It has most definitely been awhile since I updated you on my travels with Wablosa. I hope you don't hold it against me, after blogging so often for five years, its been a refreshing break. With my apologies aside, lets get to that aforementioned update.
Wablosa now has approximately 140 hrs on the HOBBS and it has been a whole lot of fun flying her. Outside of some nagging side projects I need to conquer this winter while its slow, she has been flying well. Being this is her first winter, it sure is a nice perk to fly with some cold air...she jumps off the ground this time of year. We have such high density altitude issues here in the summer, that cooling the air off has a pretty dramatic effect.
Wablosa now has approximately 140 hrs on the HOBBS and it has been a whole lot of fun flying her. Outside of some nagging side projects I need to conquer this winter while its slow, she has been flying well. Being this is her first winter, it sure is a nice perk to fly with some cold air...she jumps off the ground this time of year. We have such high density altitude issues here in the summer, that cooling the air off has a pretty dramatic effect.
Rewind back to Thanksgiving. Sheryl and I decided to load up the plane and make the flight down to visit my parents in New Braunfels (KBAZ) once again. I thought...why not? We have an airplane that can get down there in no time, may as well put it to good use.
We departed Denver about 2pm, and with the sunsetting at around 5pm, I knew we were in store for some night flying. Not our first nocturnal activity, but its still a rather new experience for me. As we crossed into northern Texas at FL 095, the sunset was gorgeous as Sheryl got caught up on her reading before darkness settled in. I nudged her and pointed to the sunset...we both smiled. I thought to myself, life sure doesn't suck, as the engine smoothly purred along! We made a mostly uneventful night landing in New Braunfels...because of airport construction and closed taxiways, I got a little turned around while taxiing to the terminal.
We had a great time with the family...ate some good food, visited Gruene and the River Walk. As part of this trip, I had decided to try and find an extra passenger for our trip home. I love animals and have supported Pilots N Paws for a couple years now. I always wanted to do a transport with my plane. I found a great candidate...Janna, an older Cocker Spaniel that had been abandoned by her owners as being too old I guess? Sad...but volunteer Arati came to her rescue in San Antonio and posted on the pilots N paws forum for a ride from San Antonio to Colorado Springs. It was perfect for us so I volunteered to give the old girl a ride...in style.
I put the bottom half of a crate in the back, since she was so docile, I didn't do the top half. It worked out mostly well, she got restless a couple times, but it was manageable.
Arati drove up from San Antonio to meet us at the New Braunfels airport. That really helped with logistics. She wanted to get a picture with the plane...I was honored to oblige.
The family looks on as we get Janna situated in the back. We also had Sheryl's chihuahua Shadow with us...so two dogs, two humans on the this flight manifest.
I spent some time making friends with Janna, she was a sweet dog as most Cockers are. I knew we would have no problem with her en route.
Last minute goodbyes...before departing for her new home
You can see the weather was a little sketchy...that played a part later in the trip as I closely monitored it as we flew. We ended up getting snowed and fogged in once we got to Colorado Springs. We crashed overnighted with our good friend Sean Blair and were able to get into Denver the next day. That story would take an entire blog post...but many thanks to Sean for putting us up!
As mentioned...Janna did pretty good. She had some motion sickness a half hour into the flight as we flew through some chop near Llano, TX. And then about a half hour from Colorado Springs...she had an untimely bowel movement in her crate. Let me tell ya, when a dog goes #2 in a small cockpit like an RV7...it is powerfully strong and there is nowhere to run! I think my eyes started watering...as I said to myself, its just odor, its not going to kill you...although I wasn't entirely convinced of that! I repeated the mantra in my head, "just fly the plane...just fly the plane..."We survived...but short final was an exercise in extreme concentration to be sure.
Linda from the Rocky Mountain Cocker Spaniel rescue arrived shortly after we landed and we handed Janna off to her. They were going to do surgery to fix her eyes and then find her a home. Its pretty neat that there are volunteers out there to take care of abandoned animals like this...hats off to them. I was glad to play a small part in giving Janna some "extra" time...we all could use that.
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A parting shot of Wablosa tucked in the home hangar. I realized I don't think I have ever taken a shot from our loft in the hangar...looking down.
Thanks to my wonderful girlfriend Sheryl, I got this cool RV7 banner for Christmas. Looks good in the hangar. Its high quality and a nice product for $49 (mine was on Christmas special for $40).
