The adventure begins!

Post by **joea** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 21:08

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The adventure begins! Am in Middletown (closest larger town on my way to where the Sedan is located) tonight and had dinner with Keith Wyman and his wife. Keith is the NAA Aeronca factory rep and one of our largest supporters so it was good to see them.

Tomorrow I meet the owner of the Sedan and give him a check and he gives me the keys and paperwork and most importantly, the airplane.

The weather is not the best in the world here right now, with ceilings around 1000 feet (or lower at times) and vis down to half of a mile in rain, so VFR is not possible today. Hopefully the WX will improve and I can get off tomorrow morning and get into the better weather out West.

This is what it was like driving down from Columbus. Mike Friedrich, another Aeronca owner in Arizona was very nice and donated a SouthWest Airlines coupon for me to use to fly to Ohio (saved me $400 which will immediately be burned up in fuel heading home!) so I drove from Columbus down to the Middletown area where the plane is.

Will keep posting info and photos as possible along the flight West.

Joe A

Dennis · Post by **Dennis** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 22:09

Hey Joe,

Stop at 7M2 and I will help you with auto fuel, if you want to save a buck. Or give you a bed and a meal for the night. Plus a beer or two. Or I can arrange this little red head.........her name is Piper.

Dennis

SFC Hiatt · Post by **SFC Hiatt** » Wed Aug 27, 2008 22:58

Dennis wrote:Hey Joe,

Stop at 7M2 and I will help you with auto fuel, if you want to save a buck. Or give you a bed and a meal for the night. Plus a beer or two. Or I can arrange this little red head.........her name is Piper.

Dennis

What is your auto fuel price? I'm leaving Ponca City, OK (pnc) on this Friday heading to Paragould, Ark (PGR). I'm always willing to stop by Aeronca friends.

Nathan K. Hammond · Post by **Nathan K. Hammond** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 01:41

Go man go!!!

nkh

Post by **joea** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 04:37

Dennis,

Thanks for the offer. Right now my routing is for a first stop somewhere in S. Indiana, an hour to 90 minutes after takeoff to check everything out, then on to Potosi Missouri and end up the first night in Springfield Missouri to see my Brother (and a free bed!) then head to Tulsa for lunch with a childhood friend and after that head to Lubbock for Saturday night. Third day will be to El Paso then the Southern route to Phoenix.

If weather takes me South will get in touch and really appreciate the offer. Same with Chris but stopping in Ponca would get me killed by my friend in Tulsa!

Joe

Edit, was just woken up by a really strong rain storm here in the Lubbock area at 0445 so might as well spend some time posting a photo or two while its still dark.

Here is a pic of the previous caretaker of the Sedan, Bob Meador. He was a big help with the airplane and when I arrived to pick the plane up found it full of spare parts and he even donated a very nice set of tie downs and other nice things to have. He was very sorry to see the Sedan go but he realized that it was going to a good home

Post by **joea** » Thu Aug 28, 2008 22:35

Hey guys, made it to Springfield just fine. Very long day and did not start out very well.

Made a landing a lot earlier than I wanted to just because something told me to stop and found a major oil leak. A valve cover had corroded and was dripping hot oil on the exhaust and I caught it before too much oil was lost.

Found a used Continental valve cover and slapped it on and continued West. Cost me about 2.5 hours but thats life.

More on this later as I am on a dial up connection at my Brothers house!

Joe A

PS I love the Sedan!

Edit, here is a picture of the fun I had with the engine in Seymour.

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 05:18

Joe

Glad, you stopped, in time before running out of oil! Other than that, I imagine, you must be wearing a permanent big grin across your face, while piloting the Sedan!

Wishing you blue skies and good luck for the next leg!

Matt

Post by **joea** » Fri Aug 29, 2008 21:59

Well,

Another very long but fruitful day. Took off late from Missouri after having to wait for a line of thundertsorms over 100 miles long, from Wichita to East of Springfield. Tops to FL500 and hail so not something that I wanted to mess with.

Flew to Tulsa to see a childhood friend of mine, landing around 1300. Had lunch and headed to Lubbock. The first 100 miles were wonderful, flew right overhead the FAA center in OKC then headed SW. About 50 miles out of Lubbock the weather turned nasty with cloud to cloud and cloud to ground lighting and ceilings around 2500 feet. Went around it to the West while talking to Lubbock radar. They kept pushing me towards landing at the big airport while I needed to get into Slayton where the Texas Air Museum and some friends were located.

