Winging it across the USA

The journey as it was .

2007-09-02T12:56:00.000-07:00

The mission was to quit work, go travelling through China and South America, learn to fly my trike over summer in Australia, then export the Australian made aircraft to the USA and plan a mission there. Certainly eventually I would have to go back to work, the plan was to look for work over in the USA as we flew. Also, it the back of my mind I knew the baby story was creeping into Anna-klara and my life, and I though it best to live this dream before we had a young one. Well it happened

A baby is born

It seem to work out, 9 months later was back at work with an amazing array of experience in the fun bag ! The flying across the USA with Anna-klara in our trike together was the bee knee's of it all. We were pinching ourselves as we flew around feeling free, with no fixed agenda, no destination and no jobs to think about. The USA is extremely well set up for flying, with many smaller airports/private airstrips with really good facilities. The flying community are so friendly and so people go out of there way to help you. WE had everything we needed along the way, the best bit was we had time to stop and here the stories and met other local pilot. Often we would have the change to go on a local tour on the ground and in the air, experience many other aircraft and forms of aviations.

One our first landing we where met by a report who wanted to know all the details of the journey.

The reporter's report

We did not have any firm plans other than to fly down the Mississippi to New Orleans from Chicago. I did not have a job at that stage in the US and did not have a fixed base. We had our aircraft and sleeping bag, clothes, laptop and a few spares and that was us.Basically the plans were to make it up as we went along and that is what made it so relaxing and extentedour feeling of freedom.(Free in the land of the free ?) The report written outlined a trip across to the West Coast. It turned out the wind was blowing us toward the East Coast and Florida. With a strong flying community who reached out to us, we headed down Florida way and then found ourselves flying up the East Coast.

Above is the actual flight path. It turned out to be over 3500 miles which worked out about 70 hours with our wheels off the desk in a little trike and a trusty GPS to navigate with. The whole trip got better and better as we sunk into life in and out of low traffic airports, relaxing further and further, spellbound with what we were experiencing. The rhythm of the road is as it is in the air. We soon became accustomed to flying into airports, finding the facilities we needed,( bed , shower, weather information, internet, fuel and in most cases a courtesy car to get into town for food) and setting down with a local over a beer to share stories. Sometimes these necessities would find us! The flying experience during the day put us on high that was often sustained in the evening as we were seeing life on the ground from up close too.

This blog goes into these details. It was written to encourage everyone to take that step towards that adventure they dream of. It also was aget tool at the time to link up with local pilot as we flew. It worked and will serve as a record and a reminder to us of what we were :-) !!!!!

The whole experience strengthened Anna Klara and my relationship. We lived this adventure out together, work as a team in the air and on the ground to pull off the business end of the trip like finding best next landing spot given the weather and refuelling requirements. The most amazing experience and bonding experiences were on the occasions we got ourselves into serious danger in the air and needed to worked together to come through unscathed. Things do get kaotic when the weather turns or the expected becomes the unexpected. WE worked together to over come these and lived to tell the tale.

It would not be the trip it was without these"specially bonding" moments of danger yet for the most part the time together in the cockpit was spent chatting or just gazing at the amazing US countryside passing underneath us. We would chat about the people we meet at the last landing spot , with the conversation getting more intense the further South we fly !!! (dame crazy Southerners make interesting conversation). A lot of the time was also spent silent in the air as we took in the landscape. It was not hard to be simply awestruck but what we were seeing and having the absolutely privilege to experience. As we flew in and out of places, we made sure we did the right things by the locals, this form of adventure across a country in a ultra light aircraft seemed a hidden secret that knowbody else had discovered.It is a little secret and I feel privileged that you can share this little dream of ours and able to see and feel what we did. Never doubt your imagination!

Highlights

2007-08-27T16:03:00.001-07:00

So the highlight section is hard as I could talk forever and there also seem to be something on any given day on the trip that was gave us a thrill. Don't forget we where foreigner in a strange place..some of the towns we flew into where quite remote and strange places.This add to the adventure and made us realise the extremes of the USA. One country many people and many divisions.

As we flew South from Chicago things became even more interesting.The highlight across the trip where in order of there appearance where:

Landing in a farmer's field

The fight in Paris

Danger on the ground

Flying in the eagle

Landing on the beach- the dream

Almost eating the trees at Buddy's RV park

Engine issues and the fantastic forced landing spot

All these are fanastistic but it was often the simply things that made being alive and flying so memorable. Cross-country flying was knew to us both , the biggest thrill, buzz an highlight for me overall was the lifestyle of living with the weather.yes been a weatherman !!! ? In real life, I am not in a position to live by the weathered on a daily basis.Living by the weather put me in touch for nature and myself/ourselves.With any worries and with having a job 7 month behind me at that stage, I was in a position to get ot know myself again after 10 years in a career.

It was fanastic to be a homeless , jobless pilot on an adventure without a destination or end date.anna kalra was right into that too and it made for a fun time.

Frequently Asked Questions

2007-08-27T16:02:00.001-07:00

How high did you usually fly ?

Mostly we flew as low as we could safely fly. Generally we would fly about 1000ft to 1500ft above the ground to allow us to view life in the USA. Going up high is generally colder and you see less detail.
Trike are great viewing platforms as they fly relative slow, you can easily circle around a pack of sharks or dolphin or a house fire on the ground or more challenging is catching thermals.

How fast did you fly ?

The speed of the trike across the ground depends on the wind, it is usually either with you or against you!! The trike flys at about 50 knots. (55 miles or 92 km/h). With a strong tail wind you can see a ground speed of 70 knots with a headwind you can be moving at just 30 knots across the ground. (trucks overtake you it is reallly embarassing ! ). Generally we were able to avoid flying into a headwind as we had no real destination on a given day. WE would either head a different direction or spend less time in the air.

In generally aircraft spend 2/3 of there airtime in headwind as opposed to tailwind. It took us a while to work out why this would be the case but it make sense.

Where did you sleep at night?

Over the 40 days we spent 3 nights in hotels, about 15 nights sleeping at the airfield , either sleeping under the wing or in the airport lounge, clubhouse or somewhere else suitable. (back of the courtesy car/van). The rest of the time we where put up in fellow pilots houses or just curious onlookers how saw to us having a place to sleep, sometimes a real bed and shower for the night. So many great people.

Do you use a radio to talk to other aircraft and towers?

Our trike was fitted out with a good radio. This allowed us to do the usually call sign and radio call procedure while operating in controlled airspace. The radio was handy as it allow us to listen into the recored weather at the next landing as well. Knowing the weather and the wind is vital for survival in an ULTRA-light aircraft !

Did you ever get into trouble and thought that there might be tears when the flying stoped ?

A couple of times we where in serious trouble and fearing that it was all going to end in tears. The first time was on Day 3 when we had to land on a farmer's field by the Mississippi River. SEE DAY 3.

The second time we almost ran out of runway and almost ended up in the trees with a costly bill.

You live and you learn. Ah
At the time these little "events" where happening I was just hoping we would make it down alive and in one piece. Destroying the aircraft was a price I was more than willing to pay as long as we survived.

They say at these times "it is better been on the ground wishing you were in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground" Great advice , ah !!!

How did you navigate?

Anna-Klara was the navigator in the back seat of the Trike. She had a laptop on her lap that had Aeronautical charts that told us about airspaces etc. The laptop was connecting to a GPS device via Bluetooth. The laptop have a battery life of two -three hours and we have the ability to plug it in onboard, but never had to.

How much fuel can you carry? What is the range of the trike?

The trike takes 70 litres or 18 US gallons to fill it. This allows for about 4 hours running to dry with the engine we where running. Of course we never ran the tank dry but we got close once and resort to landing in a field? !

The range of the trike between fuel stops is about 180 Nautical miles, realistically.

Little Zac

2007-08-27T14:39:00.000-07:00

Zacy tree at 12 weeks

Zacy tree at 3 weeks below

Conceived in Chicago and born in the UK, little Zac had already lived in 3 homes before we was born. His vagrant parents had taken him across the Atlantic and put him in the trusted care of the NHS health service of Great Britain. He survived and is now prospering not far from a great town called "Swindon" in pretty little village called Bourton.

Zac was born on the 4th of August at 9:10pm at night. This was Zac's Australian Great Grandmothers birthday and also Zac's Swedish Grandfathers named day in Sweden. (in Sweden every day of the year has a name day, the 4th of August was "Arne day" the name of Zac late Grandfather who dies of cancer some 2 years ago). We feel they where both meddlingly in our affairs from above and happy to have Zac arrive to us on this significant date.

So ZAC Arne DE HENNIN it was and as Anna-Klara and I are discovering, will be for some time to come. We love our little man and happy for him to disturb the peace!
Firstly here are some shot of the little fella, and below is a little video of him.(no not the birth)

Zac and Papa

Here a little clip of Zacy giving greesy looks to his PAPA. We where accusing him of doing a poo poo in his pants. I reckon he told be to shoosh ( watch is finger go up to his mouth) and then gave we a dirty looks.......but I might just be a over zealous Dad's how think his child is amazing......you be the judge !!!

