Two New States
Going to medical conferences brings some benefits to flying: We get to visit great places, and some of the costs get covered. This summer was a prime example as we headed to Vail for a nice weekend conference and kickoff to a great vacation.
State Number One: South Dakota. This probably shouldn't count, as it was just a fuel stop, but heck, we did land in a new state for us, even if it was only a few miles from the Minnesota and Nebraska borders, definitely not new states for us. Two hours and change after departing Anoka, 55R's wheels kissed the ground at Yankton. Half an hour later we were airborne again, heading southwest.
Ogalalla, Nebraska had been billed as a great lunch spot with a courtesy car available for the ride into town, cheap gas, and easy access. Access and gas, correct; courtesy car, WRONG - nothing but an honor-system snack bar and sodas in the fridge. We exchanged niceties with a mildly egomaniacal Cirrus driver at the fuel pump - we slowed him down - then launched back into an increasingly turbulent sky directly towards Denver.
State Number Two: Colorado. Eastern Colorado was incredibly turbulent that day with boomers all around us, a very high cloudbase we couldn't top, and thermals a glider pilot would die for. For the first time ever, all four occupants of 55R's seats were at least nauseated, one violently so. Landing at Jeffco Airport northwest of downtown Denver was a treat for many reasons, ending the turbulence and passing a B-25 at the hold-short line being the main two. When we shut down at Stevens Aviation the rental car was waiting, helping hands were everywhere with our bags, and we were on our way to Vail.
A quick note on flight times in small aircraft as an apologetic: We were enroute from Anoka to Jeffco a total of 7 hours, one being on the ground at the fuel stops. Anoka's airport is 15 minutes from the house; add in another half hour for getting the plane out of the hangar, loading the bags, starting the engine and getting to the runway, plus the 15 minutes (seriously) we were on the ground at Jeffco, and it's an 8-hour trip. For an airline trip from Minneapolis to Denver it would be: 1 hour drive from the house, 2 hours in MSP, 2 hours enroute (per Expedia), and conservatively an hour to get bags and schlep our way to the rental car - 6 hours. For a two-hour premium we did it ourselves in an airplane that goes about one-fourth the speed of an airliner. Not to mention the hour's drive through the middle of Denver to get to the mountains in addition to what we drove from Jeffco. Pretty darn convenient, I'd say, and you can't beat the views. In our dream plane, a 210-knot pressurized Baron or Cessna 340, it'd knock two hours off the time, making it a dead heat. So there.
So, Vail - after three days of morning conferences and afternoon exploring (see the pictures from the trip on the Photos link to get more on that) we were back in the air from Jeffco, flying down the front range between late afternoon thunderstorms to Colorado Springs. Funny things happen to airplanes at high altitude airports (which Denver and Colorado Springs certainly qualify as) due to the decreased air density compared to sea level. First, the engine doesn't develop as much power, making takeoff distances (and landing) significantly longer. Second, the thinner air means the airplane must be moving faster through it to feel the same aerodynamic pressures on the wings; this adds to those runway lengths and makes takeoffs and landings seem strange. Third, the plane doesn't climb nearly as well - 55R sees, fully loaded, 1000 feet/minute climb rates fully loaded on most days at sea level, but barely got 500 feet/minute at Jeffco. Add in a hot day (which it was) and wow, is this really 55R we're flying? or is something wrong with her engine today? Nope, it's her, and the engine's fine, she's just having to work harder.
We were in the Springs for about 4 days, enjoying much of what that area has to offer the tourist and resident (again, see the pictures - this post will be long enough as it is). Thursday had us wheels up again out of COS for Durango.
Although elevations were high along the Front Range we were still, essentially, flatland fliers. That all changed winging west to Durango: Those mountains are huge. Out of COS we headed south to La Veta Pass, then due west through the pass past the Spanish Peaks, over Alamosa, and across a really rugged area into Durango. Rob and Maria Kolter, former owners of 55R, were waiting for us at the airport, we shared a nice afternoon with them, then it was off to visit the area.
The next morning I met Rob early back at the airport to take a flight in his 206 around the area. We overflew the kivas at Chimney Rock between Durango and Alamosa, then up a mountain valley till time got short (I had a train to catch, the Silverton run). The 206 was a hoot to fly - big, stable, and lots of power for those mountain climbouts. Nice.
Heading home, we retraced our steps to Alamosa, then headed northeast over the Great Sand Dunes (WOW) through Mosca Pass into Pueblo for fuel. Flower Aviation, the FBO we used, was swamped with bizjets, so we picked our own way to the terminal for lunch, then bounced through the heating-up atmosphere back through Nebraska, eventually ending up on top of, then in a cloud deck in far-southwestern Minnesota. ATC was very accommodating in giving us a "pop-up" IFR clearance. It was smooth as silk in the clouds and with the sun low in the sky to the west the clouds had a weird orange color. But the best view happened just as we entered the clouds from above: As we skimmed along the tops, popping in and out of the higher cloud peaks, I looked back and saw beautiful little curly-Q's around the hole we punched through the cloud, just like you see on those beautiful posters of jets doing the same thing. Those curls are the result of wingtip vortices, the air moving around the wingtip from the high pressure below to the low pressure above, and while Cessnas make decidedly smaller curls than the big jets, it was very cool to see. Oh, for a camera ready at such times - and an autopilot to let me stay off the controls long enough to take a good shot.
