Strange Days *Wide Thread*

[barnstorm2]

Here are a few photos from my week. The first two are off-topic ( sorry ).

I will be posting the photos at 800x600. This may cause people with monitors set to a low resolution to have to scroll.


First Photo.

Storm cell creeps up fast and drops A LOT of good sized hail while I am working on my boats wiring. The boat has canvas and aluminum surfaces for the hail to hit. It got quite loud.


That is not snow on the docks it is 50F deg. It is melting hailstones.

[barnstorm2]

The hail

[barnstorm2]

Ok,

something on topic.. Pictures from this morning..


Here is evidence of a great flood? :p

A pontoon boat. Missing any lake or river in sight.... but there is a tiny stream a few hundred feet away..:confused:

[barnstorm2]

It was gloomy in places but it ended up a nice sunny day but very windy..

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Oops went of topic again.. This guy is lucky. He is on final just min. after the hail storm went though.:eek:

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Cool private canoe and fishing pond..

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My feet, legs and gyro are full of mud.

The grass strip I refueled at twice had some nasty wet/muddy spots from last nights rainfall.

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Small river

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Cool wooded pond

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These people have their own private island...

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Bridge over little river near Clarksville Ohio.

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Side Shot

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A friend of mine owns this lake.

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Closer

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Horses and pond

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Cool Farm

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Heart shaped road through cemetery.

[barnstorm2]

Ok,

Good day of flying for me but not for everyone.

About an hour after I had returned to the airport a Cessna 172
took a nasty crosswind and veered off of the runway onto the taxiway.

It took minor damage to the front nose wheel’s wheel pants and the engine cowling.

The airport suffered the loss of one taxi light.

No one was injured.

The airport owner went out got the light off of the taxiway.

He then offered to buy the pilot a coke or coffee and sat with him
in the pilot lounge to let him know what the procedures are and that every thing was do big deal.

About half an hour later two state troopers show up.

Claim someone called them but did not state whom.

They take photos of the aircraft, interview the pilot and act really
rude to the airport owner when he tried to tell them that it was an “incident” not an accident and was not a big deal.

Later this evening I get a call from a friend that hangars at the airport and said it was mentioned ON THE TV NEWS.

What is the deal here???

You have to have a multi car pile up with deaths at rush hour for a car accident to get
On the news around here but a Cessna has a hard landing and all this???

[barnstorm2]

Finally, end of the flying day...

Cup of coffee, snack, wireless internet access, pilot lounge that overlooks the runway.....

and best of all... browsing rotary wing forum! :D

[ToddP]

Great pictures and thread. Makes me want to go flying. I hope its nice tomorrow.

[StanFoster]

Tim: Nice photos...cant wait to get back up there.

That incident at the airport reminded me of years ago my dad and my sister had flown to Ohio. He had a Cessna 140. Anyway...he landed on a grass strip and while turning around...his tailwheel caught in a little rut..chipmunk hole..or whatever...and pulled it loose disabling the plane. The newspaper got ahold of the story because of some mouthy airport worker..and the article spread around the country that dad had stalled the plane and landed short of the runway wrecking the plane. It was in our local paper here in Illinois. Dad had the wings taken off and he shipped it back to Illinois in a grain truck. This further reinforced the story.

[Chuck Irby]

Good shots Tim, and pretty country too.

Boy that's a lot of hail - good thing it wasn't real big.

Is most of the green in your pictures rye grass? It looks like some of the non-evergreens are just starting to bud out.

I know you'll be glad when it gets a little warmer.

[GeorgeHedinger]

Great pictures Tim!
I'm sure you are making a bunch of us jealous...
Me for sure!
I saved some of your pics for wallpaper!

[barnstorm2]

Thanks guys!

The strange day still did not end. After I got home there was a county police chopper tracking down some robbers.

I will be the one with the flying itch next weekend. Bensen days and I wont have my gyro with me to fly :(

The trainer's machines will offer some relief.. but in small doses. I will probably spend the whole flight time getting used to a machine that is not my little 447 where you have to 'plan ahead' to climb! :rolleyes:

[TommyRust]

Great Pics. It still looks cold there.

[davreich]

Tim,
That picture is way excellent and should be submitted to some kind of contest. AVweb, AOPA, or something. Thanks!

[barnstorm2]

Thanks Tom and Dave,

If you know of any photo contests pass on the info to me. I am not out to make money off of taking pictures but I would be proud to have some gyro pictures showing up and getting exposure in other aviation realms.

It was not too cold. I needed to wear some light gloves and extra socks though.

[Phil_Ruffin]

Great photos Tim, I can't wait till my gyro rebuild is complete so I can get back in the air.

[scottessex]

Super photo's! How far miles/time do you fly that 447?? looks like alot of fun. I hope to fly again tomorrow after work, now with the time change, I should have an extra hour to get to the airport after work and fly before dark.

[barnstorm2]

Thanks Phil! I can't wait until I finish my 2-place so all these hours I am loging can count toward my PPL! I hope you can get into the air soon.


Scott,

The FAA regs limit me 5 gal of gas. Considering how sluggish she is on takeoff with a full tank I wonder if I could even fly with much more.. ( maybe time for a diet :( )

The 447 spends most of its time at near full throttle so I eat about 4.0 to 4.5 gal per hour. So I have just over an hour of flying time.

I keep a 1 gal resurve so that gives me about 50 to 55 min. of flying time. This means I have to watch the wind speeds and direction closely.

I fly out of a very busy airport with lots of GA traffic so I tend not to practice or fly in the vincinity of where I am hangared. Usually, I fly to Double J airport which is about 20-25 min. from my hangar at I69. There I keep a fuel stash but it is risky as it is a grass strip and will get soggy! :eek: From there I fly practice or sightseeing trips. The pictures I took in this thread are from a trip to Clarksville OH. It was about 25 min out ( head wind ) and 20 min back ( crosswind ) and 10min in vincinity taking photos and barnstorming unplanted farmers fields and ponds. :p

Then after refueling at Double J I headed back to my hangar at I69.

Barnets is another popular grass strip with UL pilots in the area and I hope to get one of the people hangared there to let me keep a fuel stash so I can extend my range even farther. :D

I don't know how many miles that is but my average GPS indicated groundspeed is about 35mph in headwind 45mph no wind 60+ tailwind. So my guess is that I flew about 100 miles Sat.