Updated: 14:45 MDT, Friday, September 12, 2003
Last updated: 02:02 MDT, Saturday, July 9, 2005
Trip narrative is given in chronological order.
All text and images are Copyright (c) 2003, 2004, and 2005 by Tim Hu
This mission log narrative is being authored and updated mostly by me (Tim Hu) as I make progress on the flight. When the flight is done,
I'll make it pretty and add more pictures.
Anywhere there's a picture, you can click on it to get a bigger version. Note that they are kinda big, so if you are using a slow modem,
it may take a bit to download them.
Mission Launch. Friday, August 29 2003:
Friday's Cheyenne narrative written by Amber Jonker of the Aeronatical Division of the Wyoming DOT.
Cheyenne, Wyoming:
14:30 MDT: History repeats itself and friends, family, and supporters were there to wish them plenty of cheer and Godspeed.
Tim (EAA Pilot), Roger, Mike
Tim and Mike plotting their course on the original 1920s Airmail charts
Max Maxfield, State Auditor presents State Flag to be flown at Kitty Hawk
Max Maxfield addresses the crowd.
Max Maxfield presents the official Wyoming State Flag to Tim as Mike and Roger look on.
[Special post cards commemorating this event were made available at the send-off. The folks, including many children, who attended the sending-off ceremony in Cheyenne last Friday self-addressed and gave them to me for mailing from Kitty-Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. True to tradition, I carried them in an authentic, old U.S. Mail leather satchel. You can view that satchel later in this narrative. Thanks to Amber and Shelly of Wyoming DOT's Aeronautics Division for taking great pains to track it down. Thanks also to the Cheyenne Post Office for lending it to me. -Tim]
North Platte, Nebraska
17:30 CDT: On the way, we stopped on the nearest original US Airmail route, North Platte, Nebraska. Here is a picture of one of the buildings at Lee Bird Field. We stopped there and got fuel for the airplane. We took on 67 gallons.
Here's pic with Mike Schulte, co-pilot in front of the FBO (Fixed-Base Operator) from whom we bought the fuel. They were rather perfunctory and gave us free cookies.
Here's Roger Williams, co-pilot, just after the airplane was refueled and just before we took off again. This was about five o’clock in the afternoon on the first day. It was real windy there.
19:30 CDT:We're on our way out of North Platte for Omaha and I'm in contact with Minneapolis Center on the radio. I tell them that our
destination is Red Oak, IA. They give me a squawk code of 1455 and follow us on radar.
The lady controller can't find Red Oak in her computer so I have to tell her where it is. I tell her it's 25 miles on the 104 degree radial
of the OVR (Omaha) VOR. No matter, it can't be that hard for us to find.
The air out here is really hazy and it's
getting difficult to fly visually. It's complicated
by the sun going down. This makes it hard to see where I'm going. Sometimes I would find myself in a left turn, sometimes a right turn,
sometimes a dive, and sometimes a climb. The airplane keeps going off course and it's hard to maintain altitude. This is no way to fly. As a
result, I'm forced to fly on instruments for the next hour and a half.
Once I switched to instruments, the airplane stayed in a straight line at a constant speed at a level altitude. Everything was fine and the flight
was nice and smooth. Mike and Roger
get busy looking at something very interesting and engrossing and looks like fun. For a while it looked like a game of poker was
going to break out. I can't take part in the conversation as I'm very busy flying the airplane.
Until now, I forgot about the cookies I stashed in one of the backpacks. Thanks to the Hubenthal Family, good
friends of mine, for making three dozen large chocolate-chocolate chip cookies for us. I announce the presence of goodies and
Roger immediately breaks open the ziplock bags and passes them out along
with bottles of water. Yum!
We approach Omaha airspace and Minneapolis Center hands me off to Omaha Approach. For some reason, the controller at Omaha Approach thinks
we're going to land at the Omaha airport. He calls us up when we zoom past the airport and asks to confirm that we're landing
at Omaha. I tell him that we plan to land at RDK (Red Oak) and that I don't know why he thinks we intend to land at Omaha. For the rest of the
trip, we find that the controllers in the eastern half of the US don't operate like they do back home. Strange.
We fly out of Omaha Airspace and begin our descent into Red Oak. By now, it's getting dark.
21:00 CDT: We flew past Omaha (another stop on the original US Airmail route) by
30 miles and stopped at Red Oak, Iowa, a town of about 5,000 people. We check the weather at the airport
as we arrive and the winds are blowing from the north east at 12 knots gusting to 18 (020@12G18). It has three runways. I pick out
runway 35 because it's the one mostly into the wind. It's now night. As we
were landing (on final), our landing light went out. I tried to get it working again,
checking fuses, switches, etc., but couldn't to get it to come on again. I had to land in pitch
dark. We made it down okay, though. It turned out that the landing light burned out.
