Disaster, Departed Kaltag climbed up to do what was around a 33 mile trip and went promptly to sleep taking a nap. Woke up in dead silence on the ground in a clearing with the front tank dry. I love stable aircraft!
Had the GPS only did not want to make a late evening take off and chance arriving Eagle Island in the dark. Threw the hood over the engine cowling, dumped about a half a gallon of gasoline into the oil and turned it through a few times to mix it up. Lit the smudgpot under the hood to keep the chill out so it would pull through in the morning. Took the liferaft out and inverted it for a ground cover under the tent, Open a can of pork and beans and unscrewed the cap off of one of the bottles of Cognac for whats-her-name and washed the beans down along with half a bottle of cognac drifted off to sleep in my -35F degree sleeping bag.
Woke up once during the night to drain the tank, refilled the smudge pot and with a little of the "Hair of the dog that bit me," only a couple of glub, glubs, had no trouble going back to sleep. Woke up, just about day break, to the sound of the wind flapping the tent back and forth, strong I might add. Let the co2 out of the life raft and stowed everything killed the smudge pot and removed the hood then pulled and stowed them. Drained all the sumps and switched tanks and opened the drain on the bottom of the carb, to get the air out and good flow of fuel, sprayed good liberal shot of either starting fluid up the air intake, pulled nine blades through crawled in and Miss Beaver fired off right away. I was afraid the battery may be a little flat. Can't prop a P&W Junior and I didn't know how long I had been on the ground before waking up the evening before. I hope everyone is carrying survival gear and filing VFR plans, I didn't and there is no telling how long it would be before some started looking for me!
Hopped back up to Eagle Island, 93 miles, unloaded 10 bales of straw and three bottles of Cognac, coffee flavoring I'm sure, drank too many cups of coffee, unflavored, put on the sunglasses and left.
I don't believe the engine ever sounded so loud before, may have timing problem developing? Turned to 200 degrees then dialed up Unalakleet on the GPS, 233 miles (???), it ain't that far to Anchorage. Started rummaging through the old flight bag and Unalakleet isn't on either the Nome of Mcgrath charts, no Bethel chart in the bag, Unalakleet is the only place I ever fly to on that chart. Can't get good coordinates for PAUN so plan "B." Turned to 240 (270-30 for the magnetic deviation) and flew over to the coast and down to Unalakleet. My bladder was near busting by then and here I am flying around in circles. I hate pissin in the floor boards, doesn't do anything for the aroma in here, oh well cant hold it for ever. One of these days I am going to drill some holes and install a home made pilot relief tube, a big one.
Winds are up, 070 @ 24 and clear as a bell, not a cloud in sight anywhere. People having to land the long runway are going to have strong cross winds. I tried to land 25 only the winds were so strong I was out over the bay before getting the wheels on the ground, did a teardrop return and made a helicopter approach. I spotted it out back by the Christmas tree and drove stakes to tie it down, tail wheel too. Don't forget the gust locks people! Now I need some rest, my head is throbbing, bye bye!
Total Time: 01:02
07/02/07 1425z GMT-6 (Sim 07/02/06 0219z GMT-9) Flight Straw-11
DHC2 Beaver Tradewind Alaska N202TA
KAL <2356z - 0021z>~EglI 00:25
~EgkI<0142z - 0219z>PAUN 00:37
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment