|
|
|
|
November
11, 2000 Veteran's Day -- Full Moon FlightBy Georgia Trehey PrefaceI
like to send my narrations to the Coupe e-mail list in chronological order but
I'm especially thrilled about Saturday night.
I have to get it written down now. BTW, Thanks for letting me write to
you about my flying lessons and other flying experiences. There is so much that
I want to express and unfortunately, there are not many people around here that
are at all interested. Thank
goodness for my few local pilot buddies but I don't get to talk to them very
often. Not often enough! IntroductionA
few of you know this already. My relationship to flying is somewhat unique, in
that, even though I've had only a few lessons, I have been in the left seat more
times than I had previously been in an aircraft, period.
Prior to my jaunt in the Coast Guard helicopter last year, I had only 4
count 'em, 4, flights as an airline passenger. It's not that I avoided traveling
by air. I'm not sure what it was. What traveling I did was by car, bus, or rail.
In light of that, I think it's surprising that flying snagged me so quickly and
totally considering how little previous exposure I had to being in the air.
Maybe all those years of reading about, admiring, and fantasizing about flying
in WWII planes had more of an effect on me than I realized. As
much as I dreamed about prop planes, the notion of learning to fly never entered
my mind. It wasn't in my reality.
It was as foreign an idea as becoming an astronaut.
Even after my stunning realization on my Coast Guard ride, "Georgia,
this is fantastic. You LOVE being
in the air. Now why is it that
you're never up here?" My plan was to be a frequent passenger. It was a few
months after the CG flight before the possibility of taking flying lessons
entered my consciousness. My "intro”-flying flying lesson was the very
first time I ventured forth in an airplane with a propeller! And during that intro lesson, when my CFI told me to turn the
key to "start" and the prop started turning and then the engine
started too, now that I think about it, I was hooked at that moment.
Full Moon FlightFall
is my favorite time of year. I
could write an entire essay on Fall in Humboldt County, CA.
But suffice it to say that Humboldt's autumns are beautiful and
invigorating. Now that I have
discovered flying and have learned that some of coastal Humboldt County's best
flying days and nights occur in the Fall, I have another reason to love Fall. This
is one time when I wish I had my Mom's ability to write poetry. Only poetry
could truly capture Saturday night's flight.
For
months now, I have wanted to take a ride on a full moon night. I have been
asking people to describe to me what it's like.
Apparently I finally asked the right person and got an invite, sort of.
I kinda invited myself. Jim,
my flying club's A&P, told me how he enjoys flying on a full moon night.
"If you're going and you don't mind, I'd like to go with you." He said
OK. That was a couple of weeks ago. Ever
since, I have had my fingers crossed for good weather. Saturday
morning it was cold and clear and very promising for a night flight.
Oh, goodie! There was a flying club meeting in the afternoon. My buddy,
MaryBeth, who I went through ground school with, has the same CFI as I, and who
also is a member of the flying club, attended the membership meeting.
After the meeting, I was asking Jim if he was still planning on flying.
MaryBeth got interested in our conversation and soon thereafter Jim
invited her too. "Be here at
9PM, you two. I'm leaving if you're
not here on time." I was there at 8. But let me back up a bit. After
the flying club meeting, I took the bus to school to get some work done.
It was difficult for me to think of anything else but the upcoming
flight. Finally it was time to take
the bus home, eat, and get the car. My bus ride home was fun although the other
passengers must have thought I was strange, looking at the sky and grinning.
It was getting dark, the sky was cloudless, and the moon was starting to
rise over the mountains. I knew that it would be a spectacular flight.
I anticipated this flight as much as I anticipated my first trip to
Disneyland when I was a little girl. Maybe
more. I
fixed something for dinner. I don't remember what.
My mind was on getting to Murray Field on time.
Also, the temperature was dropping so I wanted to find one of my heavy
wool sweaters and my gloves. My
CFI, Andres, tells me that 5656E or just "ECHO" as we call her, has a
great heater, but I wanted to be prepared. I
loaded the car with my flying stuff, cold weather stuff, and a thermos of
coffee; popped a Blues tape into the car tape player, and headed out to Murray
Field. As I said, I got there
early, 8PM. Murray Field is a small
airport and there isn't a whole lot of activity there any time.
At night, it's usually deserted. As
far as I could tell, there wasn't anyone around anywhere.
I punched the code into the keypad, which opens the gate to the back
portion of the airport. I drove
slowly to the flying club building. No, no one around, anywhere. As I stepped out of the car, I couldn't help notice how cold it was. I think it was colder at Murray than at my house a few miles away. I know that for you folks in many parts of the US, lower 30s is not all that cold. But to us on the west coast, it feels pretty chilly. I didn't know if it would be warmer to stay in the car or go into the flying club. I decided to go into the club. I thought that perhaps I could study my aviation textbooks It
was so quiet. The only thing I
could hear was the odd scraping sound of the rotating beacon and the occasional
cry of a shorebird. It was warm in
the club. Thank goodness. I couldn't concentrate on the book. I could see that bright
moon through the window and all I could think of was getting in the air.