Saturday, August 30, 2003:
Red Oak, Iowa:
09:00 CDT: This is a pic of the airport at Red Oak, IA. The little airport is called Belt Field. This pic is of the place the next morning. Tim is refueling the airplane. You can see him filling the right “tip” tank.
Another pic of Tim refueling the right “main” tank. If you look real close, you can see the fuel cap on the tip of the wing – that’s the right “tip” tank. The airplane has four tanks, two in each wing for a total for 84 gallons (504 pounds) of fuel. If you look closer, you can see a little wire cable attached to the exhaust of the engine next to the nose gear. This is used to “ground” the airplane so it’s safe to fuel it. The other end of the cable goes to the fuel pump. This is standard aircraft fueling procedure. Without it, a spark can occur and start a fire.
Here are the trip mascots, Orville and Wilbur.
09:30 CDT: Enroute between Red Oak, IA and Moline, IL (another stop on the U.S. Airmail route). That’s
Tim in the pilot’s seat. I'm in contact with Minneapolis Center again. They give us a squak code of 2664 and they follow us on radar.
As we fly along, Minneapolis Center hands us off to Des Moines Center who later hand us off to Chicago Center. As we approach Moline, Chicago
Center hands us off to Quad Cities Approach. They instruct us to land on runway 5.
12:30 EDT: This is final approach to runway 5 at Moline, IL (MLI). Orville and Wilbur make sure that everybody is
seated, belts fastened, seats are in the upright position, and tray tables stowed. Winds at the airport are from the east at 12 knots (080@12).
This place was the original building that housed a restaurant back in the 1920s at the Moline Airport. Original (1920s) pictures of this building appear elsewhere on this website. Here are the three pilots from left to right: Mike Schulte, Tim Hu, and Roger Williams.
Here is one of the original airport buildings at the Moline airport. Original 1920 pictures of this building
appear elsewhere on this website.
We have lunch with Mike's nephew. Mike's brother lives in Moline. After lunch, we take off for Dayton, Ohio. Winds this time have shifted a bit to the north (070@12) and ground control directs us to runway 5 again.
The tower gives us permission to take off so off we went. In the air, I contact Quad Cities Approach who later
hands us off to Chicago Center, who later hands us off to Indy Center. The clouds are getting low so we dive
underneath. We' stay at about 3000 feet for a long time until we get
closer to the airport. Indy Center hands us off to Grisom Approach, who hands us off to Dayton Approach. As we get closer to Dayton, our
destination, Wright Brothers Field (MGY), is to the right, south of Dayton. Approach directs us to the airport and I have to dive under more
clouds to stay in the clear. I tell Approach that I have sight of the airport. The controller
tells me "Good Day" and I tell him "So Long".
15:00 EDT: We land at Wright Brothers Field, Dayton, OH. This is a tiny GA (General Aviation) airport in the south
part of Dayton. This museum is on the airport.
Sign on the Men’s restroom at Wright Brothers Field.
Sign on the Women’s restroom at Wright Brothers Field.
These nice plaques and portraits were in the FBO (Fixed Based Operator) at Wright Brothers Field.
Award for Wilbur Wright.
Wilbur Wright
Orville Wright
Award for Orville Wright.
This sign is on a big hangar. These are the guys from whom we bought fuel.
We are more than halfway there.
We’re spending the night (Saturday, August 30) in Dayton, Ohio. We don’t know when we’ll make it to Kitty Hawk, N.C. The original plan was to be there Sunday night, but there’s a lot of thunderstorm activity between here and there. The FAA said that a lot of pilots can’t make it to the east coast because a giant stationary front is generating a lot of harsh weather that’s not safe fly through. The line of thunderstorms start in Texas and end up near New York. In the morning we’ll consider the situation and decide what the appropriate course of action should be.
We could fly a northern route through New York, Pennsylvania, and then down the coast.
We could wait out the weather (this could take a long time).
We could go back home and try again in a couple weeks.
We considered going through south through Mississippi, but FAA Flight Service said that was the absolute worst way to go. So, we’re going to see how the weather develops over the next couple of days, keeping in close touch with FAA Flight Service. The National Park Service folks (NPS) who are expecting us at the Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk said they’ll support whatever decision we make. Both the FAA and the NPS have been very helpful to us.
So, it looks like we'll have to stay in Dayton on Sunday night, too. More developments will appear here as they occur……
Sunday, August 31, 2003:
09:00 EDT: We are still in Dayton, OH. We were scheduled to fly out to Kitty Hawk today, but weather
has forced us to wait it out. We will continue to closely monitor weather conditions.