About 5 miles North the weather and winds shifted 40 degrees and all of a sudden I was flying sideways trying to keep my course to the airport. Tried to shoot a landing to runway 18 as the last winds I had were 190/20G29 only to find that the winds had shifted and were now direct out of the East. Banked to the right then did a cropduster turn to runway 09, a grass runway at Slayton. 100 feet above the runway the extreme chop from the winds stopped and was able to get the bird down just fine.

Rolled out on the grass and turned onto the ramp there where Malcom was waiting for me. Before I was able to get out he kicked the tailwheel around and spun me for the hangar and we both pushed the Sedan in the hangar. The heavy rain started 2 minutes afterwards.

This is why I went around the West of the area. Did not look good anywhere near this monster.

Barely made this one but am getting used to the plane now. The oil separator is still puking some oil and crap out but not too badly. Am just going to fly it into Phoenix this way and repair the valve cover properly there. The "EPA bottle" is working fine for now.

Working off of a dial connection here at the hangar. so no photos yet. Will get to them tomorrow or Sunday! Should get home tomorrow afternoon sometime!

Joe A

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 02:31

Joe, now that really does sound like an adventure!

I bet , your CFI will attest to your proficiency, after you land at Phoenix.

But don't get too dauntless, just because you now own one of the most beautiful Sedans around...

Matt

Post by **joea** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 06:52

Matt,

Thanks and I had to chuckle when I got to Ohio. Bob asked me what time I wanted to head out the next morning and I told him "as early as possible" and he got a bit concerned. Seems that he had his partner in the airplane ready to give me a "taildragger checkout" in the Sedan and was not sure if the partner, who is a CFI, could get to the airport fairly early enough to "check me out" in the airplane.

I told him that I was "taildragger current" and already had some flight time in a Sedan and did not need a checkout and he was relieved.

I do have to say that this Sedan is very well behaved and with the Scott 3200 tailwheel and 7.00 x 6 tires has been very reasonable on landings and ground handling so far. I have made a couple of very difficult landings so far, one in Hobart OK where I had to land on a runway that was officially open but was not in good shape. When the wind is 290@20 gusting to 29 knots and the runway 30 is available, most taildragger pilots will take it! It was overgrown in many areas with grass and not the smoothest but it was into the wind and my actual ground speed was very slow due to the wind.

The plane does still have the stock Goodyear wheels and brakes and after flying the plane over 10 hours so far am planning on upgrading to the Cleveland wheels with the single puck disks. The Goodyears are doing fine so far but a couple of times (mostly parking and low speed maneuvering) it would have been nice to have had more braking power.

That said, I fall more and more in love with the plane every hour I fly it!

Joe

Matt · Post by **Matt** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 17:20

Thanks for the pictures, Joe.

A nice plane! Is Gareth going to escort you with his Sedan, on the final portion of your journey into Phoenix?

Post by **joea** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 20:16

Well guys, I did my best but did not make it home today! Got as far as Casa Grande Arizona and got stopped by three massive thunderstorms. Winds at my home airport were reported as 176/20G29 and I am not going to try that on a runway heading 07/25.

Am staying with Mike F here in CG and will fly home tomorrow morning. At least I am only 50 miles from home!

Joe A

MikeB · Post by **MikeB** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 21:12

Is the sedan a thunderstorm magnet

?? BTW: looks great! I'm guessing you're going to enjoy that plane.

Mike Berg

SFC Hiatt · Post by **SFC Hiatt** » Sat Aug 30, 2008 21:20

WOW..........that thing looks like it will hold 6 passengers. I'm leaving Paragould, Arkansas in the morning headed to pay Dennis a visit. I'll post some pictures soon. ~Chris

Post by **joea** » Sun Aug 31, 2008 16:11

Chris,

The Sedan will take off with just about anything that you can fit inside. Baggage limit is 120 pounds but load is listed at 900 pounds!

Mike,

It sure seemed that way but 80% of the weather I ran into was simply low scud and more rain that I have seen in years.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arrived home an hour ago after making the short flight from Casa Grande.

This was the start of the trip in Hamilton Ohio:

This was the end of the trip, Phoenix Deer Valley:

Three days four hours enroute, loads of weather and crossing the Continental Divide. Just over 1800 miles. It was a real adventure!

Its one in the afternoon and I am bushed. Taking a nap now and will log back in later on and post loads of photos!

Joe