Outer Banks 2007
This year we went back to the Outer Banks for our family vacation. We took the Saratoga and now I'm more in love with it than I was with our old Cherokee Six. With one exception: the pilot seat needs more padding! My butt was sore after the first hour.
I was starting to get a little concerned about the decision to fly. Last year we drove to the Outer Banks. It took over 13 hours and $165 speeding ticket. I vowed then and there I would never drive on a long vacation again. My wife vowed to never be stuck in a car with me that long again. So this year we flew again. The plan was to depart Sunday morning bright and early and arrive at Dare County Airport before noon. We couldn't check-in until 4:00, but I wanted to get there before the afternoon summer pop-ups started. Well you know what they say about the best laid plans...
The first "problem" was that the Saratoga was getting a new engine. It was scheduled beginning the Monday before we were to leave. Since Murphy's Law indicates that there's no way the engine would be done before we were scheduled to leave, I was, to say the least, frustrated. The last thing I wanted to do was drive, and no other plane was available for the week. Fortunately, the engine was swapped out by Friday and the plane captain took it out for its initial 3 hour break-in. Here's where Murphy woke up: while he was out flying, the vacuum pump went Tango Uniform.
But luck was on my side: the shop managed to get a new one in the next morning and have it replaced by Saturday afternoon. But that was the end of my luck.
I had been watching the weather the last several days. Tropical Storm Barry was tracking up the east coast. It appeared that I had two choices: try to beat it in or wait it out. Unfortunately, there were the typical afternoon thunderstorms over the Appalachians so we couldn't leave Saturday afternoon and by the time those calmed down, Barry was rolling into the Carolinas. So we spent all day Sunday monitoring the weather hoping maybe we could get out sometime that afternoon. Once again, the afternoon thunderstorms took care of that. Not to mention the entire eastern half of the country was covered by sigmets and airmets for turbulence and convective weather. The worst part, of course, is that the family doesn't understand all of that. All they know is that they aren't at the beach yet. (On a side note, as an instructor, I think that will be the hardest thing to teach a new student: how to make the right go-no go decision while your family is riding you.)
Fortunately, we woke up earlier Monday morning and the weather was perfect from Cincinnati all the way to the east coast. There were a few overcast skies in the forecast, but no thunderstorms or turbulence. So I filed my flight plan and off we went.
The visibility was below VFR for most of the trip, but it was haze, not clouds. We only spent a few minutes in actual clouds. Unfortunately, with the new engine we had to maintain 75% power, so we couldn't get any higher than 7,000 feet, so we did have a few bumps to deal with, but on a whole it was a very easy flight. Especially with the Saratoga's autopilot coupled to the Garmin 430. Normally a flight that long leaves me pretty drained, but with the autopilot, I was a little stiff, but not totally exhausted.
Landing at Dare County was, as usual, bumpy with the gusty winds, but I was expecting that. Departing the following Sunday was a little less bumpy, but we left first thing in the morning so the winds hadn't really picked up yet.
The trip back was about like the trip out. Dare County doesn't have a frequency to use for clearance delivery, so I opened my flight plan in the air with Washington Center. Again, needing to maintain 75% power, I had to fly back at 6,000 feet for most of the trip. When we got to the mountains, I asked for 7,000 on the off chance they would give it to me, but they didn't so I needed to climb to 8,000 for a while. I couldn't maintain 75% power, so I had to do that portion at 65%, but that shouldn't hurt the break-in any.
By the time we got home, the temperature was building so we had a bumpy final 20 minutes, but the visibility was amazingly clear for this time of year. I had the airport in sight and canceled IFR 15 miles out. For this area, this time of year, visibility over 10 miles is almost unheard of.
Even with the one day delay leaving, I'm glad I chose to fly instead of drive. Driving would have meant an extra 20 hours of travel time, which almost makes up for the lost day.