We take a taxi to the Dayton International Airport, 22.5 miles from our hotel. As we walk into the main lobby,
we look up and see a replica of the 1903 Wright Flyer and a big mural:
13:00 EDT: Today, we went to the United States Air Force Museum at the Wright-Patterson Airforce Base here in Dayton.
We also saw one of the IMAX shows there. The one that we saw today was called "Space Station", narrated
by Tom Cruise. Here's us waiting
for the show to start:
To see all the pics we took of the museum aircraft and artifacts,
click here!
We also visited the Wright Brothers' Bicycle Shop and their Printing Shop. To see those pics,
click here!
18:00 EDT: We are forced to stay in Dayton another night. It looks like the weather is starting to break towards the south into Tennessee.
We'll have to see how things develop in the morning before we decide if it's safe
to fly that route. Earlier, the FAA weather briefer told Tim that the southern route
was the worst route to take, but weather is a very wiley beast and hard to predict beyond
a day or two. So, the Wyoming First Flight crew is hopeful that the weather gets
better in the morning. We will monitor weather conditions between here and the east coast early in
the morning.
Monday, September 1, 2003:
08:44 EDT: We're still in Dayton and it's raining cats and dogs:
Our rental car is the white one towards the bottom with the wing on the trunk. The weather to the south isn't
getting much better, but is showing signs of lifting.
I called the folks at the NPS this morning and they said that a number of people failed to show up including a film
crew from London. At least we're not the only ones caught up in this weather.
09:45 EDT: NPS photographer calls and asks when we'll be coming. Tim replies that arrival of Wyoming First
Flight will be delayed one or two days. The photographer replies that we shouldn't rush it and to give
him a call when we arrive.
10:30 EDT: We went back to the Air Force Museum. We didn't get to see it all yesterday. It is so large that it will take
anyone two days to see it all. We watched a second IMAX show, "Straight Up", narrated by Martin Sheen. We took another ton of pics.
At least we won't be bored.
19:00 EDT: We checked the weather again, and it's still IFR conditions. However, it looks like it may break
up enough tomorrow night for us to make a run for Kentucky and then to the East Coast.
Tuesday, September 2, 2003:
09:00 EDT: Weather still dreadful. Not exactly flying weather:
Raining all day long and ceilings are about 300 feet. FAA
Weather briefer says visibility is zero all the way to 20,000 feet for all of
southern Ohio.
11:00 EDT: We went to the Air Force Museum again. Went to a third IMAX show, "Magic Of Flight",
narrated by Tom Selleck. I
don't think we'll ever tire of that museum. Took more pictures. Hope to post them here before too long. It's hard to post them
with a sloooow modem line, so I'll wait until I get a better connection before I post them.
17:00 EDT: We head over to the Waco Museum, but find that it's closed. It starts to pour....
22:00 EDT: Looks like weather may break tomorrow. We'll have to wait until then
to see if we can go.
00:45 EDT, Wednesday: 12-hour predictions say the weather will break over West Virginia.
We'll have to see in the morning if this holds true. If so, we'll make a run for it.
Wednesday, September 3, 2003:
10:00 EDT: One of the co-pilots, Roger Williams could not stay with us. He was concerned that
our trip will extend through the entire upcoming weekend and, as such, his schedule
dictated that he leave back for home. We dropped him off at the Dayton International
Airport for a commercial flight back to home. That leaves Mike and Tim to complete
the mission.
10:45 EDT: As soon as we dropped Roger off, the sun broke out - until then, we hadn't
seen the sun the entire time we had been in Dayton. We went back to the Air Force Museum (for the
fourth time). This time, we found a hangar that we didn't discover in the
previous three visits. It has items like the 707 Air Force One that presidents Kennedy through Reagan
flew in, the Mach 3 B-70
Valkyrie bomber, and the X-15. We also caught two more IMAX shows, "Living Sea" and "Cosmic Voyage".
That makes five IMAX shows in four days. We now have so many pictures and video
that it will be a big job getting them all on the website for everybody to see.
23:00 EDT: The skies went totally clear tonight and the stars come out. The forecast looks good for a flight tomorrow
morning - I'm guardedly optimistic that we'll make it to Kitty Hawk tomorrow.
Thursday, September 4, 2003:
08:00 EDT: Dayton is overcast this morning. Uh-oh.
11:30 EDT: We arrived at Wright Brothers Field, the small airport south of Dayton. We
checked the weather and talked to two different FAA Flight Briefers. We filed a flight plan to
Kitty Hawk, N.C.
