MikeAdmin26 July 21
2021 was going to be the year – after reading about Airventure, the great Mecca for homebuilders, for over a decade I was ready to make the pilgrimage. But fate once again intervened and we weren’t able to close the deal . . . or the hangar doorL. But not wanting to totally give in to a small technical setback we decided to make the best of it and create our own local Air Adventure!
This year Air Venture opened on Monday 26 July, the weather was cooperating and the plane was primed and ready to go. With a planned takeoff time of 0600 the airplane was packed, pulled out, cars moved to the hangar when at 0545 we tried to close the door – it wouldn’t move. The door motor turned but the door wouldn’t move – ugh! Unfortunate it took us six hours to trouble shoot and actually get the door down so we could work on it. We eventually determined that one of the two power wires to the 220V motor was pinched and cut when we over opened the door. Eventually we got the door rewired utilizing a new approach that takes into account the motion of the door. This new approach was to rewire the motor using flexible cable – similar to an extension cord instead of wires contained in a metal tube of conduit.
VT Venture 2021 – Alternate Adventure.
As we worked on the door I had time to reflect on what were my goals for OSH’21.
- Aviation camaraderie and fellowship – Experience the Aviation Community by meeting fellow aviators and home builders.
- Conduct a challenging cross country flight – Test my skills as a pilot and N95VT by flying cross country to OSH.
- See new place and have new experiences- See new parts of the country and new airports.
- Camaraderie and fellowship
Despite the disappointment of not being able to make the trip to OSH my friend Howard stuck it out all morning helping me with the door. We also had no shortage of help as Dan, Fed, Kevin, Cliff, George, and Mike all dropped their own projects to come over and offer tools and advice to assist in fixing the door.
Also after the getting the door fixed I ran into another Hangar neighbor who offered to take me for a flight in his Lake Amphibian – another aviation adventure I have long dreamed of – my first sea plane ride.
It seems like you can experience the avatiion community everyday right at home. Since we all share the same challenges of flight, weather, aircraft and even hangars aviator everywhere seem ready to drop what every they are doing to help out each other.
- Conduct a challenging cross country flight.
The flight to OSH as planned was a three leg six and a half hour adventure taking us past Buffalo New York over Cleveland Ohio, and just west of Chicago.
As an alternative I decided to head to Rutland, Vermont. Less than 1/6th the distance to OSH this flight to RUT did offer some challenges. Due to haze created by the west coast wildfires visibility was definitely limited and I picked up an airborne IFR clearance for an approach into Rutland. One of the alternative reasons for visiting Rutland was to assess the viability of flying down to watch my son’s baseball games – as the state American Legion Tournament was being held in Rutland this year. But due to the weather we didn’t actually break out until about 1000 feet and only had about two mile visibility not giving me an opportunity to find the baseball field.
To remain clear of the mountainous terrain in the Rutland area we executed the missed approach which takes you up to 5,600 feet and west over Lake Champlain. Though there were a number of holes that allowed us to see the ground we never were able to get a good look at the lake and ended up climbing up to 10,000 feet to pick our way through cumulous buildups between Rutland and Burlington.
Landing back at Franklin County after almost two hours in the air we made a very nice landing to end a challenging day.
- See new place and have new experiences.
Not quite ready to give up on Air Adventure I decided to get up early Tuesday morning and go flying instead of heading into work. But where to go that would be new and a bit of an adventure? . . . Island Pond 5B1 – formally known as John H. Bolan State Airport. This 2,500 foot turf field located in the north east kingdom of Vermont has been on my list for a while though the turf has to date kept me away. While N95VT has two turf fields on her resume, Basin Harbor Vermont and Cooperstown New York our track record isn’t the best. Basin Harbor was extremely rough one time we visited to have dinner and we ended up cracking our composite wheel pants. Cooperstown was very muddy the time we went in there and we ended up packing the wheel pants with mud causing damage as well. So we are both a bit cautious with turf.
But this was meant to be an adventure right – without taking some calculated risk there can’t be much adventure – besides I am getting pretty good at repairing those wheel pants. First thing Tuesday morning I headed up to the airport pulled N95VT out of the hangar . . . marveling at how flawlessly the door is now operating and blasted off to the east. The haze from Monday had mostly cleared though there was a scattered layer from 3-6K feet over the northern portion of Vermont. We picked out way over and through these clouds and descended through a hole west of the town of Island Pond. The field was easy to see from over 10 miles away an open green field south of town. After making a low pass to check out the runway conditions and disturb the local bird population I came around for a soft field landing. The landing was uneventful and though the turf was definitely a bit bounce we experienced no issues. We taxied up in front of one of three hangars located at the field and shut down to make a quick survey of the field.
The field is located about 1.5 miles south of town but is right next to a smaller pond, is surrounded with scenic views and sports two picnic tables. Definitely a great place for an autumn picnic getaway.
After completing a good reconnaissance of the area we mounted up and taxied back to the departure end of runway 32. Using soft field technic and full flaps the RV practically rocketed off the ground getting airborne in about 600 feet. The nose up position required to remain below our 86kt flap speed was quite impressive and we were above pattern altitude (1000ft) before the end of the runway.
The flight home was both uneventful and scenic as we passed over Newport Vermont, Lake Memphremagog, Jay Peak, and Lake Carmine. With enough IFR flying under or belt from the prior day we chose to enter the break for runway 19 at Franklin County and timed it just right to be exactly on the numbers at the 180 – 1000ft, 90kts. The landing was a squeaker and we taxied back to the hangar feeling we had successfully completed our adventure.
PS The Hangar Door Closed . . . no problem.