Day 40 - A new home

2006-08-10T08:47:00.000-07:00

8 am and we were in a big truck with our much loved aircraft in the back bounding for our new home. Over the mountains it rained and rained. This was weather that would have ended up on our potential flight path up the East Coast. That helped ease the pain I was feeling from having to end our journey and go back to business!!

We were on the mission to get to Chicago, drop the trike off at its new home at Cushing Airfield and leg it out of there. We slept in the back of the Truck that night and woke early to finish the trip back to Cushing.

The arrival back at Cushing Airfield, Chicago represented to us the full circle on an amazing trip across the USA covering many states, climates and smiling friendly people. It would take a few weeks to understand what we had accomplished and to really set it.

Out of respect we immediately unpacked the trike, assembled it and all three of us went for a fly ! Anna-Klara, MR P and me where all together again where we felt we belonged!! It was strange just doing a circle and landing at the same airfield!!

Day 39 - On the hunt for a truck

2006-08-10T08:42:00.000-07:00

Day 39 was “trying” to stay the leash. Ed came back and met us in the morning.
I explained our exit strategy and he was good enough to help us track down a suitable U – Haul truck and drove us to pick it up. It was not as easy as that. UHAUL had some surprises for us. To cut a long story short, UHAUL on the phone were telling us that International Drivers licences were fine for renting a truck, while the local agent was saying it wasn’t. We had to go to a different UHAUL agent to get a truck after much debate and time loss. We where stuck having to rent UHAUL because no other rental companies had any trucks left on a Friday afternoon. The plan just came off. Without a truck we would have had to leave the trike and fly out from Richmond to Chicago and pick the trike up later.

We picked the truck up and loaded the Trike that evening. Ed knew the local town manager and he came down to the airport and we lifted the trike base into the truck with no dramas. The wing went in and we tied him down properly. It was getting late and after saying our thanks and goodbye's to Ed we stayed our last night in the airport terminal and prepared to head out in the morning. The flying was over but we still had some interesting country to cover back to Chicago.

Day 38 - All good things comes to an end

2006-08-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

A very early start had us taxi-ing out to the runway just on first light. With no other traffic around I did a radio call any way. To our surprise an emergency chopper called in stating it was crossing the field at low level on its way to drop causality off to the local hospital. It flashed by while we where on the ground. We lined up and took off carefully following the interstate while we monitored the engine. We climbed to about 3000 ft and worked together to keep safe.

The 3 hour flight went without a hitch. It was clear the issue was resolved, although extra caution would be taken in the next few hours to be sure. We flew over CREW airfields where we where meeting up with Ed a fellow triker who spent a lot of time flying in Cambodia. I cut the engine at about 2500 ft above the runway to practise a glide approach. At 1000 ft we entered the circuit pattern only to spot things moving on the runway. I turned the engine back on as it was not the time to play!!! It turned out to be the local municipality workers cutting the runway edges. We flew over their heads and landed much to their surprise.

We called up Ed who was about 1 hour away. I took the opportunity to do some further test flights by myself. All went well and it was nice to have growing confidence back in the old girl. It was also nice to fly on my own and do a few things that you wouldn’t do with another life on board.

Ed rocked up and we put the Trike in a spare hangar and headed up into the hills. Why? It was hot really hot and swimming in the hills was to bring great relieve. Ironically and strangely later that day on the way home we found a Thai restaurant in the middle of no-where. Yes the food was great, how else would they survive out there.

Ed took us back to town and put us up in one of the local hotels before he headed back to Richmond. That afternoon I received a call from the company that I had accepted a job with. They had the paper work ready and needed me to go back to Australia to start my US work visa process. It was time to make a break.
Lot went through me mind! This was an abrupt but necessary ending to our little adventures. The decision to either leave the trike there in Virginia and exit via JFK Airport or to truck it back to Chicago needed to be made. With lag times, ticket purchasing and the need to hangar my trike in a safe place we came up with a solution.

The cleanest move seemed to be to put the trike on a truck and go for it. . We decided to put Mr P in a UHAUL rental truck and to have tickets ready for us in Chicago to Sydney .We did the above although it hurt in theour hearts a little.

Day 37 - In a little pickle

2006-08-10T08:02:00.000-07:00

It was time to leave John and the troops at Waxhall private airstrip. Even though I had test flown the trike sole and it was running fine after our fuel starvation issue, I was of course a little apprehensive to take another soul on board. We packed the trike and said our goodbyes. With nil wind we headed for the uphill end of the runway. After a 1 minute full power test on the ground, I released the brake and headed for the skies again. The climb out seemed to take forever, although all was normal. Anna-Klara put me on course for Burlington. It was nice to be in the air and the country was opening up. We flew over farms and small hills and over a fantastic dam.

Still keeping an eye on the engine instruments we flew up to 4000ft and right over a medium sized airfield. On the radio we heard a Private Corporate JET lining up on the runway way below us. The pilot called that he was taking off to the North, clear of us and we watch the JET from way above. It was amazing the climb rate. It was at our height within 2 minutes and gone completely out of sight not much longer after that. Such a great sight to observe from the sky.

We flew on and began our descent into Burlington airport. At 2000ft but not far from the airport we struck issues again. The EGT’s began to rise a little and we experience power loss not within glide distance. I eased the throttle and the EGT came back to normal. I called into the CTAF airport frequency, stating I had engine issues and could I jumped the queue to land. Other aircraft called back saying it was fine and wished us luck!!! Thanks guys!

We landed without issue and where left wondering what to do from here. Unfortunately it was a fairly busy corporate jet type airport where we landed. The airport manager was more of a money grabber than a true aviator a heart. Ironically we had landed at the most unfriendly airport where we needed help the most.

For the first time we felt like in A BIG HOLE. I rang the guys from Airborne and talked them through the issues. I also put out a post one the Trike Internet Groups EnginesUL. With some great ideas I attacked the most obvious part - first cleaning the fuel filter out -of its maintenance schedule. It was full of crap! It might just be that I picked up some dirty fuel. I cleaned the filter and checked a few other things. The test run went fine. We prepared to cautiously head out in the morning opting to stay in a hotel as there was not much love at that airport.

Just Videos

2006-08-09T17:31:00.000-07:00

Also you cannot miss this one. This has over 50,000 hits on YOUTUBE so far.
This was what I filmed when I was learning to flt trike on Australia before the USA trip.

I was amazed and a little shocked when I captured this footage using
my video phone on a super smooth summers afternoon. The camera was out
because I did not think people would really believe just how low this pilot
flys. (or used to fly).

Thanks Frank for the background music.

The Pilots Lounge

2006-08-09T16:59:00.000-07:00

Day 3 - it almost ended there

Day three of the trip was a nice sunny morning.We woke up in an old barn type hangar just south of St Louis, rolled the trike out of the barn and took off. Within minutes we were over the Mississippi river and playing around with an inversion layer about 600 ft. Anna klara was amazed at the temp difference as we climb and descended through it. I was amazed at the wind gradient difference but did not think much of it.

WE flew low down the Mississippi spotting working barges and landed at a near by commercial airport with about 4 knots of wind from the West. After some breakfast and a chin wag(Australian for talk)with the local flyers, we took off and headed south down the mighty Mississippi with plenty of fuel on board to reach our destination only 60 minutes away.

About 35 minute into the flight we hit what must have been a front. The wind picked up to about 20-25 knots in an instance. I remember looking down to my horror and seeing large tree branches getting blown around like small ones! It certainly verified what my GPS was telling me as the ground speed had drop right off. This was a near head wind and as we were flying low to avoid the even higher wind speeds up top, it was like being in a washing machine, but this seemed the safest place to fly.

At this point many decisions needed to be made under pressure. I realised this could spell a quick end to this adventure and the pressure was truly on now. The wind got stronger and stronger the higher we went, so I was left with no choice but to fly low in the turbulence, once clearing high tension power line of the Mississippi by just 100ft. Fuel burn was up as I had to keep the flying speed up to battle the turbulence. We were getting bucketed around now, with no downwind airports in reach, and a gamblers chance of making our destination airport, I decided I had had enough.

The flood plain just off the Mississippi was going to provide us with the best opportunity to survive this one. It was about survival at this stage. I let Anna Klara know we were going to land in the fairly open field below. We circled and both looked out for obstacles and tried to gauge the surface. It looked fine, but anything does when you are being beaten up by the wind and running out of fuel. The saying “Its better to be on the ground wishing you where in the air, than in the air wishing you were on the ground” never rang truer at this point.

Out we went over the river and came in for final. We had a far bit of space to land but it was the rotor coming over the line of tree upwind some 1000ft away that I was weary of. We were hit by one angry piece of wind about 30 ft off the deck, Anna Klara screamed her one and only time during the whole trip. It was severe and set the trike's right wing dangerously close to the ground. I corrected it aggressively and prepared for another. It all went pretty calm from there and I did my slowest ground speed landing ever. The terrain was a little rough but it suited us to be on the ground.