12:00 EDT: The skies have almost totally cleared.
13:00 EDT: We took to the skies at exactly 1PM EDT and opened
our already-filed flight plan. Dayton Approach has us squawk 0120 and they follow us on radar. As we climb, we are handed off
to Cincinnati Approach who instruct me to cross their
airspace at 6,500 feet and squak 4035. I want to climb higher, but the controller implies that there are airliners
flying above making
flights into and out of Cincinnati and tells me to stay at 6,500 feet. I didn't see another airplane,
but I suppose they were out there......somewhere.
We fly above the clouds. We watch the clouds below shift, rise, and boil. All over, it's a pretty sight.
One in particular
starts from almost nothing, explodes, and lifts right in front of us at a tremendous rate.
The cloud is rising too fast; the aircraft cannot outclimb it. As this cloud unfolds to block our path, I
have to bank left and change heading by forty degrees eastward to avoid the strong updraft
it's creating. It gorgeous to see this phenomenon, but it's very dangerous to fly into one.
We stay in clear air and the flight remains surprisingly smooth.
We're still at 6,500 feet. True airspeed of the aircraft is 160 mph. Temperature outside is 6 degrees C (43 degrees F) and
the engine is burning fuel at a rate of 12.6 gallons per hour. About 50 miles south of Cincinnati, Approach tells us to squak 3473 and finally
lets us climb to 10,500 feet. Generally, the higher you go, the faster you fly and
the less fuel the engine burns, so I'm anxious to get up there. At about that time, we get handed off to Indianapolis
Center (I called them "Indy" Center). After a while, they handed us off to Atlanta Center. At about 70 miles north of Knoxville, TN,
we contacted FAA Flight Watch and got weather advisories for western
North Carolina. They said the weather was pretty bad there and were recommending no VFR
flights. It wasn't going to lift at all and we didn't want to fly through the thunderstorms,
so we decided to land in Knoxville. The weather there was sunny, calm, and beautiful.
15:00 EDT: We stayed at 10,500 feet until we were about 50 miles north of Knoxville and then descended
at 400 feet per minute. Later, Atlanta Center handed us off to Knoxville Approach. The winds at Knoxville Downtown Airport (DKX)
are calm. As we get near DKX, Approach gave permission for us to change frequencies to the CTAF (Common Traffic Advisory Frequency) at DKX.
At about 2,000 feet above the ground and slowing, as
we were making a left decending turn into the airport area, the
front baggage hatch popped wide open. This hatch sits between the pilots and the engine. There we
were, staring at the open baggage door (right in front of us) from the cockpit, wondering if
it was going to get ripped off by the 130-knot airstream. I immediately radioed on the CTAF frequency that we were
coming in for immediate landing because "a hatch popped open". It turned out to be a non-event. It just made a little thunk
as it popped open and I continued to fly the airplane like normal. I had images of all my stuff falling out
and raining on the neighborhood below us. As we touched down, the baggage compartment closed
itself. We
taxiied into the parking slot, shut the engine down and inspected the airplane. There was
no resulting damage to the airplane. I expected to look inside that hatch and find it completely empty.
Everything was there - nothing fell out! The ground crew asked us what the "hatch" call was all about.
We told them what had happened and we all got a chuckle out of it.
We're spending the night here and will continue to monitor the storms to the east in the hopes they'll move out in the
morning so we can make it the rest of the way to Kitty Hawk.
Friday, September 5, 2003:
08:50 EDT: We left the hotel in Knoxville, TN. We got to the airport, Knoxville
Downtown (DKX), about 20 minutes later. DKX was built on a little island. So, I now get to say
that I landed and took off from a small island, kinda like a carrier landing. Haha. I got a weather briefing from two different FAA
Flight Briefers and filed a flight plan direct from DKX to Kill Devil Hills - First Flight (FFA). I called
the NPS and Kitty Hawk and told them that we would be there in about three and a half hours.
10:10 EDT: We left in clear skies. The departure end of the runway 8 ends just before a river, so
it was interesting lifting off and then finding yourself over water. I guess that's the closest I'll get
to an aircraft carrier takeoff. Once in the air, we contacted Knoxville Departure Control. After that,
we immediately contacted Flight Service to open our flight plan. I told them that we had "wheels up"
at 1410 Zulu (10:10 EDT).
We left Knoxville headed due east, heading 092 degrees and flew
over the Appalachian mountains. They were partially obscured by clouds, but that didn't matter
because by the time we reached them, we were already at 9,500 feet. I love the Cherokee Six (PA-32-300) - it
has lots of power to get you up in the air in no time. At that altitude, things were glassy smooth.
