Folks, We did it! I bought Mike Sigman's beautiful 415D, N3041H, in Arlington, WA on Friday, and had a checkout ride that afternoon. My best friend and former AF navigator, Tim Herfel, and I left KAWO Friday afternoon and headed for Pasco/Tri-Cities. After getting nervous about fuel we made a quick stop at The Dalles and arrived at Pasco around 2200. We planned on leaving Pasco and getting to Billings on Saturday, but bad weather in the mountains and at all the en-route airports delayed our departure until 1500, so we flew to Bozeman, MT and landed there around 2100 on Saturday. Initially we were concerned about whether or not we would be able to get the altitude we needed to get across the mountains on the west side of the Continental Divide, but we eventually made it to 11,000 and were encouraged that we would be able to get on top of the mountain passes and weather. We left Bozeman around 1000 on Sunday, and flew KBZN-KSHR-KTOR-KTQK and actually arrived at Scott City, KS before sunset on Sunday evening. We were delayed out of Scott City on Monday due to low ceilings on the back side of some heavy weather around Goodland, but finally left around 0930 for the flight home. We refuelled at Clinton, OK, and started our final leg to 3041H's new home in Weatherford, TX. Due to our late start we had to fly through the brunt of the afternoon turbulence and had a 30 KT headwind all the way home. We had to "thread the needle" through military training airspace and were grateful for flight following and traffic advisories from Fort Worth Center and Sheppard Approach. We finally landed ar KWEA around 1510. The airplane did great, and Tim and I got around ten years of GA flying experience in four days! The only concern was a small oil seep from around one of the pushrod boots that streamed a streak of oil down the left side of the fuselage. We used 2 1/2 quarts during the whole flight. I'm still trying to absorb what we accomplished. Thanks to Mike Sigman and Chris Byrd for all their help and morale support by phone along the way!
I'll fill in more details and submit an article to Coupe Capers when I catch my breath. Best, Dave English N3041H