We had survived the air with the challenge now being to get the Trike to shelter without getting blown over on the ground. We managed to tie down the Trike behind a tree line and waited out the weather. One of the local farmers got us some fuel. The wind subsided as quickly as it arrived but it waited 4 hours to do so.

With dusk arriving and nothing to eat, we defined our take off strip , power up the Trike and shot off down the bumpy paddock til we reach the smoothness of calm air flying. Felt good to be alive, felt good to get out of the little whole we had got ourselves in.

The second little mishap - EATING THE TREES.............

The second major scare happened on dusk just as we entered Florida. It was a combination of running out of light and running out of fuel that caused the running out of runway !! Also we where running
away from the Destin Airport as we where sick of it. All this running, as it does, seems to add up to trouble.

So we took off from Destin at about 4:45 pm in 10 knots of wind with a plan to head North. Once airborne we found a much stronger wind at 1000ft, that was not only stronger than a usual wind gradient,
but also had turned into the head wind from hell. So we made the decision to go East instead. We flew at about 500ft all the way down the beautiful Florida coast.

All was well and we had some airports in mind that we could reach so Anna-Klara directed me there using the GPS. All along the coast the sea breeze and the Northerly wind was converging, making a really rough ride.The fuel burn seems to go through the roof with a two stroke in these rough condition when you have to vary your RPM.It did not take long before we where thinking that it was time
to get out of this bumpy place. There was the option to land on the beach below but with some serious population around there is the chance it would become a circus.. besides this there was a significant onshore breeze that represented a cross wind on the beach strip below..this was just a back out plan if needed..

So there we where, rough air, low fuel, low light and as we looked down at our airport on the GPS, it was merely an old STOL airstrip used by banner planes to clip on advertising banners. It was a short strip in its day but now had had the trees on the approach left to grow out..the air was rough and I know I had to come in fast to maintain control.We where two up with a fully loaded trike minus fuel.

We assessed the strip by doing a low pass and was quiet concern when I put my foot flat to the floor and slowly climbed out of the old strip which was a merely a clearing in a surrounding forest about 1 miles inland. Was it a tail wind that casue the low climb. It did not seem comfortable and certainly was never a preference. On climb out we look at our options the nearest airport was about 15 minite away.It was rough, the fuel may have made it but it was a case of the devil you know in this instance.

So we went round and had a little talk to ourselves as the nerve where running and the our bodies pumping out adrenaline. With more speed than usually we flew in on final. There was no wind sock and been 1 mile back at dust it was had to know what the wind was doing at treetop level and below. (don't forget there was a convergence going on). I was predicted that would not be much wind on the
ground as the strip was a cut out from a small forest.

WE cleared the tree with maybe more margin than we needed too on a still day and came screaming in to feel a huge ground speed underneath us. The speed was not washing off. (slight tailwind on the ground). It was do or die, we where now half way along this small strip with only trees at the end. I could not fly out of this one any more. The instinct was to put it on the ground and take the pain.Anna klara (see video below) has stoped filming and had your hand on my shoulder as we both knew it was all a little too wild.

The trike finally touched down and I tucked the bar right in on my chest and jammed on the front drum brake the trike slowed .Thank God the trike slowed quicker than usual on the uncut grass strip..as we approached the trees at the end of the runway life seem to be coming back in control but only just. We made it to the end of the strip with just enough room to turn the trike around as if everything was fine and we meant to land like this(and we did ?)

Everything was really alive now as we buzzed back up the strip, we just got out of a mess and the trike was fine and so were we..really buzzing and feeling alive we were.The next thought was will we be able to get out of the strip when it is time to go.The RV park manager was good enough to mow the grass strip for us and we waited for a headwind. After a successful climb out with just me on board , I landed easily in calmer conditions and pick up Anna Klara and made it out.

What do they say,

"it is better to hit the hedge at the end of the runway slow than to hit the hedge at the begenning of the runway fast". In our case it was 50ft high trees. To clip those trees on approach in the turbulence would have been a disaster.Anyway,glad to be here to tell the tale.

VIDEO of LANDING

The third - The dying flying engine.

It was late afternoon, take off time. We have had a nice long lazy lunch in town and head back out to the airport to continue the flying mission. WE had taken off and all was normal for the first 10 minutes of the flight. We found ourselves over some rough country and I had to take some detour of our straight line flight path to make sure we where not to far from somewhere to attempt an emergency engine out landing if necessary.

I started being a little extra carful as I noticed the EGT's on the Rotax 582 2 stroke creeping up just a tad higher than usually. I put it down to atmospheric changes. But none the less I kept my eyes on things. It was about 10 minutes after that that the engine clear missed a beat both Anna Klara and myself became concerned. As we discussed it, the Rotax 582 took another hit, with the rev dropping to 3000 and the EGT going off the scale. We were in trouble. As any pilot would, I started scan the area for a place to emergency land. Anna Klara was busy on the GPS looking for airstrips.We where at about 2500ft, higher than usually because of previously spotted EGT rise.

Anna Klara found a private strip some 2-3 miles away. It was roughly on our current heading and there where a reasonable chance of getting there if the engine did not quit. The engine picked up a little once I back off the throttle for 30 seconds due to the high high EGT that threatened to melt the pistons.We had reasonable power back for a while then it came off again. I then calculated fuel starvation and applied the choke, first a little and then full choke, this made no difference, the engine was still not normal and the EGT where still off the scale.

This all was happening very fast, at which time Anna Klara pointed top what looked like a little disused road in the middle of a forest. She said it was the private strip according to the GPS map. We where soon in landing distance for a tail wind landing..that was a relieve, the engine was now providing enough power for level flight so I keep close to the strip and enter a short circuit.

We slung our flying machine around and came into land on the airfield with the engine still idling and on taxi back it had full power BACK !!. We where relieved but also really concerned about this little mystery..the residents who lived on the strip came out immediately with guns and said get off out strip !!! Just jokes, they where super friendly and nice.They where all pilot so out came the tools , beers and the stories.We stayed there a couple of days and chilled
out.The full story and pictures are here

Runway refugees

At the end of the day , we believe it was a clogged fuel filter that caused this fuel starvation problem. There was a thought that it could have been carb icing as the atmosphere was hazy and the temperature right.But the fuel filter was pretty filthy one I cleaned it out..

Day 35-36 Runway Refugees

2006-06-21T08:43:00.000-07:00

It was always going to be a very special day. I knew it would encompass me turning 100 hour old as pilot in command of a Trike and ironically we would go through the 113th hour of the aircraft. I am always a little superstitious when it comes to flying and hoped it would go unnoticed. Ironically it didn't. After a nice morning flight where we flew as high as 7000ft we touched down in South Carolina for an afternoon break and to refuel. Flying out that high always makes me a little nervous, as the traffic up that high can be very fast and it is a long long way down. What doesn't help is my little navigator in the back wriggling her legs. It gets really cold at height and she starts to wriggle to keep warm .The whole trike riddles as she does that and at 7000ft without a parachute, it's a little scary.

After a break and a trip to town for lunch we took off in the late afternoon to take advantage of the strong tail winds and smooth conditions. Without many open fields to follow, we were stuck tracing roads always keeping an eye on somewhere to land in case of engine failure. As it turned out, the exhaust gas temperature (EGT) were reading slightly higher than normal for no particular reason about 45 minutes into this flight. 15 minutes later we got our first sign the engine was in trouble. A slight drop in revs alerted me to a potential situation. We started scanning the places to land. One minute later the engine lost power momentarily and was clearly becoming fuel starved.

Anna-Klara as the navigator was straight on to the situation, and had found the closest airstrip only 4 nm away. We were at 2000 feet above the ground at this stage. The engine cut out and almost stopped before regaining most of its power. At this stage I was ready for the engine to stop and to land in a field. With not much to lose and suspecting fuel starvation, I used the choke to get more fuel into the engine. It seemed to work as the engine did not stop and kept on going at lower revs.

Anna-Klara at this stage had spotted the tiny private airstrip where we were to make our emergency landing. We were now in glide range and if the engine quit we could make a tail wind landing. To make things safer with limited power I managed to crawl around to land up wind with the engine still running. Phew we thought, it was time to consider just what the truck had happened.

As we parked the trike to the side of the runway of this private airport community the locals began to appear. As most aviation people are, they were extremely friendly. What happened at this point, is why I have grown to love aviation so much.
The local pilots instantly help us out with tool and theories on fuel starvation problems. The airport manager Alan, a really switched on guy, found a loose fuel hose fitting that screws into the fuel tap. He pulled the fuel tap apart, resealed it and refitted it in about 10 minutes flat. I then ran the engine on the ground for several minutes without any issues before taking off and climbing out over the airport. All seemed fine with the EGT's back to normal again. Something to keep a close eye on for the next few hours.