Jets were flying overhead at 30,000 feet and higher and we could easily view all their contrails. We saw a set of
four contrails all in parallel like they were in a race, way above us.
At about that time, Knoxville Departure
Control handed us off to Charlotte Approach.
We flew over Charlotte's two airports (giant runways),
and then left the area (same heading) for Raleigh-Durham. Halfway between the two metro areas (east
of Charlotte and west of Raleigh-Durham),
Charlotte Departure Control handed us off to Raleigh Approach Control. This whole time, we stayed
at 9,500 feet. I took this opportunity to call up Flight Service (FSS) and give them a PiRep (Pilot
Report). This lets other pilots know how the air "is". This is what I gave in my pirep: Altitude and position:
9,500, 30 Nautical Miles east of Charlotte, Speed: 140 knots, Visibility: unlimited, Haze below, Cloud Tops:
5,000 to 6,000, Turbulence: smooth as glass. As we left the Raleigh area, we contacted Flight Service again and queried them
about the current and forecast weather at FFA (First Flight Airport, Kill Devil Hills). We got
good news regarding the weather enroute, but the weather at FFA was overcast at several layers.
It was a bit disconcerting, as we didn't want to stop short of our destination again.
We continued to fly on the same course, altitude, and speed. As we got about 50 miles east of Raleigh, I called up FSS again
and gave another PiRep. This PiRep was identical to the prior one: unlimited visiblity and the ride
was smooth as glass. I give PiReps to FSS once in a while as a courtesy to other pilots and to FSS. It
assists others in making flight plans. The weather services have absolutely no idea what the air conditions
are unless somebody flies through it and tells FSS about it. The FSS then tells other pilots who
plan to transit the area about my PiRep who then can make better 'go-no-go' decisions.
After a while, we lost contact with Raleigh Departure Control,
so we contacted Washington DC Center. We got them "five by five" and they continued to follow us
on radar.
As we approached FFA, we had to squeeze between two MOAs (Military Operation
Areas). We started to descend out of 9,500 to 3,500 feet. It turned out that the clouds were lower than that,
so I had to drop it even further, down to 2,100 feet, to avoid them. At that point, things started to get bumpy.
However, all I had to do is keep the airspeed and the shiny side up (at this point, the airplane's speed
was over 200 MPH). The air also starts to get a little warm. The air is cool at 9,500 feet, but warmer down near sea level.
Washington Center said that both MOAs were hot meaning to stay out of either one else risk
bumping into an F-16 or getting shot down. I kept one eye on the VORs,
another eye on the GPS, and another out the windscreen to make sure the airplane stayed right were it needed to be. The corridor between the two MOAs
was less than five miles wide; it was important to pay attention to the aircraft's exact location. I also asked Washington
Center for a vector through it. That made sure that we were on the correct path. I sure would hate
to see an F-16 intercept and make us land where we didn't want to go.
We made our way to the coast,
following the southern coast of the Albemarle Sound, which runs east-west between Virginia and North
Carolina. If you're not familiar with the Outer Banks
of North Carolina, it's a long skinny island chain about ten miles off the continent. I never relied
so much on the GPS as I did that time. Haze and low clouds made it a bit difficult to find the island chain
visually but the GPS made it easy. I know that some of my fellow pilots may call that cheating but, hey,
I just came halfway across the continent and got delayed four days in heavy rain, so I'm entitled. :)
I made my traffic calls on the FFA CTAF to alert other aircrft of my position and intentions.
Landing at FFA is a new experience for me because it's a short runway, it's surrounded by tall trees
and hills, and it's also surrounded by water. Did I mention it was real windy? That makes for all
kinds of turbulence on landing. As I approached the runway (runway 02), I didn't like the way the
airplane was buffeting in the crosswind. As the airplane got
halfway down the runway (still 10 feet in the air and wallowing back and forth in the strong wind),
I started to run out of runway. I slammed the throttle forward to put the
engine at one-hundred percent power (something I can do only at sea level in this airplane), pulled up the flaps, and went around for a second try.
At this altitude (sea level), the manifold pressure was showing 27 inches at 2500 RPM, meaning
that the engine was indeed producing one-hundred percent power. This is not something I'm used to seeing,
coming from Cheyenne at 6,200 feet altitude. The airplane responded nicely by climbing like a rocket. I went around, set it up properly
on final, and this time planted the gear firmly on the asphalt. Turns out that landing
at sea level on a 3,000 foot runway is nothing like landing at Cheyenne's 9,700 foot runways. The air is so "thick" down at
sea level that the wings produce all kinds of lift (and drag) and the flaps are real effective at slowing
down the aircraft. I barely had to use the brakes even though we flew over half the runway.