State Number One: South Dakota. This probably shouldn't count, as it was just a fuel stop, but heck, we did land in a new state for us, even if it was only a few miles from the Minnesota and Nebraska borders, definitely not new states for us. Two hours and change after departing Anoka, 55R's wheels kissed the ground at Yankton. Half an hour later we were airborne again, heading southwest.
Ogalalla, Nebraska had been billed as a great lunch spot with a courtesy car available for the ride into town, cheap gas, and easy access. Access and gas, correct; courtesy car, WRONG - nothing but an honor-system snack bar and sodas in the fridge. We exchanged niceties with a mildly egomaniacal Cirrus driver at the fuel pump - we slowed him down - then launched back into an increasingly turbulent sky directly towards Denver.
State Number Two: Colorado. Eastern Colorado was incredibly turbulent that day with boomers all around us, a very high cloudbase we couldn't top, and thermals a glider pilot would die for. For the first time ever, all four occupants of 55R's seats were at least nauseated, one violently so. Landing at Jeffco Airport northwest of downtown Denver was a treat for many reasons, ending the turbulence and passing a B-25 at the hold-short line being the main two. When we shut down at Stevens Aviation the rental car was waiting, helping hands were everywhere with our bags, and we were on our way to Vail.
A quick note on flight times in small aircraft as an apologetic: We were enroute from Anoka to Jeffco a total of 7 hours, one being on the ground at the fuel stops. Anoka's airport is 15 minutes from the house; add in another half hour for getting the plane out of the hangar, loading the bags, starting the engine and getting to the runway, plus the 15 minutes (seriously) we were on the ground at Jeffco, and it's an 8-hour trip. For an airline trip from Minneapolis to Denver it would be: 1 hour drive from the house, 2 hours in MSP, 2 hours enroute (per Expedia), and conservatively an hour to get bags and schlep our way to the rental car - 6 hours. For a two-hour premium we did it ourselves in an airplane that goes about one-fourth the speed of an airliner. Not to mention the hour's drive through the middle of Denver to get to the mountains in addition to what we drove from Jeffco. Pretty darn convenient, I'd say, and you can't beat the views. In our dream plane, a 210-knot pressurized Baron or Cessna 340, it'd knock two hours off the time, making it a dead heat. So there.
So, Vail - after three days of morning conferences and afternoon exploring (see the pictures from the trip on the Photos link to get more on that) we were back in the air from Jeffco, flying down the front range between late afternoon thunderstorms to Colorado Springs. Funny things happen to airplanes at high altitude airports (which Denver and Colorado Springs certainly qualify as) due to the decreased air density compared to sea level. First, the engine doesn't develop as much power, making takeoff distances (and landing) significantly longer. Second, the thinner air means the airplane must be moving faster through it to feel the same aerodynamic pressures on the wings; this adds to those runway lengths and makes takeoffs and landings seem strange. Third, the plane doesn't climb nearly as well - 55R sees, fully loaded, 1000 feet/minute climb rates fully loaded on most days at sea level, but barely got 500 feet/minute at Jeffco. Add in a hot day (which it was) and wow, is this really 55R we're flying? or is something wrong with her engine today? Nope, it's her, and the engine's fine, she's just having to work harder.
We were in the Springs for about 4 days, enjoying much of what that area has to offer the tourist and resident (again, see the pictures - this post will be long enough as it is). Thursday had us wheels up again out of COS for Durango.
Although elevations were high along the Front Range we were still, essentially, flatland fliers. That all changed winging west to Durango: Those mountains are huge. Out of COS we headed south to La Veta Pass, then due west through the pass past the Spanish Peaks, over Alamosa, and across a really rugged area into Durango. Rob and Maria Kolter, former owners of 55R, were waiting for us at the airport, we shared a nice afternoon with them, then it was off to visit the area.
The next morning I met Rob early back at the airport to take a flight in his 206 around the area. We overflew the kivas at Chimney Rock between Durango and Alamosa, then up a mountain valley till time got short (I had a train to catch, the Silverton run). The 206 was a hoot to fly - big, stable, and lots of power for those mountain climbouts. Nice.
Heading home, we retraced our steps to Alamosa, then headed northeast over the Great Sand Dunes (WOW) through Mosca Pass into Pueblo for fuel. Flower Aviation, the FBO we used, was swamped with bizjets, so we picked our own way to the terminal for lunch, then bounced through the heating-up atmosphere back through Nebraska, eventually ending up on top of, then in a cloud deck in far-southwestern Minnesota. ATC was very accommodating in giving us a "pop-up" IFR clearance. It was smooth as silk in the clouds and with the sun low in the sky to the west the clouds had a weird orange color. But the best view happened just as we entered the clouds from above: As we skimmed along the tops, popping in and out of the higher cloud peaks, I looked back and saw beautiful little curly-Q's around the hole we punched through the cloud, just like you see on those beautiful posters of jets doing the same thing. Those curls are the result of wingtip vortices, the air moving around the wingtip from the high pressure below to the low pressure above, and while Cessnas make decidedly smaller curls than the big jets, it was very cool to see. Oh, for a camera ready at such times - and an autopilot to let me stay off the controls long enough to take a good shot.
posted by The Minnesota Sheltons at 6:08 PM
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