That night the community took us in, providing the "runway rufugees" (as they called us) a really nice place to stay and even took us out for dinner that night at the local Italian restaurant. We had landed in paradise again !!!
With several offers of accommodation we decided to stay with John as he had a huge house to himself which he had built himself. John's house was a labour of love as was his hangar. Anna-Klara and myself instantly hit it off with John and felt really comfortable staying there. John said we could stay as long as we wanted so we opted to stay another night in paradise with home cooked dinner that Anna-Klara and Morgan cooked for their men.

Boys and their toys

John, being a good man, let us keep Mr P in this home made hangar with his Bi-PLANE and stolen Cessna ! Just joking John !! Check the workmanship of the roof. The hangar is situation about 100 ft from the strip and 50 ft from the main house. Lifestyles of a flying neighbourhood !!
John's Porsche Project. (possible stolen) John just joking again !!
Large wheel to the left off a Boeing 737. The front wheel dropped into a local farmer's field local and the FAA came to inspect it. After they confirmed it was from the 737 that reported losing it a couple of month prior they just left it in the field. John took it home for a laugh, after th efarmer called him !

On the right is Johns new version of a golf cart to out-do his neighbours !
Only in America !!

Low wing light aircraft have always been an issue in hangars as you need to be a midget and still duck to get under the wing. Unless you come up with a solution such as Allan's.

Day 34 - Back in the South

2006-06-20T12:45:00.001-07:00

From Tampa Bay, with a start date for work pending, we decided to start heading North up the east coast of the USA. The first day, with tail winds, we decided to put many of miles on the board. The night before we slept at Tampa Bay Aerosports hangar in the loft so we could get a really early start, on the big day we planned.
We took off just before first light, and covered the 200nm before touchdown at 9am at Keystone Airpark. The local instructor lent us his hybrid (electric/petrol) Honda civic to go down to the local restaurant for brunch. We filled up on gas and took off at 3pm North, just before a rain storm approached us from the South. Once we were airborne we worked through a little bit of rain but then flew out of the weather and headed for our next destination, Waycross.

The flying, was hard work on the arms, as it was quite thermic and to add to the extra stress, the country below us was quite marshy, full of trees with limited places to land at times. We pushed on, approached Waycross airport, did a circuit which included a downwind leg over the local state prison. The prisoners were all looking up at the strange aircraft, we imagine in hope that we would drop something nice down for them !!

The reception at Waycross airport was fantastic. We were out of Florida and back with the less sophisticated, more open Southerners.

After seeing all the facilities at this airport, including the free popcorn machine we immediately voted this airport, best so far. We were offered the lounge to sleep on that night, hangarage, courtesy car and then to top it all off – ice cold Beers ! We both slept like a log that night after a huge day in the saddle.

Day 26 -33 Time to get a job and reality check

2006-06-20T12:41:00.000-07:00

After our arrival in central Florida, it was time to take a break
from flying. I had job interviews lined up in Chicago, Minneapolis and Indiana that week. I took off on Monday, and left Anna-Klara to battle the impending tropical storm Alberto, which hit Tampa on the Tuesday. The trike was safely in hangar so all was fine. It turns out it would not have been a good week to fly, so we got lucky we had other things planned.

Photo: Anna-Klara helping Larry and Abid from Tampa Bays Aerosports getting ready for a flight in Mr P.
They look like they are marvelling at Airborne's engineering !!!

Switching back into work mode after 8 month holiday waS a challenge. I work within the IT sector and things are pretty hot in the market at the moment for my skill. These companies actually paid my airline tickets up to see them, including hire car and accommodation. Being a Runway Refugee I did not say no, and actually went as far as upgrading to a convertible when I was in Minneapolis all at my potential employer’s expense. It was such a crazy feeling being in a strange city in America, in a convertible paid for by someone else, after spending so many weeks bumming around in the US living in all sorts of places. If only they knew, I thought.

One of those bizarre crazy incidence occurred after the formal interview. They took me out to lunch at a local restaurant. The interrogation did not stop once we left the office, I was under pressure and the usual BS-talk was flowing out of my mouth. I chose to drink the same as my potential boss and we were drinking and talking away waiting for our mains to be served. I finish my drink pretty quickly, and it was taken away without me noticing. I then, unknowingly, started to drink my potential bosses drink, thinking it was mine. Nothing was said, but I remember in hindsight, they both looked at me and little strange when I picked up the drink.

A minute or so later during the ongoing conversation, my potential new boss picked up his drink and drank from it. It was a bit of a shock as I thought it was my drink at first but then I triggered what had happened and had to hold back the laughter. Nothing was said, as this was a tight corporate interview, yet the looks gave it away. Ironically, they still offered me the job, yet that company seemed a little too incestuous for me !

During the rest of the week, we hired a car and explored the Tampa/Orlando region.
We were however, not really tempted, to go see any of the fun parks. Abid was really cool, allowing us to stay at his house ad hoc, as I flew in and out for interviews. That kind of support is so appreciated, when you have to do things on the road. Thanks Abid !! I got a job out of it. !

Day 25 - Rather a pest

2006-06-20T12:39:00.000-07:00

After a restful nights sleep we started walking the 3 miles to the airstrip. We had not walked far before one of the local retirees picked us up and gave us a ride in his golf cart to the airport. Made us laugh. We packed up Mr P. and headed south, following the road as this was the only place to land. It would have been tricky nonetheless if there was an engine out to land on the narrow road surrounded by trees, but it is better than nothing at all and it gives some level of comfort.

The airports around central Florida became somewhat hostile towards trikes and ultralights. We no longer were a rare commodity, rather a pest of an aircraft. I guess you get this when things get busy and a little more commercial. We landed at Crystal River, had brunch and took off at about 12 o'clock going south. The wind was starting to come up, with some really good thermals. At one stage we had the trike going up 1000ft per minute with the engine on cruise in a nice thermal.

The landing at Brooksville was a real challenge. The wind socks at different areas of the airfield were showing a discrepancy of 90°at 12 knots. Anna-Klara is used to landing procedures and looking for wind socks but was a little more amazed than me. I had seen this before yet not to this degree. We did a few low passes to determine actual wind directions where we were going to land. They again were different from what the closest windsock was saying. Life was getting tough, as we were flying around in the thermic conditions. I eventually made the decision to land right up next to the windsock towards the end of a runway on the grass. This worked well yet the airport manager wasn't happy!! Sorry mate but survival and safety come first!

We ordered in a late lunch, and waited out the weather in the air-conditioned FBO airport terminal. At about 6:30 pm we headed further south and found a beautiful local airport surrounded by houses at North Tampa. With a place to park the trike and a nice place to camp, we spent the night there, after walking down the road for dinner. Where the hell was the courtesy car!!??

Day 24 - In the bush

2006-06-20T12:31:00.000-07:00

This day had an early start as we were going to Cedar Key. Cedar Keys was recommended to us by one of the fix winged pilots we had met in Hammond back in Louisiana. Funnily enough we also bumped into him in Destin in the aircraft parking lot. He said to us he forgot to recommend Cedar Key, a great little airstrip that services a great little town. That it was.

We took off from Perry Foley and headed south following I10 freeway. We landed at some nonchalant out of the way municipal airport with overenthusiastic, over friendly staff. We were held at in conversation for 15 minutes and asked many questions about flights before we finally made our escaped. This was the first time we were not able to put in MOGAS as their spare carry tanks were full of diesel. We filled a full tank of AVGAS and kept going. I wanted to keep the pace going as I knew we headed for a smaller airstrip that was out on a peninsular on the coast. With that much exposure I figured a good cross wind would increase the risk upon landing.

As we approached this unique strip, we noticed a crosswind component along with trees lining of the runway possibly causing turbulence. With a little extra speed we made our final approach and was hit by a fair amount of rotor of the trees, the extra speed helped counteract the rotor sink on approach. We landed without incident but happy we did not arrive one hour later.

With no facilities, this was the first time we did not have a hangar to put Mr P in. We pulled him over into the tree cover, tied him down and started to walk into town. Before we had reached the end of the runway, we had already been picked up by the taxi lady of the town who monitors the airport frequencies (unicom). She also worked at the local hotel so we stayed there that night. It was very nice to have a decent shower and relaxed in our own space.

It seemed that the town, being a quaint old fishing village, was full of “those darn Yankees” who had retired to a beautiful warm location. We did not care but the locals did. This town was an island and quite different to what we have seen so far in Florida.

Day 23 - Take off - A freshly mowed strip

2006-06-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

The next morning was an early start. I was still a little apprehensive about being able to fly out of this small strip at Panama Beach, with all the weight we were carrying on board for the trip.
I was hoping for favourable conditions to allow us the best possibilities of making it out over the trees that surrounded the air strip. A slight head wind would have been nice as well as a clear morning with out any dew on the grass.

