MikeAdmin2 Aug 2020
Mission: See Maggie and do a Lake Winnipesaukee aerial tour
My Daughter Margaret has been spending the weekends at her college roommate’s house near Laconia NH so this Sunday we decided to pop on over to say hello and have a quick lunch.
The weather was definitely a bit less than we would have preferred but with our new Dynon D3 as a back up to the already immensely powerful AFS-5000 IFR setup in the RV10 it seemed like a good way to expand our comfort zone.
The ceilings were forecast to be 6K and above the whole way with intermittent showers passing through our route of flight from southwest to north east and with a chance for thunder storm activity in the afternoon.
After a wonderful breakfast of beagles and lox after church we headed to the airport. Initially we had planned to climb to 5.5K to clear both Green and White Mountains but the bottoms proved to be a bit lower than forecast so we picking our way through rain showers and diverting to the north to remain clear of the highest portions of the Green Mountains and to the south of Mount Washington to remain in lower terrain. All and all a good flight and we got the airplane washed at no extra charge.
The only negative was that the EGT on #1 was disproportionally high when I went to lean. From experience I suspected the likely cause of this was that my Light Speed Electronic ignition had come disconnected for this cylinder and it was running solely on the lower spark plug and mechanical mag. This has been a bit of a recurring issue with the Light Speed system – meaning this is the third time in 300 hours.
One of the reasons we were making this flight was because Margaret had been telling us that the approach to the runway had its lights in the water – she was right as we came into land for runway 8 we passed over a small pond the accommodated the approach lights. But today in addition to the light posts the pond was also hosting a major regatta – an estimated 30 RC sailing boats were busy maneuvering around the pond. In addition to these apparently highbrow sailors we also saw more traditional pond recreators bass fishing from a skiff – this was definitely a busy little pond.
Despite a fair amount of rubber necking by both passenger and pilot 95VT made a nice touch down on center line and cleared the runway at the first turn-off. The only surprise had been the amount of traffic, it was downright busy. As we passed over the White Mountains and Lake Winnipesaukee came into sight the skies cleared and the traffic really started to pick up with a significant amount of business jet participation. Unbeknownst to us this was actually a race weekend at Lowden the local NASCAR track. While many fans were attending in person due to COVID the alternate ramp was packed with business jets and high end twins. In fact Kyle Bush – famous race car driver arrived as we were preparing to leave.
Fortunately we had called ahead to Lee, owner of Sky Bright one of the local FBO’s and coordinated the plan to land – pick up our “passengers” do an aerial tour and then return to park and leave the plane for a few hours.
We were glad we had talked to Lee and his team were incredible accommodating. Despite all the VIP traffic Lee parked us in the front row right in front of the FBO to pick up our guests.
He may have regretted this immediately though as a few minutes after the prop stopped swinging I was stripped down to my tee shirt and pulling out my tool kit to remove the cowling so I could get access to reconnect my #1 cylinder ignition wire. It wasn’t quite as disconnected as shown in the photo it was still on the terminal just not fully seated. I expect this was caused by my A&P (me) not properly assembling it again after my last oil leak hunt.
I have been trouble shooting a persistent oil leak and added tank sealant to the case bolt just forward of these capacitors. If anyone is interested I have had great luck using Florissant dye to identifying leaks.
Despite Lee’s (FBO owner) internal dialog on his future decisions to accommodate home builds from the mountains of VT he was quick to offer tools and assistance. But with two nearly Engineers on site – my daughter and her friend – we quickly had 95VT repaired, run up, buttoned up and loaded up for a scenic tour of beautiful and the busy Lake Winnipesaukee area in no time. .
Not being able to find any written common procedure we went with the FBO crowd’s suggestion of a clockwise tour of the lake. After a quick takeoff, which she let her Dad do, Margaret quickly took over the controls and did a great job of flying us around the lake and following Liz’s direction to over fly popular beaches, famous people’s homes and avoid the continued heavy GA traffic from both straight and float plane operations. As always the photos don’t do the beauty of this location justice
Liz had been a ski racer in high school so were also able to capture a few picture of her old training hill. We then proceeded about 10 miles west of Laconia where Liz’s family Camp Ground was located on another small lake. We made a number of lowish passes and Liz’s father could be seen waving at us. I think it was hello but we couldn’t count how many figures where showing.
After 40 minutes tooling around and taking in the sights we returned to LCI to shoe horn ourselves into the traffic pattern between jet arrives. Unfortunately the winds had changed and Margaret and Liz were denied the opportunity to land over the “pond”. Margaret made a very nice landing and we taxied in again to be greeted by Sky Bright Aviation. This time they were on to us and a little bit busier parking Kyle Bush so we got a waive and a point – park it over there – instead of full line service, but being regulars at this point this worked just fine, I struggle taking direction anyway.
We parked and buttoned up the plane and passed the controls over to the girls who had a car and plans for lunch. They gave us a quick driving tour of Laconia past a great marina. The signs at the marina looked like they were directly out of an American Pickers episode, full of nostalgia from the 1950s glory days.
The girls took us to a nice Italian Restaurant recommended by Liz’s Father, Fratello’s. The weather was warm but not unbearable and we were able to enjoy outside seating. This worked out great as we had a view of a beautiful church and park. The food was good, better than your typical local pizzeria but still reasonable priced. Jaimie and I have gotten in the habit of splitting our meals – no that doesn’t mean we order one and share – she gets a taste of mine and I get half of hers. The only “other” was the service. Overly attentive with a hovering young waiter – the challenge of going out to eat with two beautiful young women!
As we ate I keep an eye on my trusty radar app to track of a nasty line of thunder storms that were working their way toward Laconia. While we were able to enjoy our lunch as we finished the meal I suggested we hustle back to the airport in an attempt to sneak out before the real weather arrived. So after a direct trip to the airport, hurried hug good bye and another missed photo opportunity we paid our bill for some very affordable $4/gal gas and fired up our magic carpet. Without any major rushing we managed to make our take-off such that we only encountered the very leading edge of rain on our climb out and a quick turn west kept us clear of any real precipitation.
Again we picked our way through showers and broken ceilings on the way home, but managed to avoid most of the worst weather. Only once were we stuck in a rough air mass made more noticeable the smooth air during the rest of the trip. After about a 45 minute flight we managed to land back at Franklin County in very light rain – mission complete.