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Arty Trost
Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 206
Location: Sandy, Oregon
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 Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 8:25 am Post subject: Response to Will Uribe's ? about tail wheel troubles after M |
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--- Guillermo Uribe <WillUribe(at)aol.com> wrote:
| Quote: |
<WillUribe(at)aol.com>
Hi Arty,
Did you have any more problems with your tail wheel
after you left MV?
Regards,
Will Uribe
FireStar II N4GU
El Paso, TX
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For those of you who weren't aware, I went through 2
tail wheels getting to MV and Dennis Kriby was
generous enough to give me a 3rd tail wheel when I was
there. So - here's "The REST of the Story."
After leaving MV, Doug Nelsen (Sky Raider) and I
(Maxair Drifter) flew southwest to Page, AZ, which is
right on Lake Powell. The busiest airport I've ever
flown into - lots and lots of scenic charter flights
going in and out. But we got in and out just fine,
and continued on to red rim rock country in Kanab, UT
- we could get a peek at the Grand Canyon to the south
(Doug was up at 11,000' MSL.) About 20 miles out the
wind came up, and I really fought for control for the
rest of this leg. Winds were absolutely calm at the
ground at Kanab, and I made a perfect landing - then
was shocked by a sudden ground loop! When I tried to
straighten out and turn onto the taxiway, I couldn't
turn. I radio'd Doug to go around, jumped out and saw
that the tailwheel horn had broken in half! So I got
on the radio again, asked Doug to keep circling until
I could get off the active runway, and pushed, heaved,
grunted and groaned that fully loaded Drifter onto the
taxiway.
As we were working on a repair, Bill Herren, a
Luscombe pilot who had been at Monument Valley heard
me on the radio telling Doug I'd lost my tailwheel.
Although he was headed in a completely different
direction, he diverted to Kanab Airport to see if he
could be any help. And two other fellows (John and
his son) who had been at Monument Valley were driving
by on their way home, saw my Drifter tied down, and
also stopped.
I had a spring-driven steerable tailwheel. The "field
repair" that Doug figured out was to make it
completely immoveable - which meant turning was very
difficult on the ground. I could make very wide,
sweeping turns…sometimes, depending on the wind.
After we left Kanab, we flew north, past Colorado City
on our way to Hurricane and then Cedar City, UT. We
were about 12 miles past Colorado City when my EGTs
spiked and I lost RPMs. I put down in a gigantic
"pasture" (cows, but no grass, just scattered
sagebrush.) Doug circled several times and then
landed. I called Joel Jacobson, my Rotax mechanic
(thank heavens for cell phones) and he said it sounded
like a stretched diaphragm in the fuel pump. Well, I
had brought along a spare fuel pump.
As we were changing it out, a small helicopter circled
and landed. Out got a county sheriff. He examined
our planes very closely, especially Doug's, which is
fully enclosed. Seems that he'd gotten a number of
calls from folks who had seen Doug circling and
thought we were trying to smuggle in "the prophet"
Warren Jeffs - a polygamist who's been on the FBI most
wanted list for over a year, and is from Colorado
City. Reassured that there was no room in either of
our ultralights for 2 people, he took our names,
birthdates, and phone numbers and left.
Changing out the fuel pump seemed to do the job, and
we took off. As we got near Hurricane, we got the
mother of all tail winds! My air speed indicated was
60 mph- my GPS was showing 103 mph! But it was
steady. Sixteen miles out of Cedar City we got caught
by a rain squall. No way around it. Good visibility,
but the rain was painful, painful, painful! Facial
acupuncture. Doug was up front and kept radio'ing -
"Are you o.k.? Do you want to land?" I had my left
arm over my face for some protection, and I said,
"Just keep flying!" We finally landed at Cedar City
and you would have laughed to see us struggle to get
my Drifter to the tie-down area...remember, immovable
tail wheel.
Doug wasn't laughing - he was doing all the work.
Since the tail wheel won't turn, and since the winds
were high, Doug got on one wing while I slowly taxied,
and when my nose wasn't going in the right direction,
he'd grab the wing and pull on it till the nose went
in the right direction. Both of us were wiped out
when we got to the tie-down area, and we rested in the
FBO for a few hours. The winds mellowed enough that
by 6:00 p.m. we decided to try and make it to Beaver,
where BJ, my Drifter repair friend is.