Buddy ferried us about to the airship in his golf cart. The conditions were nil wind with dew all over the ground. GREAT, as if I was not nervous enough. The wing of Mr P also had dew on it which can affect the lift of the wing. I wiped down the leading edge, and took him Mr P for a solo flight. The strategy was to test out the takeoff with less weight and clear the dew off the wing. The takeoff and landing were fine.

Next was the big test when Anna-Klara climbed on board. We said goodbye to Buddy and the onlookers from the RV park who had come to watch these silly foreigners top themselves!! We went right the very end of the runway, revs the engine up to full throttle, let off the brakes and then hoped and held on. Of course there was a bailout strategy if the dewy grass strip did not want to let go of us, but it did about half way down the 900ft airstrip. We cleared the tree tops with a fair bit to spare and were free again !!! Onwards we went with a great learning experience behind us.

We stopped off at Tri County where we took the courtesy car into town. The FAA were on the airfield doing an audit on the local rescue helicopter company. Not two weeks ago the company had lost a $3.5 million helicopter at the end of the runway there. (Pilot panics in the fog at 2am in the morning and dumped it in with 4 on board)

That afternoon we did a full 2hr 15 minute 10 knot tailwind flight east towards Florida Central. We flew at 5000 asl right over a B class airport with Commercial Jets flying right underneath us, a little un-nerving. We landed at Perry a huge deserved X military air force base and walked into town for dinner. Anna-Klara had discovered a technique of sleeping on chairs often found in Terminal Buildings back in Louisiana. Here she has perfected the double bed version. She lasso’s the legs together to stop runaways during the night !

Day 22 - Still a Buddy

2006-06-09T12:30:00.001-07:00

The next day Buddy turned up as promised and took us down to the gas station.
We only filled up the trikes tank halfway. The short strip meant the takeoff was going to require as less weight as possible. Buddy was with us on our mission all the way, and even went as far as mowing the grass airstrip that day so to allow for a quicker takeoff. (Good old Southern hospitality).

Being so close to Panama City Beach, Buddy was good enough to drop us off there for the day and kindly offered to come and pick us up as well. We needed time to relax and mind you we had had a few that day at the local bar over lunch.

In no rush to leave, we decided to stay one more night in the boat. However, Buddy insisted we stayed at his house which was only a golf buggy ride away. We went over there for dinner, a good chat and slept a full night. How great it is to share our little adventure with our new mate Buddy who was so interested and supportive. Again we were blown away by people’s hospitality.

Life living out of airstrips. Washing day ! Who says kingposts and lufflines are useless !!!

Day 21 - A real Buddy

2006-06-09T11:37:00.000-07:00

So it was time to leave the wretched Destin. The rampant commercialism and the busyness of the place was something we were not used to from coming down the Midwest of the USA. Amongst the corporate jets at about 6:45 p.m., we taxied out onto the runway and took off in about 8 knot wind on the ground. As soon as we got airborne life got bumpy with 18 knot + northerly headwind through military controlled airspace. ”Bugger that” we thought, we took the option to head east down the coast towards Panama City. Along the beach we had the southerly sea breeze bumping into the northerly prevailing wind. It made for an interesting ride. We spotted a few fixed wing aircraft at about our 700 agl level. You always seem to spot these aircraft too late for comfort. No chance of a collision here but still !!!!

With a light fading and a change of plan, Anna-Klara was busy in the backseat looking at airports and air strips to land. Things got quite stressful as we where getting knocked around yet we kept it together as a team. I always find in these situations you just need to do your best and that is all we can do. Yes you would love to be on the ground but you are not, and your life depends on your performance, or our performance in this case.

Anna –Klara came up with a couple of options. The first was a very small airstrip 10 mins away with about 30 minute of light left. The second was an airport about 25 minutes away, which meant going right around controlled airspace. We looked at the first airstrip, after doing a low pass, I decided it was do-able, just, and it was time to get out of this ugly weather.

With a high tree line on the approach things were going to be tricky. The weather was rough and bumpy, and with the air strip being surrounded by trees I imagined it may be pretty bumpy on the ground as well. The adrenalin was pumping, the mind was focused, we came in the final approach. (SEE VIDEO)

That night we met the manager of a nearby RV park. Buddy was his name and that is just what he was. To keep us away from the alligators, snakes, wild pigs and mosquitoes that like to frequent this part of Florida, he let us stay in a large cruiser boat that was being stored in their storage sheds there at the airstrip. That was fun.

The next day he arranged to pick us up and take us to the gas station for fuel. What a day.

Day 20 - Hurricane Katrina's Beautiful Construction

2006-06-04T15:41:00.000-07:00

So here we were, back on the coast again. This was not the beautiful Australian coast we were used to but it was the also equally beautiful American coast. Like in Australia we saw many sharks, dolphins, large stingrays, turtles and clouds of fish from the air.

Hurricane Katrina had ravaged this area a little, although many places are starting to rebuild or the construction of new hotels is going ahead.
We flew low and enjoyed the 2.5 hr to Destin Florida. We stopped off after 1.5 hr and at what seemed like the trikers dream. A road along the sand spit had been partially covered up by the cyclone. The single lane road was closed to car traffic however it provided the perfect landing strip for a small aircraft such as a trike! We landed without any dramas on the road and enjoyed the moment. Life can be a little surreal sometimes but we are pinching ourselves enough to realise it all is true.

Below is a creation of Katrina. The video shows a landing on a unique sand spit with a half buried road on the Florida South Coast. (Click on the play button in the video button for intant start)

A picture of the turqoise colored water at Destin Bay with the spat in the corner. Photographers luck!!

Landing at Destin Airport was a real thrill. This airport is really busy with dozens of corporate jets and scores of twin engine charter flights. Destin is a holiday destination and Sunday in summer sets it off.

We landed behind a jet and taxied into the ramp that had rows of aircrafts. Ourlittle trike was one of a kind and got such curious stares from other aviators. I felt obliged to keep the same runway direction even though it was tail crossed. The landing was not pretty, but you definitely live and learn in this business. What a day !
It was straight into the courtesy car and down to the beautiful beaches they have here.

Day 19 - Pilot's Paradise

2006-06-04T15:40:00.000-07:00

We love an early-morning, although Anna-Klara sometimes needs to be coaxed into it. We prepared the trike and got away just as the sun was rising. Visibility was not great although there was a nice tailwind giving us an extra 5 knots.Tail winds are beautiful!

After the weeks break from flying everyday, we had just put in a nice two and a half-hour flight . We landed on the nicest grass strip, and what turned out to be a piloting neighbourhood.

Bayou la Batre airstrip (5r7) is set up with a 2000ft Turf runway surrounded by pilot’s houses and their personal hangars. The funniest thing we found is that they drive around in golf carts from house to house and around the strip. All of them had golf carts!!!

After fuelling up with the MOGAS that was available from the pump, we borrowed the manager's car and went down to the local store for breakfast. Then we had a sleep in the sun.

During my sleep I was a woken by a pilot doing a very low pass that buzzed me out of my morning nap. How nice I thought. All I saw from there was a biplane shooting up 3000 to 4000 feet, diving 3000 feet, doing rolls, hammerheads, spins you name it.
Both Anna-Klara and myself became extremely excited when he did all the acrobatics known to man, landed and taxied into his hangar on the strip. Excitement overcame shyness, and we ran over and introduced ourselves to Keith, the pilot.

Keith is a cool guy, very cool. He was from an aviation family and was actually rebuilding his grandfather's plane that his grandfather also rebuilt . Keith did air shows and was one of the most passionate aviators I have ever met, a real inspiration. We hung out all day there and Anna-Klara was very happy being accompanied by Keith's very cool wife and their cute toddlers which was a nice change. Burgers and beers in the afternoon were offered along with a bed for the night and the chance to SHOWER !!!

The highlight undoubtedly of this great day was going for a SPIN in the EAGLE stunt bi plane with Keith. With calm clear conditions in the afternoon, I was strapped in and was more than ready to experience a new perspective on flying.
During the flight we experienced 6 G positive and 2 G negative, did an eight point roll, a hammerhead stall which saw us shoot vertically up into the sky until the airspeed reached 0. I definitely came down shaking full of adrenaline and elated at having the chance to fly upside down. Thanks Keith again!!

Day 11-18 The big break

2006-06-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hammond was our gateway to New Orleans and the surrounding area. After 10 days straight flying, it was time to have a little bit of a rest. We found an excellent spot to hangar MR P for the seven days we spent there. The local flight school lent us their car and we slept in the terminal building(which had TV, Wireless Internet, cooking facilities and was 24hr air-conditioned) until one of the local flyers who also happen to be a photographer let us stay at his house.

Part of the stopover was waiting for a new part from Airborne that we needed to keep the engine cool in a hotter weather. During the week we can’t vouch to doing much but we were never really bored. If we were bored at all we were fun bored as opposed to bored bored!! We did manage to get to downtown New Orleans and see what the Hurricane Katrina had done. In some of the flooded areas there was only about 5% of the population. And it was a little eerie and like nothing we had experienced before.