13:30 EDT: As soon as the main gear touched the pavement, I shouted to Mike, "WE'RE HERE!!!!!".
I think he's deaf now. I stopped the plane at the end of the runway, spun it around, and back-taxiied
to the parking area, which was at the approach end of Runway 2. We kept shouting that to each other
about 10 times as we back-taxiied and over
the next several hours. There were no other airplanes parked
in the tie-down area, so I picked the parking slot closest to the AOPA Pilot Center and shut her down.
With all the delays that we had encountered, we both had doubts that we would ever make it.
Bill Corcoran of the National Park Service (NPS), with whom I had been in touch with over the
prior week, walked over to greet us. He had heard us fly overhead and as I made my traffic calls
on the radio. I then called FAA Flight Service
and closed our flight plan, letting them know that we arrived safely. The FAA Flight Briefer
couldn't believe that we had actually made it and I had a good laugh with him over the phone.
The folks at the FAA who deal directly with the pilots are great people and are fun to deal with.
We then proceeded
with the flag ceremonies. We raised Wyoming's great flag over the park. It was really great to see it
fly up there with the American flag way over on the East Coast at the
same place where the Wright Brothers risked all to make the first flight. This is what we came
here for, this is what it's all about. To see it fly up there with the Stars and Stripes made
me proud of our state and country. Right then, I realized what we've just accomplished. At that point, Mike and
I mentioned to each other that each could scarcely believe that we actually did it. Despite all the
delays, disappointments, and the terrible weather, we finally completed the mission. The NPS took pictures of
us presenting the flag to the NPS and the photojournalist, Anthony Miliusis, made note of things and took a lot of pictures.
Here's me presenting the Wyoming flag to Bill Corcoran of the National Park Service. Can you tell I'm happy?
Finally, we raise the flag and she flies proud!!! This is what we came here for. Also, we present the Governor's Proclamation to the National Park Service. Both the flag and the Proclamation are on permanent display at the Park.
We spent the rest of the day at the Wright Brothers' Monument, museums, and store.
Click here to see some of the photos
that we took of the Memorial grounds.
Towards the end of the day, we called Joanna, who owns the White Egret Bed And Breakfast, to
pick us up. It didn't take her long to arrive as it was only a fourth of a mile away. Walking distance,
actually, but we had a lot of stuff and didn't want to carry it all through the woods. We relaxed for
a bit and then ate supper next door at the Collington Cafe.
18:45 EDT: We headed out to the beach in the east coast of the Outer Banks. We caught the sunset,
stood on the beach, feet in the water, strolling along getting our shorts all wet. it was a clear
night, the Moon and Mars shining prominently in the southeastern sky. Mike produced a couple cigars and we celebrated the successful
completion of a long, adventurous mission.
Despite all the delays and disappointment, I'd do it all
over again in a heartbeat. Sorry to wax rhapsodic here, but this is what I think of many of the times
when I fly:
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.
- John Gillespie Magee, Jr.
[Mr. Magee was killed in his Spitfire in the line of duty over England a short time after he wrote this poem in 1941 at the age of 19 and hopefully did indeed touch the face of God. Rest In Peace.]
23:19 EDT: We're sitting on the balcony of my room overlooking Kitty Hawk Bay drinking
beer....
We plan to leave for the return trip tomorrow morning. See ya all back home.
Saturday, September 6, 2003:
03:00 EDT: I just finished updating the web site and getting the postcards ready to mail from
Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills. I dread having to get up at 7AM for breakfast. I want to sleep..... I haven't gotten hardly any this whole mission.
07:00 EDT: We spent the night at the White Egret Bed and Breakfast. Mike comes over to my room
and wakes me up. I was dreaming about something fun, but forgot what it was. Thanks, Mike.
We have a nice Sausage and Egg and Various Breads Breakfast. Yummmm....
08:00 EDT: We head over to the beach one more time to see what it looks like in the morning. The Outer Banks
sure is a nice place.
08:45 EDT: We head over to Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills again.
09:00 EDT: We find that both the Kitty Hawk and Kill Devil Hills Post Offices don't open until
10 AM on Saturdays. Bummer. We want to get going home....
10:15 EDT: We arrive at the Post Office in Kitty Hawk. I have a ton of post cards that people
sent with me from Wyoming. I carried them all the way from Wyoming in a very old authentic leather U.S. Mail
Bag. The Main Cheyenne Post Office was kind enough to lend it to me after Amber and Shelly from DOT's Aeronautics Division took great
pains to track one down.
The post office clerk gives me a hand-stamper and allows me to hand-cancel all of them.
