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November 11, 2000
Veterans's Day - Full Moon
PREFACE
I like to send my narrations to the 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!
INTRODUCTION
A 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 travelling by
air.
I'm not sure what it was. What travelling 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 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 FLIGHT
Fall 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 been wanting 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 FAA's "Flight Training
Handbook", which Andres gave me, while I was waiting for Jim and MaryBeth.
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 whomever 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 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 irridescent 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. The people in the plane and the people in
the boats. 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. Rhonerville 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 taxiied 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
attemted to read the instructions, and my job was to swipe the credit
card. The gas pump menu was surprisingly comples with many choices
having to be made. Also, it was set up to expect very quick responses.
If you didn't react fast enough, the program would kick you completely out
and you would have to start at the beginning. Swipe the card again! Jim,
with his dry sense of humor said, "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, MayBeth 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
Rhonerville, 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 sprials. Neat. Everytime 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 descent 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 completey 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
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