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Well, I had one of our missionary pilots here for training prior to his departure for New Guinea and the day after he arrived a situation arose where we both needed to get to Kansas City for the funeral of a mutual acquaintance. If we drove or flew commercally it would take too large a chunk out of our training period so we decided to fly ourselves. The Cessna T-210 was down for maintenance (as usual) so we went in the T-craft. We were literally getting in the plane to leave when one of the jury strut to wing attach fittings broke off. This seemed like a pretty important item to address so we robbed one off of Yellow Duck's wing which is still not needed due to it being disassembled. Twenty minutes later we were off. Got as far as Dickson, TN and stopped for the night. Sure am glad they still paint the names of towns on water towers... Anyway, the weather was nasty and we didn't get out of there until after 17:00 the next day. Went as far as Sikeston, MO and spent the night again. In the morning the ceiling was 300' so we didn't get off until about 10:15 and were able to make it into Hiawatha, KS before dark. (11.5 hours logged)
On the return we left at dawn and made it the whole way to Concord, GA about 25 minutes before sunset. We could have done better but had to deviate into Alabama to avoid convective weather. (10.1 hours for the return flight) The plane ran ok on the 100LL although it isn't used to it. The trip up was all at low level and on the way south we flew at 9,500' cause it was over 100 degrees on the ground. Overall, I think it was probably like a backpacking trip. The longer ago it was, the more enjoyable... We had ground speeds as low as in the 50's and never got one of those elusive tailwinds. My guy did a fine job of navigating with a map, plotter, whiz wheel and watch. (Yes, it still works guys and gals...)
On the return we left at dawn and made it the whole way to Concord, GA about 25 minutes before sunset. We could have done better but had to deviate into Alabama to avoid convective weather. (10.1 hours for the return flight) The plane ran ok on the 100LL although it isn't used to it. The trip up was all at low level and on the way south we flew at 9,500' cause it was over 100 degrees on the ground. Overall, I think it was probably like a backpacking trip. The longer ago it was, the more enjoyable... We had ground speeds as low as in the 50's and never got one of those elusive tailwinds. My guy did a fine job of navigating with a map, plotter, whiz wheel and watch. (Yes, it still works guys and gals...)
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