10:30 EDT: We arrive at the Post Office in Kill Devil Hills. This time, I have two tons of post cards to
send out. Carried them in the same bag.
The post office clerk there also gives me a hand-stamper and allows me to hand-cancel all of them, too:
If you're one of the many people who gave me a postcard to send back, you'll be getting them soon.
The Mission has been completed and we turn around to fly home. Will weather
delay us again on our way back?
11:30 EDT: I mention to Mike that, "we flew for Wyoming, now we are going fly for ourselves".
(This is similar to what the WWII American bomber pilots used to say after they dropped their
bombs over Germany. I know it's stupid, but I said it anyways). We arrive back at FFA to check the weather at the AOPA Pilot Center. Unfortunately, the
computers aren't turned on and we can't turn them on because they're locked up. We make a couple of
phone calls over the the NPS, but nobody knows how to deal with this. We decide to get airborne and ask
FSS over the radio.
We leave Kitty Hawk for home. I flew all the way out here from Cheyenne, so Mike takes the left seat this time. The engine purrs, making full power rolling down runway 2 as we depart on our way home.
12:00 EDT: We decide to hop over to another island for gas. The strip at the Wright Brothers'
Memorial and Museum has none. We fly over to MQI, Dare County Airport. They have a self-serve pump. We pay
$2.57 per gallon. Not bad for avgas, especially on the East Coast. Just as we pulled up to the pump,
two other airplanes show up behind us. We got to meet the pilots and passengers. One airplane has a bloke from the U.K. He
came to the states to fly as it's real expensive to fly over there. AvGas costs $5 per gallon over there (90% of it is
taxes). The other airplane was full of girls who were out for a joyride. I walk over to the girls and
chat with them. I offered to take pictures of them with their airplane using their camera. We take on 300 pounds of fuel
(50 gallons).
We don't know if we'll be weather-delayed again going home, but we're gonna make a run for it.....
15:00 EDT: We land at Lexington, Kentucky. This airport has a runway that dips in the middle.
It's real weird. We grab 360 pounds of fuel (60 gallons). I figure we can reach Beatrice, NE with about one to one-and-a-half
hours of fuel to spare. We continue on....
21:42 CDT: We approach Beatrice, NE with the intention of fueling up and maybe spending the
night. As we approach the airport, ASOS informs us that the runway lights are out for runway 17-35.
OK, no problem. We approach runway the other runway, 13-31, and find that the runway lights are out there, too. I
pull the charts out and frantically try find another nearby suitable airport. The gauges indicate that we are awfully
low on fuel. Seward is not far, but Lincoln is somewhat closer. I suggest Lincoln, NE and Mike agrees. He guns the
engine and we head over there without delay. We land on runway 17L at Lincoln and ask the FBO to fill all four tanks. We only have
to get to Cheyenne, but I feel better telling them to fill 'er up. We walk over to the FBO building
and get a weather briefing enroute to CYS (Cheyenne) and at the CYS airport. The weather briefer says that there are some thunderstorms around and north of Cheyenne, but that
things are improving. By the time we get there, it should be clear and calm. We don't want to spend the
night as we're kinda anxious to get home, so we decide to press on since the weather is forecast to be
fine by the time we arrive. We walk out to the front desk and the girl said they filled it with 68
gallons of fuel. That means we had 16 gallons remaining or about 1.5 hours worth. My calculations
were correct. We really didn't have anything to worry about.
21:35 CDT We get in the airplane with me in the left seat for the final leg home. We are familiar with the area, so we don't bother to
to plan a specific course. We're just going to fly IFR ("I Follow Road"). We'll
just follow I-80 all the way to Cheyenne. I call up Lincoln Clearance Delivery, tell them that I want to fly
at 8,500 feet to CYS, and that we'll fly VFR (Visual Flight Rules). They tell me a squak code and tell
me to, upon takeoff, to turn right to heading 210 and stay at or below 4,000 feet. We taxi out to the runway, do the normal run-up
checks and get permission to take off on runway 17L. We head out. Almost as soon as the wheels come up,
the tower tells me to turn right onto course and head straight for 8,500 feet. I do that and zoom up
to the assigned altitude. We start encountering headwinds.
We head straight for Cheyenne, sometimes
flying over I-80 and sometimes not. We have GPS, so we really don't need landmarks to guide our way.
Our groundspeed is 128 knots, but the airplane's other instruments say we're flying at 138 knots. So,
we have a 10-knot headwind. We fly over Grand Island, at which point, I call my Dad and tell him where I am and that I'll be home soon.
