Mission 21July 2, 2002 |
Work. Work has consumed 100% or more of my time for the last month. I have been missing out on sleep, missing out on relaxation, and missing out on Angel Flights. Friday June 28 was our Q2 ship date. I've never missed a ship date yet, and after fixing a couple of Windows CE issues, and completing my work to finish up the product documentation, I needed a break. The weekend allowed me to catch up on some sleep despite waking up at 5am on Sunday morning to watch the second half of the Soccer World Cup Final - Brazil beat Germany 2-0. I had signed up for Mission 109348 for Tuesday morning and was ready to get back in the saddle.
I hadn't flown the Cutlass for a while - it was out while it changed hands. Fortunately the new owner put it back on-line and we can once again fly it. While it was not-for-rent, I was checked out, and flew three missions in the Piper Arrow - a very different bird despite being similar in numbers. The Cutlass 172RG is a suped-up Cessna 172 - it has a 180hp engine (160hp in the 172), it has a constant-speed propellor, larger wings, and retractable landing gear.
I woke up early, pre-flighted and departed perfectly on-time. I was to pick up Edward in San Luis Obispo (SBP), some 138 nautical miles south-east of Reid-Hillview Airport. I climbed out and noticed the ambient temperature increasing. Yip, the good old temperature inversion. Normally, the air temperature decreases as you climb, but radiant at night allows the ground to cool quickly, thereby lowering the ground temperature and the air that contacts it. The temperature was climbing and jeans didn't seem like a great idea after all. I headed on up to 7500' where the thermometer settled down to a reasonable value and I proceeded over Gilroy, Hollister, Salinas, and King City - the latter being the destination of my very first solo cross-country back in my solo days. Monterey and Salinas was covered in stratus fog. There is a bunch of restricted area just to the west of highway 101 forcing a slight dogleg when heading to SBP. I called Oakland Center, to whom I was already talking, and asked them if the area was active or if I could head straight for SBP. They approved and I altered course 10 degrees to the right and pointed my nose at the delicious CREPE intersection. I knew SBP was going to be IFR, so I had pre-filed an IFR flight plan the night before. I picked up my clearance and started setting up the approach charts and radios. SBP was reporting 200' overcast, so I would definitely have to fly the ILS approach. I descended down to 5000'. Then ATC gave me a turn onto the localizer and I followed it in. However, the glideslope never came in. The localizer needle was working fine - this needle gives you a left-right indication. The glideslope needle gives you an up-down indication. There was no way I was going down without the working. I told the tower my glideslope was out and that I wanted to execute a missed approach. After some coordination between them and LA Center, I flew the missed and was asked of my intentions. Several solid taps of the ILS needles didn't achieve anything productive, so I canceled IFR and headed retreated about 20 miles to my alternate - Paso Robles (PRB). I landed in clear weather, hopped out the Cutlass and started figuring out Plan B.
Fortunately Ed and I had swapped cell phone numbers. I called his cell phone and spoke with Don; apparently they had accidentally switched cell phones. The drive from SBP to PRB was about 45 minutes. During this time I got the plane refueled, checked the gas, the oil, kicked the tires, and played with a Taco Bell look-a-like doggie. So cute. I also called Amy to keep her updated. She was just surfacing and was happy to hear from me. Did I mentioned I played with a really cute dog? I had visions of dognapping him, but I didn't have a headset to fit the little guy's head.
Ed arrived and after the introductions and waiver signing, we walked out to the plane, took a picture, fired up the Cutlass and taxied out. The flight home was routine. Ed appeared a little fatigued and occasionally dozed off. To help him out, I offered to have him fly us. All of a sudden he put on his learning cap and forgot all about his tiredness. Ed did very well holding altitude, although he had a slight case of a left bank. This is normal for beginners - it took me several hours before I could fly straight and level, so Ed did well. I pointed out numerous areas of interest such as Monterey and Santa Cruz. Palo Alto Tower gave us a straight-in. There was a cross-wind from our right and I put it down nicely with the appropriate control inputs. After taxiing to the terminal building and shutting down, Ed deplaned and I hopped back flying over Moffet Airfield and San Jose International.
Another Mission completed. This one had a wrinkle that fortunately was solved quite easily. Ed seems like a really nice guy, and hopefully his trip to Palo Alto every three weeks will have him beat the lymphoma.