Jim
arrived at about 8:45. He sat down at the large conference table and began to pull
things out of his backpack and pockets. Three
flashlights and they all worked. The
guy believes in being prepared. I
tried to not act too excited, but it was hard.
Jim asked if MaryBeth was coming and I assured him that she would be
there. A few minutes later she
arrived. We
gathered up what we needed, locked the door, and headed for the plane. As we
passed MaryBeth's car, Jim said to her, "You had better find and put on all
the clothes you have." She
really didn't look like she was dressed warmly enough.
So while MaryBeth rummaged through her car, Jim and I continued to walk
towards "ECHO". MaryBeth
caught up with us shortly. Now
you would think that with one "real" pilot and two student pilots,
preflight should get done very quickly. Actually
it didn't take us long but it would have gone faster if our hands weren't so
cold. We were so happy to get inside and get those doors closed and locked.
MaryBeth picked the back seat. "Are
you sure?", I asked her. "Yes
I just want to take it easy and not even look at the instruments. I've never
been in the back seat." I
wanted to get going so badly I couldn't stand it.
Jim does more during the runup than is on the checklist.
It's understandable. He's a
mechanic, after all, and he just recently finished breaking in the new engine.
Finally, finally we were ready to depart.
Murray Field is an uncontrolled airport, in case you hadn't guessed that,
so Jim announced his intentions to whoever might be around. Then Jim asked
MaryBeth and I, "Ready?" "Yes,
YES!!!" As
we took off and started to climb, MaryBeth turned around and gazed out the back
window with fascination at the airport lights.
They are pretty but I was more interested in seeing the moon's reflection
in Humboldt Bay. It was low tide. The moonlight was so bright that I could see the channels in
the exposed bay mud. As to the full moon's reflection in the water as seen from
the air, here's where I could use the poetry ability if I had any. Both
tanks were only half full so we needed to go get more fuel. It is not available
at Murray after the FBO closes for the day.
Fortunately, it is available at nearby airports. Jim decided to go to
Rohnerville (where the T-6 lives). He turned left and followed the coastline to
the Eel River delta. The surf was clearly visible.
The breaking waves were a frothy, pale, almost iridescent blue.
I could see lights from the fishing boats out at sea. There were more of them out there than I would have thought.
"Jim,
if we can see their lights, they must be able to see us too."
"Of course they can see us."
"I wonder if they look up at the sky and think about us, as I look
at their lights and think about them?"
"Could be, if they happen to be on the deck and are looking
up." That night I felt a
kinship with the fishing crews. We shared the moon, the stars, and a cold,
exquisite night. When
we reached the Eel River delta, Jim turned to follow the river directly to the
Rohnerville Airport. Rohnerville is next to the river, but separated from it by
a 300' cliff. The end of the runway is near the edge of the cliff.
There always seems to be a bump there, no matter how smooth the air is
everywhere else. I'm sure it has to
do with the river being right there. I
asked Jim if it was harder to land here. He
said it wasn't but it was good to be aware of the conditions so that one doesn't
get surprise and rattled a moment before s/he lands. Jim
taxied over to the cardlock fuel island and then shut everything off. MaryBeth
and I asked him if he needed help. "Yes, it should go faster if we all work
on this." I opened my door.
Wow! I had forgotten how
cold it was. ECHO's heater does
work very well. If anyone had been
watching us, they would have gotten some laughs.
None of us had used that cardlock pump before.
It's supposed to be easy: swipe the credit card, read the
"simple" instructions on the screen, and pump the gas.
Well
first of all our hands were so cold that we had trouble moving them.
The light on the instruction screen wasn't working.
It's a good thing Jim likes to carry so many flashlights. MaryBeth aimed the flashlight at the screen, Jim "Three
pilots found frozen to death at Rohnerville fuel pump, news at 11."
That did it. We all got to
giggling which made it even more difficult to get anything done.
At least someone was considerate enough to leave a ladder by the pumps.
So Jim climbed the ladder, MaryBeth handed him the hose and then kept
track of it, and I dealt with the pump. We
finally did get those tanks filled up. After
I shut the pump off, as a last insult, the pump was out of paper so that we
didn't get a receipt for our purchase. After
we pushed ECHO back so we could taxi, we about fell over each other trying to
get back inside, or at least MaryBeth and I did. MB and I are serious and intent
when we're on a lesson flight, but since we were passengers, we were a bit
silly. After
we took off from Rohnerville, Jim's plan was to go up high enough to enter the
ILS approach to Arcata Airport. I'm
not sure if he was doing this to practice it himself or for our benefit. Either
way, MaryBeth and I learned a lot. In
our area, we have to call Oakland or Seattle Center. Sometimes you can get one
or the other or both. My friend
Eric says that sometimes you can't get either one, especially on the ground.