Now he can quit worrying so I can quit worrying that he is worrying. I also call my brother in Phoenix and tell him I'm almost home. He
gets a big kick out of it. We fly
by the towns that border I-80 like Kearney, Lexington, Kimball, and Sidney. We turn on the runway lights
as we fly by each town's airport to make sure we've got the correct waypoint. We encounter some limited
visibility conditions halfway across the state, so I fly instruments for about and hour and a half. It
was a bit bumpy and I was tired, but it was fun. It's good to have Mike along. We'll remember this forever. We joke and laugh all the way across Nebraska
and we keep asking ourselves, "are we there yet?".
23:20 MDT: As soon as we reach Pine Bluffs, Wyoming, Cheyenne's city lights came into
view on the horizon. That means we have only about 20 minutes until landing at home. At 20 miles
out, I turn on the airport runway lights and runway 26 lights up like a Christmas tree with its red, white, and green lights. Click on the little pic below for a larger version. It's a bit blurry, but you can see the runway lights in the middle..
23:40 MDT: It's late night and the tower is closed. After 10 PM, the airport converts from a
controlled airport to an "uncontrolled" airport. In aviation parlance, it turns into a "Class E" airport at night.
In the absence of a manned tower, we make our radio calls like this, "Cheyenne Traffic,
this is Wyoming First Flight November Four
Zero One One Whiskey, one zero miles due east of the field. We will be coming in on long final for
runway two-six for full stop. Cheyenne Traffic". As we get closer, we keep making the radio calls
just in case there's another airplane in the area. We make a normal night landing, roll out, and taxi to
an airplane parking slot.
23:45 MDT: We shut her down and it takes us 20 minutes to clean it out. We have been
away for so long that it looks like we've been living in the airplane for the whole week. After cleaning
up the aircraft, Mike and I shake hands and congratulate each other on an adventurous but successful
mission. We'll never forget this. Many things happened that's not in this narrative and I hope to get it written here before too long. Before we leave, we tie it down. I'm happy it took us only half a day to get back home.
01:00 MDT, Sunday, September 7, 2003: I finally climb into bed. I haven't had more than five
hours of sleep a night on this entire trip.
To deliver the Wyoming State Flag and the Governor's
Proclamation officially and properly presented to the Aviation Mecca, it took eight days,
flying thirty-two hundred miles halfway across the continent and back, through nine cities, over ten states,
landing on a little island in the Atlantic Ocean, burning three
hundred fifty gallons of aviation gasoline, and two quarts of aircraft engine oil.
To some people, this may sound like a long and arduous trip, but I would do it again in a heartbeat, no questions asked.
People tell me that I'm now a part of history.
I don't know about that. I ain't a Wiley Post or a Will Rogers.
But if it's true, that would be absolutely cool.
I fall immediately asleep. Thank God! Whew!
I am proud to be Wyoming's "50 Flags to Kitty Hawk" pilot. I am honored. This is for the great folks of Wyoming whom I represent.
Many many many heartfelt thanks to the EAA, Ford Motor Company, and the National Park Service
for making the nationwide celebration of the one-hundredth anniversary of powered flight possible.
Also, thanks to Patricia Heyer, my EAA Coordinator.
Acknowledgements:
Thanks to the Aeronautical Division of the Wyoming DOT for their wonderful assistance. Special thanks
go to Shelly Reams, Amber Jonker, Dave Kingham, Michele Whipple, and the entire Board of Commissioners.
Also, many many many thanks to Mike Schulte for being my co-pilot and making it out and back with me
the whole way. He got things started for us at the DOT. Many thanks also to Roger Williams
for coming along and assisting with the flight engineering. I'm sorry you couldn't complete the
trip with us. Thanks also to all the folks and kids and members of the media who were there at the sendoff.
Special mention goes to John Taylor. He was a fellow pilot and a good friend of Mike's who bade us
farewell at our sendoff. He passed away in Cheyenne while we were on our way to Kitty Hawk. R.I.P.
I'm continually updating this site with the materials gathered
along the way during the mission. Check back often! I'll have more pictures and narrative. It's a big job and it's
going to take a while. Sorry about not uploading more
pictures than I did during the trip - the laptop I took with me on the mission had lots of problems.
At least I got to provide near-real-time updates of my progress and uploaded some of the pics during the trip. I hope this narrative and the materials on this website spark a sense of wonder in you, especially the children. Maybe you'll take up flying, too. If you're curious about it, head over to EAA's website or to AOPA's website. (Kids, click here!). -Tim
If you have questions or comments about the mission or this site, you can E-Mail us here.
You can write us at:
Wyoming First Flight
c/o Tim Hu
P.O. Box 1437
Cheyenne, Wyoming 82003