Some of the highlights of the trip are definitely meeting the people. Larry, aka Mr Photographer was from an aviation family and grew up with aircraft in his backyard strip. With an absolute passion for flying and all things that fly. Larry also had a passion for photography and after a late-night intoxication session at his house and home studio, he began directing his photography shoot !! And it made us laugh, chuckle and feel a little strange. Have a look at his produce.

Our initial attempt to leave town were thawed due to some serious afternoon storm activity that was right across our flight plan. The radar was showing many areas of thick buildup of clouds. The local weather where we were going, showed rain. We spent one last night in the terminal building and headed out at daybreak next morning. I'm glad we didn't try being Heroe's Pilots as it turned out it was quite a hectic storm down there.

From North to South - Trip Summary

2006-05-30T08:29:00.000-07:00

The pace of the journey down from Chicago to New Orleans was constant but un-strenuous. We where only once held up by the weather. The aviation community provided all that we needed and more than we would even have expected. Everyday was different and presented new challenges. As a pilot I was challenged on many occasions and constantly found myself managing and minimizing risk. It was amazing dropping in on random towns along the Mississippi and beyond, according to odd factors such as runway directions, facilities and atmospheric conditions,for example. Where ever we landed we where confronted with something different that we had no pre-requisite of, we just landed there because we needed to or wanted to.

The journey across the USA north to south basically got in the pace of a morning flight for 1-1.5 hrs, arrive at airport, relax, jump in the courtesy car, eat lunch, tour town, fill up gas, come back to terminal, snooze, then fly in the afternoon to our next destination. As we got further south the local's would be increasingly amused that we had flown our little aircraft from Chicago. In the rural south there was definitely a reticence and an initial barrier to cross. The rural southern seem to be on there guard at first. After all we were foreigners in an alien aircraft!!! (or more correctly aliens in a foreign aircraft). They were really friendly, once they established what we were doing there !

Some of the things we saw and heard on this leg amazed, shocked and/or stunned us. Unfortunately we are often not in a situation where we can easily pull out the camera and start recording, (like when we where hauled in to the sheriff car in Mississippi),without breaking the flow of conversation or ruining the situation. I guess these moments belong to the traveler yet we share these as best we can in written form below.

The Actual Route and Basic Stats from North to South

10 days, 850 Nautical Miles, 18 hour of flight,300 liter of petrol (79 gallons)

Click to enlarge map.

Day 10 - Britney land - by Anna Klara

2006-05-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

You won't believe it but Britney is just a normal girl!!!!

Landing at the McComb airport - which incorporates the county that tops the list for the most young single mothers in the States, was rather entertaining. The minute we stepped inside the pilots lounge, Mr McComb - the very outspoken airport manager, a retired Vietnam veteran - had more stories than Jesus to tell us. We sat back and listened and then were made to listen some more. We don't know what happened with that day but it was all a bunch of fun.
(Photo taken of photo at terminal building)

Everywhere we go we learn something new. Whether it is useful or not is a different story. This time it was all about Britney Spears. How Mr McComb has had to fight off outrageous papparazzis and how Mr McComb blaintly asked Britney why she kissed Madonna at the awards.
- Well you see Mr McComb (she still calls him Mr despite her fame) it wasn't me, Madonna lipp locked me.......... as you do!
When Britney landed at Mr McCombs airport following this event she had to hitch as her mum did not approve of such behavior....... we all have a mother!

We also learned what he thought about those damn yankies from up north and how to treat trespassers. Mr McComb had quite some distinct opinions which he wasn't shy to share with us. Though our stop offs we met many ex -force personnel. A distinct advantage given many had served with Australian soldier while on tour and would often have a memorable story to tell about some crazy Aussie in a bar in Saigon for example.

Day 9 - No where to land

2006-05-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

After we took off from Vicksburg we soon found ourselves in low level cloud. The decision was made to fly above the cloud in much better visability and away from the high rise communication mast that are prevalent in the USA. It is alway a little errily flying with no sight of land in and aircraft with basic instruments. I alway kept sight of a hole as we flew and had to eventually excise the option as the cloud just became thicker and thicker.
A steep bank controlled spiral dive got us threw the last remaining hole in the clouds and back into relatively low viability and mild mechanical turbulence. The joys of VFR cross country flying.

Below is a 20 second video of diving through the cloud hole. Click on the play button below,(you may have to click it twice to get it started) Should play instantly if you have broadband.Enjoy !

We we arrived at Natchez to be greeted by another ground controller this time with much less enthusiasm than the last ground controller how gave us the full salut.

Life on the road - too hot to sit in the car even at night. Anna-Klara stealing bandwidth and you though Swede's were pretty straight ah !!

Day 8 - Riding the Batmobile

2006-05-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

We were glad to be out of last nights hell hole and happy to be landing at VICKSBURG TALLULAH. We where given the royal treatment with one of the ground staff waving us in to our parking spot like the they do for the big jet liners. It did make us laugh but like the professional team we are ,we pretended it was normal !!! :-)

The staff were extra helpful and welcoming. We had wireless internet, air conditioning, tv and the usually big pilot lounge. We were offered the BATMOBILE for a courtesy car. This van was something special and became the cruisemobile for rides into town for lunch, petrol and to try and find Pennzoil air cooled 2 stroke oil (do you think we could anywhere?). We even slept in the Batmobile before we took off the next morning.

We went for a local flight later that morning to go visit the local Ultralight field. On the way back we watched the cropdusters from what seem like way above at 500ft. We watched this pilot go right under low level power lines in his pursuit of excellence in spraying.

The girls from the local Cessna service centre let us put MR P out of the sun in a huge cold hangar. All was set and we headed down to the local Casino.

It is amazing what facilities there are, and how easy accessible they are to pilot.
People in aviation special, there is still a trust in the community that allows fantastic good will to be given and received.

Day 7- Good town good cops. Bad town bad cops

2006-05-29T18:38:00.000-07:00

With a beautiful fly day expected and many an air mile planned we started this day early.
Slim flew with us in his trike from his home strip for the first 15 NM of the leg. We said goodbye via the radio and thanked him for his help and hospitality. We where all alone again in a beautiful blue sky with so much space around us. Anna-Klara was in the back using the laptop to navigate and play mp3 music through the aircrafts intercom. The air was so smooth I was able to let go of the control bar and steer using the wind resistant on the front wheel as I turned it with my feet.

This was a perfect day flying. It was so calm and beautiful and every one else was at work!!! It is times like this that we would just set up there in the sky and count our blessings. The dream was coming even more alive for us.
(Photo courtesy of Slim, click to enlarge)

(Photo of catfish ponds Mississippi Delta)

We flew for a 1.5 hours to land at a deserted airport by Water Valley, Mississippi. With no access to town we flew out of there quick smart, due south, to an x airforce base with 3 huge runways. At first there was a lot of heated discussion with Miss Navigator in the back seat who insisted we where at the right airport. We were, but I did not expect an airfield the size of London's Heathrow Airport. The little mosquito landed and taxied to the terminal. Time to chill.

That afternoon after a trip to town, we flew on for the best flight of the trip so far. In 32 degree c (90 F)we flew onto the Mississippi delta and were gifted by some very accommodating thermal there saw us circle up 500 Ft per minute letting us see even more landscape and cooling us off as we rose higher.
As we approached our destination airport Lake Providence we were beginning to be hit by a storm front some 4 MN off. I pulled on some speed and we clear the rough air.

On our final approach we where cut off from underneath by a crop duster ! 200ft separated us. God is good !!!
I circled to allow his vertex turbulence to settle and landed. He apoligised and said he did not see me. They don't use the radio out here we said ! Not a close one but close enough !

Danger on the ground !

Once we had tied down MR P we grabbed a ride into town with one of the crop duster pilots. We grabbed a beer and then some food and headed back to the airport on foot which seemed pretty normal to us but not to the local sheriff. Apparently this was not just your average local town and we were fair game for the murderers, rapists and robbers particularly as foreigners. The sheriff himself made us get in his big disgusting oversize truck.

The sheriff himself was huge and overweight. His attitude to us changed once he realised we were not necessarily vagrants but travellers just passing through.
The craziest thing to us was one of his first questions was "are you carrying guns?". When we got into the car our uneasiness with sheriff himself was not abaited when he put the car into gear and the doors locked. (Modern American cars do this automatically, but we're not used to this). He then called on the radio that he had two on board, it was like we had just been arrested. He dropped us off the airport and promised to step up patrols around us that night.

Not 5 minutes had gone by before the first cop car started shying its lights on us.
After circling around for a while, the cop drove up to us and began telling us town tales. He was very concerned when we told him we were sleeping by the aircraft that night and proceeded to shine his torch into the bushes looking for "cold blooded predators" as he called them. The whole situation was unbelievable, and rattled us a fair bit. He told us the main cause of a lot of the current violence in this town was due to hurricane Katrina.

"when that hurricane came through it blew all of the shit from there all over the country".