Jim reached Seattle. All
this is new to me. Yes, we learned
a little about it in ground school, but to actually see how it works is another
matter. Jim
told me to let him know when we were exactly 13.6 miles from the Fortuna VOR.
I didn't know what was going on for sure but I can follow instructions.
He told me to think of a funnel and that we needed to stay within its
proscribed limits. He said that as
we got closer and closer to the airport, he had to be increasingly more precise.
When we got very close to Arcata, he explained about the decision height.
On the taxiway, Jim called Seattle.
They were polite and didn't carp at him so I guess he did a good job.
Looked and felt like it to me, but then what do I know? Not much yet.
Leaving
Arcata, MaryBeth was again looking out the back window at the airport lights.
Arcata has the most elaborate lighting of all our local airports and it
is beautiful. Oh, when we were
south approaching Rohnerville, I pointed out to her the "rabbit" at
the Arcata airport. You can see
that far away. Impressive. Jim's
next plan was to go up in altitude as much as he could to see what we could see
to the east. Our hope was to be
able to see Mt. Shasta and some of the other high mountains.
For lessons, we rarely go much above 3000' so this would be another new
experience. Jim didn't want to
cover much ground, he just wanted to go up, so he did that with gentle upward
spirals. Neat.
Every time we went around the circle, we were higher and could see more.
Our
final altitude was 9000', a three times higher vantage point than I'm accustomed
to looking at the north coast from. There
was haze to the east, so we couldn't see Shasta that well. By using out
peripheral vision we could see it slightly better.
I wasn't disappointed. I was
so completely enchanted with what I was able to see. I like being up that high.
Awesome, just awesome. Jim
thought that going any higher wouldn't improve the visibility.
Besides, the oil temperature was towards the bottom of the range.
I would not have liked to be outside of the plane at 9000'.
It was 30-32 F at sea level so I can imagine ... Brrrr. Jim
told us that he was going to introduce us to a new experience.
I was thinking, "What's he going to do?
He's not going to pull spins on us, is he?
Naw, I don't think he'd do that. Besides,
didn't I read in the 172 manual that you're not supposed to do that with someone
in the back seat? Oh well, if he's determined to do that, I'm ready."
I think spins are the first thing I think of because I'm both terrified
and fascinated by them. So now I have convinced myself that I must have Andres
demonstrate spins at least once while I'm his student. Anyway,
Jim wasn't referring to spins. He
showed us how to descend rapidly, at a steep angle without going forward much at
all. Let me see if I remember this
correctly: full flaps (40 degrees in ECHO), maximum nose down trim, 1900RPM.
We were descending at 1000FPM. I
was delighted that my body handled that fine except for a little ear popping.
But poor MaryBeth. She was uncomfortable and had ear pain all the next day.
I told her that she should have said something to Jim.
He certainly didn't want her to be miserable on our fun ride. Honestly,
I didn't want to go back to Murray. I
didn't want to go back to the ground. I
would have been so happy to stay up until the fuel was almost gone and we had to
land. But I think Jim might have
been getting tired and MaryBeth had to be getting home.
By the time we landed, got ECHO tied down, etc, it was midnight.
We were in the air 2.1 hours. Jim
said, "Let's do this again soon."
I'm ready! There was ice on the windshield of my car.
As I drove home, images of all I had seen drifted through my mind.
All night I dreamed of night flying over the north coast. Final Comments
We
had the sky completely to ourselves. We
saw no other aircraft except the CG helo over the ocean. I can't imagine why no
one else was flying on such a choice night.
If I had my own plane I would have been up there without a doubt. I
have a colorful and active imagination but this full moon flight far exceeded
what I thought it would be like. It
was the one of the most beautiful, magical, awe inspiring, extraordinary sights
I have ever seen in my life. It was all my favorite night sky images from
movies, photos, paintings, books and more.
I was dazzled, mesmerized, humbled, and very grateful.
Once
I looked up through the skylight over my head.
The full moon and a few bright stars were perfectly framed.
It was stunning. I felt incredibly happy. I looked down at the lights in
the houses far below. I
thought of the people warm in their houses having a pleasant Saturday evening
next to their wood stoves and fireplaces. A
pleasant thought but I wouldn't trade places with them for anything.
I was exactly where I wanted to be and doing exactly what I wanted to do.
The
experience was profoundly moving and I'll never be the quite the same.
Spook |
|
|