Getting out to the runway was a repeat of getting off
it - taxi slow while Doug pulled on the wing, dragging
it around so the nose would go in the right direction.
But once I was lined up on the runway, I took off
straight and true. We made it to Beaver by 8:00 p.m.
and Doug, BJ and I worked until 11:30 p.m. – using
camping headlamps and BJ's truck headlights - to
change out my rudder and tail wheel assembly. BJ is
building a Drifter, so he cannibalized his plane for
me. So now I have a white rudder and a marvelous new
tail wheel assembly.
But our tailwheel troubles weren't over - mine were,
but Doug's were just beginning!
After Beaver we flew to Ely, NV and then Eureka, NV
and it was there that Doug saw that his frame (where
the tail wheel attaches) was cracked. He did a fix
that he thought would get him home. (And told me
sternly, "No more off-field landings!") WRONG!
(About the fix, that is.) We got to Battle Mountain
and then Winnemucca airports o.k., then landed at
McDermitt (on the Nevada-Oregon state line) to top off
for the remaining 51 miles to Larry and Karen
Cottrell's home airstrip near Rome, OR. I landed in a
crosswind and taxied to the turnout - Doug landed and
his tailwheel assembly collapsed under the sideload
strain. I called Larry, who said he'd be there with a
trailer. I flew the 51 miles to his place and passed
Larry as he drove to McDermitt to get Doug. Doug
called his wife and asked her to hook up his trailer
and drive out to the Cottrells to pick him up. This
was Wed. evening, May 24.
Thursday, May 25, about noon, John Houck (Kolb Mark
III) and John Williamson (Kolb Kolbra) flew in and it
was like old home week. Doug's wife arrived about 6
p.m. They put the Sky Raider on Doug's trailer and
took off, planning to drive home that night.
Jan and Doug had barely left, when Roger and Dana
Hankins from Merlin, OR came in, trailering Roger's
Kolb Firestar. So we had a pilots' hang-out at Larry
and Karen's. (For dinner we had bear burgers, from a
bear that Larry shot. Both he and Karen are avid
hunters.) On Friday, John Hauck took me in his Kolb,
John Williamson took Larry in his, and Roger got in
his single-seater. We all went for a great flight
down the Owahyee River Canyon. The rest of the day we
spent hanging out looking at all the pictures we all
took on our flights so far - as well as old pics from
previous flights.
With Doug gone, I was faced with flying home on my
own. Norm (my husband) wasn't happy about me flying
450+ miles by myself out in the middle of the eastern
Oregon desert, but there's a good, lightly-used
highway to follow and where I could land if I had
problems.
I left Larry and Karen Cottrell's home in Rome, Oregon
on Saturday morning, May 27. The weather forecast
wasn't great, but it was definitely safe for flying.
My first leg was 95 miles to Burns, Oregon. Larry and
Karen were my "FAA-equivalent" - I gave them my flight
plan, my ETA, and promised that I'd call as soon as I
touched down. If I didn't call within 30-45 minutes
of my ETA, they'd come looking.
If you go to Google Earth and pull up the photos of
this leg, you'll see lots of desolate
sagebrush-dotted, ravine-covered hills, rising into
the Steens Mountain range, and then settling down into
more sagebrush-covered flatlands on the other side of
the Steens. I followed the highway religiously, so
that if I went down it wouldn't be a problem to find
me.
There was a high, grey overcast, and a 22 mph
headwind, which thankfully was fairly steady but it
really slowed me down. It was also bitterly cold. Due
to the headwind, it took me 2.25 hrs. to make the 95
mile flight to Burns. During this leg, I saw only 2
vehicles on the highway.
The wind picked as I warmed up in the Burns FBO,
(gusting to 35 knots along my intended route) so I
ended up spending the next 1.5 days in Burns. By
Monday morning the skies were bright blue with some
white puffy clouds and even a slight wind out of the
southeast. Since I was flying northwest, that was
great. The next leg - from Burns to Bend - was 135
miles and it was an easy one. I've flown this route
about 30 times, since I fly to the Alvord Desert/Steen
Mountain for a ul fly-in every year, and this was the
easiest flying I've ever done on this leg. Usually
there's a strong quartering headwind, and it's work,
work, work staying level and on track. Not this time
- I had a very slight tailwind (about 3 mph) and no
turbulence.
