Mission 18 Family Importance March 11, 2002

Furniture shopping!  I never thought that something so boring and frustrating could dominate my life as it has during the past four months.  My beautiful newly-wed wife Amy and I had decided to put an end to our less-than-comfortable floor accommodations and buy some furniture.  I won't go into all the gory details here, but suffice it to say that you have been warned.  Never ever step even one baby toe into Brueners Furniture store.  The projected date got moved from late December, to sometime in February to who knows when in April - and very poor customer service to boot.  That's when reality took over and I had Brueners return my money for the sofa and loveseat.  So on yet another wasted weekend, Amy and I were out looking for furniture.  But this Sunday was different.  This Sunday we were speaking with a much more professional saleswoman and Amy's eyes lit up with the idea of a chaise.  We returned to Macys because we had earlier found a really nice dining room table and chairs, not to mention Amy's dream server.  And the best of all, is that they actually delivered the stuff on time.  Cutting a long story short, I once again penned my signature and we are now expecting a sofa and oversized chair, plus of course the chaise later this month.

After getting that weight off off our shoulders, for the second time, and leaving the store, Mary Beth from Angel Flight called on my cell phone.  Gary and Renee were starting their daily trips from Pine Mountain Lake Airport to Palo Alto for treatment and Monday morning's pilot's wife had been rushed into hospital.  Could I make the trip on short notice?  I was aware of their situation.  A week or two ago, Cheri from Angel Flight emailed Northern California pilots to see if they could fill the daily flights both in the morning and afternoon for Gary and Renee.  Gary has been battling cancer and the treatments have forced the couple to spend long periods away from their two small kids, Taylor and Lucia.  The response was so overwhelming, that Angel Flight had to limit the flights each pilot could make so that the passion was split evenly.  I had been allocated two flights, one on March 18 and another on March 26.   I expected a VFR pilot not be able to make a flight due to weather, and had told Cheri that if any pilot had to cancel, that I may be able to fill-in in short notice.  I told Mary Beth that I would have to go home, logon and see if a plane was available the following morning.  I then had a brilliant flash - I called Trade Winds and got an immediate answer.  Oh, the misuse of technology.

Amy and I had once flown to Pine Mountain Lake Airport in the town of Groveland.  It was a very unique long weekend.  It started off with our flying up to Lake Tahoe.  The usually four hour thirty minute drive turned into a one hour fifteen minute flight.  The view was simply amazing and Amy couldn't believe we were going to land above 6000' - she had always landed at sea-level.  We spent a summer's day at Lake Tahoe and then flew to Pine Mountain Lake via lunch in the old gold-mining town of Columbia.  We stayed at the Chalet de Fontenay Fly In Bed and Breakfast Inn.  Getting there was a little, shall we say, out of the ordinary.  We landed, taxied onto a road, stopped at the stop-sign, continued, and taxied to the driveway, up which we taxied and then parked, just like a car.  Amy and I met some fun people, visited the Yosemite Valley, and watched a fireworks show with friends while cuddling up on the lake shore.

Your name is Angel Flight, and I feel like I need the help of angels right now! We have a 4 year old boy and a 2 year old girl.  I've worked so hard to keep our family together through the phases of treatment this year (this is his seventh tumor this year, the fourth in the brain).  Last spring when he started the first round of radiation, we lived in a cottage that a kind family provided for us near Stanford.

I had recently been checked out in Trade Winds' Piper Arrow.  Previously, my 'complex' plane of choice was the Cessna Cutlass, but that had been taken off-line when the owner decided to sell it.  So Trade Winds now had two complex aircraft, the expensive Cessna 182 and the more affordable Piper Arrow.  By the way, a complex aircraft is one that has retractable gear and some other stuff.  Pulling up the legs reduces drag and improves performance.  This 1975 Piper Arrow has, as are fondly named in the industry, Hershey Bar wings.  And that's what they look like - big chucky slabs of wing.  Nothing like the more efficient wing Piper used on later models such as the Archers I fly.  The result of flying this wing is that induced drag is increased due to the lower aspect ratio.  Gliders have very long thin wings to reduce induced drag - well this Arrow's stubby wings have the opposite effect.  So, you need to be aware of the descent rate and make sure you don't get it too slow - that's when the higher induced drag will get you.  Other than that, it's basically an Archer with foldable wheels.  I have over 200 hours in the Archer having done my Instrument Rating and much of my flying in it.  I was debating whether I should take the Archer or the Arrow on this flight.  I decided to go with the Arrow as I felt very comfortable flying it and it would knock off 5 or 10 minutes of flying for Gary and Renee.

