Busy Day Aviating

It started off simply, a quick flight with my dad.  He is getting up there in years, 92 to be exact.  I prepped the plane and CC drove him over so as to minimize ground time.    The plane was out, and after some work and help from the hangar neighbors, we had him loaded and I was running the checklist. We take climbing into the cockpit for granted.  I can see that it will increase in difficulty in the decades to come.

I was about to flip the master on when my mechanic showed up.  This was odd as he had fixed my pressure pumps recently, but I had already made a few flights, and everything was working.  His appearance was soon explained.  A plane had a mishap, and the airport was closed.  

Normally a delay is not an issue and our immediate concern was for the unfortunate pilot, but I couldn’t let dad bake in the heat or we would have a second emergency.  We carefully help him deplane and seated him in the air-conditioned car.  The incident looked really bad at first, the plane looked squashed which is never good.  We soon learned it was not that bad.  The plane had departed the side of the runway and flipped in the soft grass.  The pilot had walked away, shaken but OK.

Later reports from a mechanic that assisted in the recovery indicated that it may have been caused by a locked brake or broken steering linkage.   

I have a portable radio and we listened to ground control.  They were telling planes it may be a while.  I pushed the plane back in the hangar and Dad and CC headed for the house.  Of course a few minutes later they opened the airport.  I called them and they quickly reversed course.  My hangar neighbors were extremely nice and delayed their departure so they could once again help Dad make the climb into the cockpit.  I have to get in first and CC is just not as strong as I, so loading is a bit more awkward.

We had a lovely uneventful flight.  Our route took us by JAX, the old rice plantation and Kings Bay, the submarine base.  Thankfully our landing was smooth, and we tracked the center of the pavement.  We had learned from the first aborted flight and  Dad was able to extricate himself easier by sliding out, and then down the wing before standing.  We headed to the house for lunch and overall was a successful venture even if we made Dad work harder than he expected.  Big thank you to our neighbors that jumped in to help.  Made the boarding much safer.

CC and I were not done aviating though.  I have had a hankering to watch the sun set and test the new settings on my flight displays.  Previously they had been set to a higher value of minimum dimming than I liked.  Bragg Avionics had updated the settings, so it was time to test them.  The blue skies had given way to a high overcast after an afternoon of storms off to our West.

Undeterred, we headed out just before sunset to have a look.  The flipped airplane was parked on the ramp which was how we got the updated pictures.  After surveying the damage and being thankful that it did not happen to us, we headed over to inspect the plane.  Preflight went smoothly, I had prepped the plane earlier so everything was ready, just needed to double check that no one had snuck into the locked hangar and changed anything.

We departed just before sunset and climbed out to watch the sun dip below the horizon.  As usual the colors were stunning, the air was smooth and we cruised down towards Palatka.  The rain was supposed to be gone.  We had major storms 200 mile South but North Florida was supposed to be clear.

As we turned West passing Palatka heading towards Gainesville, CC noted some lightning off to our left.  The satellite radar only showed a small area of rain to our right though.  I fired up the radar and sure enough, that building cloud was painting bright red.  Out of curiosity I asked the controller what he showed.  He initially said, just light with some moderate rain.  This was what the satellite was saying and based upon that picture, I would have flown that direction.

The radar was painting severe, and we were getting a nice lightning show.  The controller then said his latest update was showing extreme precipitation.  Eventually the satellite caught up with reality.  That little bit of rain to our right, well it too was deceptive.  Very little rain falling to the ground and looked benign on the satellite but it had a core of strong rain and I would have avoided it had it been on our route.

It was soon time to turn North and head home.  We left the light show behind and the last light faded and we were enveloped in darkness.  The new screen adjustments worked though there was some user adjustment to tweak the displays to get them to my liking. 

We finished the flight by cruising over downtown and then set up for a straight in to 14.  I was a few knots fast and decided to stay off the brakes, so we rolled to the 3000’ turn off and cleared the runway.  Was a nice way to end a great day of flying, tower had me monitor ground as we taxied back to the hangar.  The plane was soon secured and ready for our next flight.