The night we spend there was the most uneasy night I have ever spent anywhere. We learnt when we got to the next town that the National Guard had been called in to Lake Providence recently to restore order. This experience amazed us as usually crime is only bad in big cities around the world, not in small country towns. You live and you learn I guess.

Day 6 - Big bad Slim

2006-05-29T18:33:00.000-07:00

The mission today was to make it to Slim's Lambert home strip. The weather was quite settled all day, which allowed for a late start and flying all day. We stopped off in Savannah Tennessee after 2 hours in the air and had catfish for lunch. (We were in catfish country the local told us). After lunch we flew to find Slim's magnificent airstrip. We landed at about 2pm right in the heat of the day with a few thermals popping off.

Slim, a giant of a man, with a big heart more than happy to provide some vital mechanical support as we swapped triking stories. My 582 was running rich and always had since berth. Slim showed me the trick of lowering the clip in the carbs to lean it out a bit. It worked wonders, with a saving on fuel economy of 2 liter (1/2 a gallon) and hour. We also cleaned the plugs and re-oiled the oil filter. It was nice to have access to a full set of tools and some good advice.

After that we went for a fly over some magnificent tiger country and had to get back before a storm approached! Both our trikes had Airborne Cruz Wings. The extra weight of two up had me flying about 2 knot faster than Slim's Apex Cross-5X base with the lighter 503.

Slim's mate Dale took me for a ride in he's 1946 Cessna 140. This aircraft is a fully restored Tail Dragger. I had never been in a tail dragger before and was very excited. It amazes me how little aircraft have changed fundamentally in all these years. At the end of this short clip we fly over Dale's house and he shows me his short airstrip in his front yard !! Apparently Dale gets on fine with his neighbour's !! Check this out.

(The following clip should play instantly with broadband. Just click on the play button twice.)

Day 5 - Stranded in Paris

2006-05-29T18:31:00.000-07:00

Stranded in Paris

After a fair bit of early morning rain, the skies cleared out enough for take off from Paris. We loaded up the trike and took off heading south. After only 4 Nm the cloud base dropped right over us and forced us to return. Visibility was dangerously low.

Our return was spotted by one of the local ultra light pilots who can over from the other side of the field and ask us what was up. The old pilots name was Joel and he was quite a character. We sat around talking for the rest of the afternoon about flying in Alaska, flying around prisoners, his job working for the sheriff spotting marijuana crops and crop-dusting in ultralights. Joels Quicksilver Ultralight was set up and used for crop-dusting.

Joel owned a fuel truck with MOGAS, so he went home to get it and when he came back to the airport we top up MR P’s tank ready for the next break in the weather. Joel, being head of the local pilot association, also arranged for us to sleep in the Terminal building and drove us down to the shop to get some food for the night. It was a fantastic afternoon, it was great to be stranded in Paris. Like most people in aviation and, Joel was genuinely happy to be of help.

Day 4 - Flying to Paris

2006-05-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

20th May 2006
In the early hours of the morning the emergency helicopter returned from its mission. Sleeping out in the open
you tend to be on guard as a natural instinct, so a chopper is not going to have a hard time waking you up
especially when it land 150 ft from Trike and You ! I was concerned the rotor down draft would........ blow Mr P around and I was ready to spring up and hold him down if necessary. I am sure the chopper crew would have had a good laugh at a guy in a panic holding down his aircraft with just his underpants on but there was no wind from the chopper at all. I don’t get it.

Just after first light we were off. We had to skip the invite to “the fly in” up North and fly South. The primary GPS failed about 30 minutes into the flight so we got out the back up. No problem. By the time we had booted up the second GPS we where in site of another random airport we could have landed at. We decided to push on to Paris, yes Paris, Tennessee and landed there in nil wind after breaking back down though the inversion layer which saw a 20 knot cross wind 800 ft off the deck.
The Airport Terminal opened at 8am. We scammed the courtesy car and went into town for breakfast after checking emails in the Pilot,s lounge. The folks are real friendly yet a little guarded at first compared to further up North.

GET A HAIRCUT WATCH A FIGHT !

It was haircut time and what better way to hear about life in a small country town in Tennessee than going to the hairdresser. The hairdresser girls where really friendly and invited us to a country dance that evening. We could not miss out on this cultural experience.
The local country club was the venue where we met our hairdresser host, Chaunda, who introduced us to her boyfriend, Matt, a cool calm fellow. We chatted for a while until Matt offered to buy a round of drinks. While at the bar Chaunda’s X husband punched Matt. (as you seemingly do !!). After a scuffle at the bar, Matt asked him outside and waited at the exit door. Mr X- husband then came running across the room towards Matt and a fairly decent fight broke out at the door. Chaunda was calm and wasn’t getting involved at all which we found really strange. She stood away and calmly told us about small town politics as her boyfriend and x husband slugged it out.
Here is some footage of our hosts getting kicked out of the party. What a strange night.

Day 3 - Meeting the Farmer

2006-05-29T17:33:00.000-07:00

Early enough in the morning we pulled Mr P out of the hangar and packed him up ready to fly down the Mississippi River, something I had wanted to do for a long time, this was the DREAM. We took off and flew over the river and enjoy the scenary and many barges along the way. We had fun playing with the inversion layer (cold air on the ground trapped by warm air above it) . The temperature difference was distinct at 800 ft. If it began to get a little cold we would climb up to the warm air and vice versa.Quite funny as usually it is colder the higher you go. Lots of fun.

Quarry spotted with load of working barges.

Here is a short video showing part of our flight down the river set to music. Enjoy ! It's a nice feeling of freedom, just the two of us out there alone, flying down one of the world great big dirty rivers. !!

NOW NEED WE SAY MORE. I AM SURE WE CAN LET THE PICTURES TELL THE STORY OF THIS LITTLE ADVENTURE. (click on the photo to see bigger version)

WE took off from the farmer's paddock after the wind dropped right off and we flew South East onto Cairo Airport which was all but deserted. With light fading we set off to investigate a few other nearby airports. We eventually settling on a private airfield called West Kentucky. A local ultralight pilot ran us down to the gas station for fuel and FOOD !! We where starving after waiting out in the farmers field all day for the wind to bloody drop.

We slept on the tarmac that night as the Pilot's Lounge was being rebuilt. The local Rescue Helicopter based here took off just as we where falling asleep which made us laugh as we knew it likely would be back later to wake us up !!

Day 2 - 30 Nautical Miles to Ralph Jacob Airstrip

2006-05-29T17:30:00.000-07:00

An early start to beat the high wind predicted later in the day. We got Airborne again at about 7:30 am and tracked South West to meet up with Ed a local triker who had kindly offered a place to stay and a place to hanger the Trike overnight. The little grass strip is located about 20 mile South of St Louis just off the Mississippi River. It was a challenge..... finding the strip even with a GPS. Anna Klara spotted it as I flew around and we then landed in light winds and lay down in the sun to warm up a little.

Ed gave me the lock code to sneak my trike in the shared Hangar. The owner of the place turned up later and ran us into town for lunch and petrol. Such friendly helping people these trikers (ultralight) bunch in the USA, just like the crew in Australia.

The party began with the arrival of BOB, one of ED’s mate, also a pilot. Quite a character, who turned out to be like ED, i.e. 40 – 50 years old still with the spirit of a teenager. Brilliant!!! Ed arrived with some beers and we lit the BBQ outside the old barn come hangar.

Check this out for a flying machine. GO BOB we love your work!!

Day 1 - It finally arrived

2006-05-29T17:22:00.000-07:00

17th of May 2006

The day was a 5 o’clock start. Out to the airfield to meet our pre- prepare fully packed and fueled up Flying Machine. No wind on the ground and clear crisp blue skies, it was the beginning that we had hoped for. We said our goodbyes to our most helpful fellow triker friend, warmed up the engine and taxied out to the dew covered grass strip.

A little nervous but mostly excited, it was time to begin what we had planned to be a long and successful trip covering many miles across the USA. Destination unknown. With a final wave to the crowd we imagine was there to see us off, I flattened the little 2 stroke 582 engine and we began speeding down the grass strip.

With all our gear, 2 up with a full load of fuel off a wet grassy strip, it took what seemed forever to clear the ground.Finally we where in the air and with the help of a nice tailwind we had clicked over our first of mile of many. YEEERRRR HHHHHAAHHHHH the journey has finally begun.

STOP 1 DAY 1

We decided to land after about 80 minutes of flying for a stretch. I picked an airport from my GPS and we entered the circuit pattern and landed. The local pilots there came over and had a good laugh at what we where looking to do in such a small aircraft.

“Well today is coffee and donuts day upstairs” one of them announced in a big American accent, inviting and almost forcing us to come along.