Now the Arrow has some additional gizmos.  The new owner recently installed good avionics so it's now much more enjoyable to fly.  In addition, it also has a 3-blade propeller and a fuel-injected engine.  The 3-blade prop doesn't really do a whole lot more than look cool on the ramp.  Sure, it reduces exterior noise (a good thing) since the blades are shorter than the stock 2-blade prop.  It also seems to run smoother.  The fuel injection adds several things to the flying experience.  Firstly, it gets rid of a carburetor - fuel injection systems do not use a carburetor.  Obviously, this also eliminates the risk of carburetor ice - you cannot get carburetor ice if you don't have a carburetor!  Fuel injection also provides a more even and well regulated fuel flow to the cylinders, so basically things runs smoother, cooler, and more efficiently.  The starting procedure is slightly different too.  With a non-fuel-injected, you prime the engine by pumping some fuel into select cylinders with a little lever, then you go full rich - meaning that you give the engine all the fuel it needs when it needs it.  Then you just fire it up like a car.  With fuel-injection, you do not have a primer.  You turn on the fuel pump and go full rich until you see some fuel flow on the fuel flow meter.  This essentially primes the engine.  Then you immediately bring the mixture all the way back to the lean position thereby preventing the engine  from getting too much fuel and flooding it.  Crank the engine over and as soon as it fires, you go full rich and you have a running engine.  It's a little different, nothing too difficult, just different.

The Arrow was a little slow to start, just like its pilot, but just a few minutes after 7am, I was airborne and heading to Q68.  The bigger 200 hp engine had me over the hills in no time and I settled down into a 155 mph cruise.  Yip, she's marked in good ol' miles per hour.  Knots are also on the dial, but in a much smaller font, so we just use mph.  Apart from some high cirrus, it was a cool, cloudless day and the Arrow was shooting through the crisp air.  I planned on about a 400 fpm descent and started my descent several miles out.  I was speaking with another aircraft on the CTAF.  Despite being ahead of and faster than him, he landed before me as I executed the FAA recommended pattern entry by first flying overhead.  I specifically did this to be a good citizen and minimize noise to the friendly neighbors as well as to add to the safety of the approach and landing.  It probably cost me just a minute or so.  The trees on the approach end were a little deceiving and the 12 o'clock sun didn't help either.  I gently set her down uphill on runway 9 and taxied up to Mother Lode Aviation where Gary and Renee came out to meet and greet.  They signed the waiver, but there was no post box.  The best I could do was to leave it in the pilots' lounge on the table - hopefully someone was kind enough to put it in the mail.  After photo time, we hopped in with Gary assuming the First Officer position.  I explained how to get in, get out, strap themselves in, and get themselves out.  All the while the couple couldn't stop thanking me enough for what we, Angel Flight, as an organization were doing for them.  As true parents, it wasn't so much what we were doing for them as people, but what we were doing for them as parents.  Each night, four year-old Taylor and two-year old Lucia will have their parents at their bedside tucking them in.  On behalf of Angel Flight I accepted their thanks.

The Arrow fired up normally, we taxied out and took off downhill on runway 27.  Renee enjoyed the view from above the Groveland area.  I'm not sure if it was the distraction of the passengers , the climb rate of the Arrow, or that we departed from an airport having an elevation of 2900', but I initially climbed to 7500'.  Heading west, pilots fly at even-plus-500; i.e. 4500', 6500', 8,500' etc.   I eased back on the power and resumed the flight at 6500'.  Gary briefly took a turn at the controls, trying up, down, left, and right.  I'm not if the shrieks from Renee in the back were real or joking, but Gary handed the controls back to me and on we marched towards the windmills just east of Livermore.  We descended into Bay Area making sure not to 'bust' San Francisco's airspace.  Palo Alto tower told me to make a right base to runway 31 behind a Caravan.  We landed and rolled to the end of runway 31 and taxied off.  I cleaned up the plane and contacted ground.  It was about that time that Gary looked at me, and said: "I was waiting for you to put the gear down, but didn't see you do it."  After a brief two seconds, I replied: "And now you tell me!"

We were safely on the ground in Palo Alto to start Gary's marathon session with radiation treatment.  Again I was thanked for all we do.  Something in Gary's words emphasized just how grateful they were of Angel Flight's assistance.  It wasn't what he said, just the way he said it that really drove home how much being with their children at night meant to them.  It wassomewhat emotional thinking about it and brought out the true meaning of family importance.  There is a long road ahead of these two brave people, and having dealt such a hand, I could not imagine two more positive folks than Gary and Renee to see it through.  I wish them all the best in the coming weeks, and fortunately for me, I'll be seeing them again next Monday.