Does this make me a jet aircraft test pilot? |
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The 20 minute flight to the Grants Pass airport was uneventful,
if you don't count breathtaking awesome vistas with white puff
clouds against a deep blue sky, plush green fields inturrupted
by the world famous Rouge River. Seeing Robinson bridge from 3000 ft
where just beyond down river is Hells Gate canyon where "River Wild" the
movie with Merrill Streep was filmed, and where the Lone Ranger would
jump off the cliff into the river. Yup, just another day
in flying heaven.
This was my third flight to the GP airport with a turboprop. It always draws a crowd and I really enjoy everyone's comments. I take a-round-about way getting there from my home base field 12 miles as the crow fly's. I always have a place picked out to land incase the engine stops. The route I fly has lots of places to land safely. Today was not as scary as the last time, Flight #12. I decided to skip #13, hey, it's just a number and I'm not worried about it, but why mess with a dumb number, remember all the jokes the Apollo-13 ground control scientists were making. Flight 12 was plenty scary with thunder storms on all horizons. Not boring. About 5 miles west I announced my position to Grants Pass traffic UNICOM 122.8, then on entering the pattern said; "downwind left hand traffic for runway three zero Grants Pass", then "left base", and "final". I taxied over, up, and around to the Jet-A refueling position and filled-her-up, all of 3 gallons. Only a few folks came over to visit today. A local restaurant owner who mentioned that people are talking about me,.. well not me, but my turboprop ultralight in the restaurant. He assured me they were not saying bad things. Another fellow said he owned a 210 (a real serious airplane) and also lived in Murphy and also would like to fly off his land but didn't have enough room and the neighbors are a problem. He said there was a nursery next door and something about a bunch of drug dealers. (Note, 9/16/03 in the paper today front page: "Illegal drug factory at Murphy nursery explodes and kills a guy!") Jet-A costs $2.28/gallon today. The FBO guy, John I think, taught me the DIY (Do It Yourself) way to fill up your jet using a credit card and the machine, incase no one is there to help me. Next time I'll try it. 3:27 pm take off and fly same route home, arrive 3:57. Winds OK, beautiful weather, total 41.7 miles, fuel burn rate 7 gallons per hour, so my range on 5 gallon tank is about 35 miles. I compute the miles per gallon to be 7 miles per gallon, no kidding. It's magic, skip 13 and you might roll a couple of 7's. It's not superstition but a fun easy way to remember the specs of my aircraft! 7 gallons per houre AND 7 miles to the gallon. Ultralights with turbine engines sound cool!
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