The Old Man
01-23-2004, 10:14
Pirep
Secret Location 48 to South County
Flight time 3 hours
Cost $ 1725
The engines started smoothly, first one then the other, a small billow of blue black smoke puffed out. He wriggled in his seat as if to get a little more comfortable for the journey south. He looked at the notes given to him earlier by Eccles and then compared them with his charts, the aircraft gentle warmed up, he glanced up from his charts and notes occasionally to check the many instruments and then bowed his head again and stared at the notes and charts.
After some time he was happy that he knew where he was going or to be more correct he knew where he was going but how to get there according to the instruction provided by Eccles. He put the notes and chart down and had a look at the dials and instruments again and nodded to himself in satisfaction that all was well. He waved at a couple of ground crew who waved back and started to taxi the Nomad slowly over the rough ground to the start of the runway.
A quick check and then he applied full flaps pressed fully forward on the toe brakes and pushed the two power levers forward, the Nomad started to shake, he watched at the manifold pressure raised to 30 and released the toe brakes and the aircraft lurched forward, bowing its nose at first as all Nomads did. The speed very quickly increased and at 70 kias he pulled slowly back on the control column and once again he became airborne. He closed the flaps and the gear and trimmed the aircraft and almost immediately started a shallow left turn onto a heading of 172 degrees levelling off at 900ft and reducing the mixture slightly.
He watched as the countryside flashed by him, greens, browns, greys, a hill here a valley there the odd group of buildings it was all very nice and he enjoyed low level flight although it did require some concentration. At this height although he was only flying at 130 kias it seemed a very lot faster. He consulted the notes he had been given and his charts, from time to time he moved and turned the small outer and inner rings on his flight computer and read off the numbers and wrote them down. Time gently passed.
Soon enough, according to the notes, his charts and backed up by the information he read off the flight computer; he applied a little power and slowly but gently pulled back on the controls and the aircraft climbed. He switched on the Comms 1, and tuned to 118.8 and waited until the aircraft passed 1,200ft and called on the radio. “Good morning Sacramento Approach Control”………..
SAC did not seemed at all surprised that an aircraft just appeared from nowhere onto their radar screens. He was treated no differently as if he had been a routine flight around the area. He was in turn passed onto Travis, Stockton and finally Bay Approach who vectored him to South County.
The landing was uneventful and he taxied to the ramshackle hut that Pierglass Aviation had used for many years and passed under the rather grand title of PGA FBO South County, and shut down. Climbing out of the aircraft he stretched and yawned, he was tired and stiff after the long flight, the vestige of old age he thought. He walked into the hut, it was empty. He felt the coffee urn it was cold, he lifted the lid and sniffed gently it stank, he could not wonder if it stank because it was old rancid coffee or that was how it should always smell even when hot, he gently replaced the lid. He went back out to the aircraft and opened the wide side doors, he pulled out his backpack and the cooker, set up his small folding chair and lit the small propane cooker and after filling the kettle from the water carrier strapped to the rear of the front passenger seat he placed it on the cooker. Reaching in his pack he withdrew the small but delicate bone china cup and saucer and blew gently into it to remove any dust. He sat back and waited for the kettle to boil and whist he did so looked around, better phone Junior after this cup of tea he thought see what’s going………..
Secret Location 48 to South County
Flight time 3 hours
Cost $ 1725
The engines started smoothly, first one then the other, a small billow of blue black smoke puffed out. He wriggled in his seat as if to get a little more comfortable for the journey south. He looked at the notes given to him earlier by Eccles and then compared them with his charts, the aircraft gentle warmed up, he glanced up from his charts and notes occasionally to check the many instruments and then bowed his head again and stared at the notes and charts.
After some time he was happy that he knew where he was going or to be more correct he knew where he was going but how to get there according to the instruction provided by Eccles. He put the notes and chart down and had a look at the dials and instruments again and nodded to himself in satisfaction that all was well. He waved at a couple of ground crew who waved back and started to taxi the Nomad slowly over the rough ground to the start of the runway.
A quick check and then he applied full flaps pressed fully forward on the toe brakes and pushed the two power levers forward, the Nomad started to shake, he watched at the manifold pressure raised to 30 and released the toe brakes and the aircraft lurched forward, bowing its nose at first as all Nomads did. The speed very quickly increased and at 70 kias he pulled slowly back on the control column and once again he became airborne. He closed the flaps and the gear and trimmed the aircraft and almost immediately started a shallow left turn onto a heading of 172 degrees levelling off at 900ft and reducing the mixture slightly.
He watched as the countryside flashed by him, greens, browns, greys, a hill here a valley there the odd group of buildings it was all very nice and he enjoyed low level flight although it did require some concentration. At this height although he was only flying at 130 kias it seemed a very lot faster. He consulted the notes he had been given and his charts, from time to time he moved and turned the small outer and inner rings on his flight computer and read off the numbers and wrote them down. Time gently passed.
Soon enough, according to the notes, his charts and backed up by the information he read off the flight computer; he applied a little power and slowly but gently pulled back on the controls and the aircraft climbed. He switched on the Comms 1, and tuned to 118.8 and waited until the aircraft passed 1,200ft and called on the radio. “Good morning Sacramento Approach Control”………..
SAC did not seemed at all surprised that an aircraft just appeared from nowhere onto their radar screens. He was treated no differently as if he had been a routine flight around the area. He was in turn passed onto Travis, Stockton and finally Bay Approach who vectored him to South County.
The landing was uneventful and he taxied to the ramshackle hut that Pierglass Aviation had used for many years and passed under the rather grand title of PGA FBO South County, and shut down. Climbing out of the aircraft he stretched and yawned, he was tired and stiff after the long flight, the vestige of old age he thought. He walked into the hut, it was empty. He felt the coffee urn it was cold, he lifted the lid and sniffed gently it stank, he could not wonder if it stank because it was old rancid coffee or that was how it should always smell even when hot, he gently replaced the lid. He went back out to the aircraft and opened the wide side doors, he pulled out his backpack and the cooker, set up his small folding chair and lit the small propane cooker and after filling the kettle from the water carrier strapped to the rear of the front passenger seat he placed it on the cooker. Reaching in his pack he withdrew the small but delicate bone china cup and saucer and blew gently into it to remove any dust. He sat back and waited for the kettle to boil and whist he did so looked around, better phone Junior after this cup of tea he thought see what’s going………..