composed of himself and his 3 sons. I don't know exactly where they rate but it's safe to say they they're among the top 10 teams in the world. As we prepared to leave at the end of the day Michel said that his kids were going to be doing non stop back to back loads with their Vertical Relative Work team Monday morning. He invited us to return on Monday and and do 4-way with him while the kids were training. He figured that we could get in at least 6 jumps before 1 o'clock, maybe more. Free coaching from Michel Lemay? Like the invitation to fly to Oshkosh, it was too good to say no to. We're departing Rockliffe airport before dawn, picking up Caroline on the way, and by the time we're done jumping and drop her back off, we probably won't be able to make it to Oshkosh before the airport closes at 8.
We started with a carefully thought out and calculated plan, with every detail taken into consideration and dealt with, now we've tossed it out the window, and are going skydiving instead. We don't know if we'll be able to find a place to clear customs when we're finally ready to cross the border, and even if we can, we don't know where we're going because our destination airport will be closed before we can get there.
But, we'll have our gear, credits cards, and a Turbo Charged Cessna 182 with retractable gear, and a full tank of gas. Anywhere within a thousand miles will be within our reach.
Have airplane, will travel.... But where?
The plan was to leave early on Monday morning, fly to the Sault to clear US customs, and be on the ground in Oshkosh before the airport closed for the afternoon airshow at 2:30. That plan fell apart on Friday afternoon.
I had driven Matt down to Farnham that morning to pick up the plane after it had been serviced, and while we were there we wound up jumping with one of the local girls and a guy named Michel Lemay. He's a member of Evolution, the Formation Skydiving team composed of himself and his 3 sons. I don't know exactly where they rate but it's safe to say they they're among the top 10 teams in the world. As we prepared to leave at the end of the day Michel said that his kids were going to be doing non stop back to back loads with their Vertical Relative Work team Monday morning. He invited us to return on Monday and and do 4-way with him while the kids were training. He figured that we could get in at least 6 jumps before 1 o'clock, maybe more. Free coaching from Michel Lemay? Like the invitation to fly to Oshkosh, it was too good to say no to. We're departing Rockliffe airport before dawn, picking up Caroline on the way, and by the time we're done jumping and drop her back off, we probably won't be able to make it to Oshkosh before the airport closes at 8.
We started with a carefully thought out and calculated plan, with every detail taken into consideration and dealt with, now we've tossed it out the window, and are going skydiving instead. We don't know if we'll be able to find a place to clear customs when we're finally ready to cross the border, and even if we can, we don't know where we're going because our destination airport will be closed before we can get there.
But, we'll have our gear, credits cards, and a Turbo Charged Cessna 182 with retractable gear, and a full tank of gas. Anywhere within a thousand miles will be within our reach.
Have airplane, will travel.... But where?
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