Because it was Memorial Day, there were lots of pilots
taking advantage of a vacation day and good weather,
and there was lots of air traffic in and out of Bend.
I managed to sneak in, refuel quickly, and head out
again. My next refueling stop was 51 miles to Madras
- again, no problem en route.
What I did next was pretty foolish. I had been flying
the highway religiously - and checking in with Larry
and Karen at every stop. My next stop was supposed to
be The Dalles, which is at the east end of the
Columbia River Gorge. It's an exceptionally windy
spot. As I flew, I realized that I could save time
and effort by flying directly to Hood River (west of
The Dalles, also on the Columbia River) and landing
there instead of going to The Dalles. Picture
"cutting the corner" pretty big time. It meant leaving
the highway and flying a GPS route - over some farms
and pastures and fields, but mostly over the forested
foothills of the Cascades.
As I altered course for Hood River, I had an inner
dialogue. One voice said "This is REALLY, REALLY
stupid. Larry and Karen think you're going to The
Dalles, following the highway. They'll never look for
you - or send anyone to look for you - way out here.
And look at all the forest and mountain ridges on this
route. No road beneath you...nowhere to land. This is
SO stupid and irresponsible."
Another voice was saying, "You'll only be over the
forest and ridges for about 25 minutes before you get
to the Hood River valley. And the engine has been
working like a charm ever since you put in the new
fuel pump. Don't be such a wienie."
Maybe I shouldn't have, but I listened to the 2nd
voice, and made it into Hood River, where it was
gusting up to 22 knots. I was able to land without
much difficulty, even though I got 2 radio warnings
from glider pilots that the turbulence was too much
for an ultralight. That was 2:30 p.m. - and the wind
increased as I refueled. So I waited, and waited, and
waited. The wind didn't die down, and I decided not
to compound my stupidity by taking off and flying down
the Gorge - one of the windiest spots on earth.
(That's why Hood River is considered one of - if not
THE - best windsailing spot in the world.)
I called Norm (home is just 40 miles away from Hood
River) and he decided to drive up. We went to a neat
hotel right on the Columbia and on Tuesday morning I
was wheels-off at 6:30 a.m., and had a wonderful
flight home. Calm air and blue skies - it doesn't get
any better than this. I landed at Sandy River Airport
at 7:10 a.m. - beat Norm home by almost an hour.
Well, Will - how's that for an exceptionally long
answer to a simple question?
Arty
www.LessonsFromTheEdge.com
"Life's a daring adventure or nothing"
Helen Keller
"I refuse to tip toe through life just to arrive safely at death."
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WillUribe(at)aol.com
Guest
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| Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 6:17 pm Post subject: Response to Will Uribe's ? about tail wheel troubles after M |
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Hi Arty,
Great report, I really enjoyed reading about your adventures and thank you
for posting them here on the Kolb list.
Regards,
Will Uribe
FireStar II N4GU
El Paso, TX
http://members.aol.com/WillUribe/mv/
--
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jimhefner
Joined: 11 Jan 2006
Posts: 91
Location: Tucson, AZ
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| Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2006 5:11 am Post subject: Re: Response to Will Uribe's ? about tail wheel troubles aft |
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Thanks for sharing your adventure with us Artie!
Do you have any stats on your total trip? Think I recall you or Doug saying you had flown around 1300 miles in 5 days when you were at MV so I was curious if you had any info on total trip days, flight hours, miles traveled, fuel burned, etc. Pretty impressive cross country trip in a 447 and 503 on any type of plane! Sharing that might help others here venture out further with their low end Kolbs. 
Glad to see you here!
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_________________
Jim Hefner
Tucson, AZ
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Jim Ballenger
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
Posts: 18
Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 1:47 am Post subject: Re: Response to Will Uribe's ? about tail wheel troubles aft |
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Arty
I really enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing.
Jim
MK III X
Virginia Beach,VA
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Jim Ballenger
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
Posts: 18
Location: Virginia Beach, Virginia
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| Posted: Sat Jun 17, 2006 1:48 am Post subject: Re: Response to Will Uribe's ? about tail wheel troubles aft |
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Arty
I really enjoyed reading your post. Thanks for sharing.
Jim
MK III X
Virginia Beach,VA
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