---America where pilots fly their plane hundreds of miles for morning donuts---

STOP 2 DAY 1

We flew on. Grabbing the nice tailwind and heading south for the heat. Spotting a power station we flew around it. This is a requirement in the USA since 911. We ended up with an empty petrol tank at Greenville Airport, Illinois. With the wind now up to 20 knots we decided to stay the night there and see the town. This meant missing a BBQ that the pilots from Ralph Jacobs Field was warming up along with cold beers they promised were waitng for us. But that is triking sometimes. A cold front came through not some after came through with rain squalls attached so we felt we made the right decision not too push on.

It was game on in Greenville. I discovered that there is this courtesy car system in the USA for pilots to get into town. What a laugh!! Grabbing the keys I went to surprised Anna-Klara who was with the Trike and who became very excited when I turnup in our new found friend, BETTY.Here she is our saviour from hunger and gateway to adventure in Greenville.

Driving into town for a meal we stopped off at the local cattle sales.Try talk faster than this guy and have a look at the young steer karate kick on the left hand corner of the screen. (click on play button, best with broadband and sound)

The manager of Greenville Airport was ever so helpful and friendly, letting us take a shower at his place and sleep in the pilot lounge at the airport that night. We made some Skype calls using the broadband internet access provided there. The Trike was in a nice cosy hanger out of the wind. We cooked up a nice warm meal in the kitchen-ette and watched relax back on the lounge/beds in front of the big screen TV. God bless America, heh !

The Trip North to South

2006-05-27T13:52:00.000-07:00

The pace of the journey down from Chicago to New Orleans was constant but un-strenuous. We where only once held up by the weather. The aviation community provide all that we needed and more than we would even have expected. Everyday was different and present new challenges. As a pilot I was challenged on many occasions and constantly found myself managing and minimising risk. It was amazing dropping in on random towns along the Mississippi and beyond, accord to odd factors such as runway directions, facilities and atmospheric conditions. Where ever we landed we where confronted with something different that we had no pre requisite of, we just landed there because we needed to or wanted to because it looked interesting.

The journey across the USA north to south basically got in the pace of a morning flight for 1-1.5 hrs, arrive at airport, relax, jump in the courtesy car, eat lunch, tour town, fill up gas, come back to terminal, snooze, then fly in the afternoon to our next destination. AS we got further south the local's would be increasingly amused that we had flown our little aircraft from Chicago. In the rural south there was definitely a reticence and an initial barrier to cross. The rural southern seem to be on there guard at first. After all we were foreigners in an alien aircraft!!! (or more correctly aliens in a foreign aircraft). They were really friendly once they established what we were doing there !

Some of the things we saw and heard on this leg amazed, shocked and/or stunted us. Unfortunately we are often not in a situation where we can easily pull out the camera and start recording, (like when we where hauled in to the sheriff car in Mississippi),without breaking the flow of conversation or the ruining the situation. I guess these moments belong to the traveller yet we share these as best we can in written form below.

The Actual Route and Basic Stats fro North to South

10 days, 850 Nautical Miles, 18 hour of flight,300 litre of petrol (79 gallons)

Click to enlarge map.

A Woman Perspective from Above

2006-05-21T22:20:00.000-07:00

A woman’s view from above

I had never dreamt of crossing the States in a trike but I have always loved flying and seeing things from above. So when Dave proposed the idea I thought -What could be a better way of seeing a country and I have never been scared of adventures so yeah –let’s go for it? I had not expected what I was about to experience – the best adventure I have ever taken part in!!!!

I didn’t tell my mum who would not have been happy as it seems a lot more dangerous then what it actually is flying a trike. We managed to get safe on the ground in some emergency landings which would not have been possible in a bigger aircraft.

Having only flown shorter legs in the trike I was a bit anxious I would get bored doing long legs such as 2-3 hours. It is quite windy and noisy up there and sometimes cold. The pilot will probably think you are a bit sensitive as he can’t feel the wind as much – well that’s because he has a wind shield to hide behind!!! So get well dressed up there in the air. After having flown in planes with cockpit I hold on to the opinion that flying in a trike is for me a lot more of a sensation as all your senses are being used.

The first leg I did get a bit bored and cold. How will I cope I thought? It quickly changed. We realised how much easier it would be if I did the navigation from the back which would allow Dave to concentrate on flying. It would also give me a sense of involvement during the voyage. I felt like we were a team now – Dave, me and MrP.

The flying community usually consists of men – married men but where are their wives? You can imagine there were a lot of engine talks and beers. I never felt secluded as I involved myself and enjoyed learning more and more about trikes and flying. There were times I was urging to get in contact with other women. I met some wonderful pilot’s wives along the way who took me under their wings and knew exactly how I felt. Such a wonderful community.

Being in the air watching everything from above gave me such inspiration. I did a lot of photographing and filming from the back. I was busy and lost track of time and was surprised each time we landed and Dave said – That was a 2.5 hour flight!!!!.

There were a few moment when I felt a slight anxiety like when we had engine problems. I always trusted Dave and I knew we would work it out together. I was glad I knew how to navigate at this stage so I could find places to land by reading the map.

Dave and I also had a side challenge to flying. We wanted to sleep as few nights in hotels as we could. It is usually more interesting camping. We had some funny nights sleeping in a boat on land due to danger of alligators close by, sleeping on the tarmac next to Mr P and some cosy nights in pilot lounges. This way of living encouraged my innovation techniques to develop. I made a shower out of a gallon water bottle, I tied together office chairs to make them into a rather comfortable bed and I was a master of finding space on the aircraft. Dave wasn’t aware of half of what was hidden in there!! I recommend packing in thin fabric shopping bags as they are light and can fit in to the awkward spaces. They are also easy to take with you if you leave the aircraft. A pocket knife and some dried soups are great to have as food supply.

Flying Links Used

2006-05-17T10:23:00.000-07:00

USA WEATHER
http://rvproject.com/wx/
http://www.usairnet.com/
Terminal Area Forecasts in the area: http://adds.aviationweather.gov/tafs/java/
And this for METARs (current conditions) http://adds.aviationweather.gov/metars/java/

MAPS
Sectional, this site is great:http://skyvector.com/
GPS Software used http://www.pocketfms.com
I use this with my PDA for moving map navigation and flight planning. A great tool.

AIRPORT FACTILITIES ALONG THE ROUTE
http://airnav.com/airports/

CHECKING THE TERRAIN ON PROPOSED ROUTE
http://www.googleearth.com

Flying into a lake !

2006-04-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

I was amazed and a little shocked when I captured this footage using
my video phone on a super smooth summers afternoon. The camera was out
because I did not think people would really believe just how low this pilot
flys. (or used to fly).

Thanks Frank for the background music.

On the Edge…

2006-04-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

On the edge of anything tempts for adventure. As a hang glider pilot the edge of a cliff is where it all begins. The count down is one for take off on an adventure across America in nothing much more than a hang glider with seats, engine and wheels. The aircraft preparation is mostly done, yet the route still is to be determined and is probably best left that way.

So how did I get to this bloody edge, sometimes I wonder myself. I am blaming it on my friends who have all started having babies. These guys have been the biggest inspiration on getting out there and enjoying the freedom while I still have it!!
Also with this in mind I thought I better throw myself a pre- party, quit working until further notice, go travelling Asia, South America , Central America and spend 3 precious months back in my homeland Australia learning to fly my new machine.

Flying America was also in the back of my mind but I never put an absolute pressure on myself that it must be done. As it turned out, I could not justify not going. I had the opportunity now to live my dream and with no REAL excuses, not doing it would have caused more psychological damage to me than actually the financial damage I have inflicted on myself!

The financial cost of taking time out pilot training, travelling and exporting aircraft around the world is all part of the adventure. It is quite funny peering at your mortgage overdraft account going down out of control, in a locked spiral dive. Soon I will have to rescue it but until then I may as well laugh at it and enjoy this adventure and its freedoms.

The Aircraft

2006-04-22T15:55:00.000-07:00

Trike has a Cruz wing that cruises at 50 knots.
Powered by a 65 hp 2 stroke Rotax.
Range is about 150 NM on one tank.

Airborne trikes are fantastic aircraft. I purchased my trike knew from the factory and was able to go up there directly and see how these aircraft are made. It certainly gives you confidence to meet the owners who are dedicated to making a safe and fun aircraft.

The aircraft build itself was superb. We always felt safe when flying from structural problems, even in heavy heavy turbulence. These aircraft away over specified an extremely strong.

It was sad to let our little trike go, but it made sense when I went back to the real world and had to work in a big city like Chicago. Winter was coming and it worked quite sure whether we wanted to stay in the United States. The other factor was we were not enjoying our flying as much. Anna Klara would get understandably bored taking off from the same airstrip and going around in circles only to return back to the same airstrip. It certainly seemed a little strange after the adventure we have just had.

We made the new owner promised us that he would take Mr Perserville on at the least one serious cross-country trip per year. We hope he has.....

BELLY BAG IS SITUATED UNDER THE POD. CLICK ON PHOTO TO ENLARGE.

Photo slide show

2006-04-22T15:40:00.000-07:00

Please wait a little while for photos to load.It may take 10-20 depending on connection speed.