My flight bud, Paul Huber, and I had been planning a just for fun flight for some time. I was pretty excited about it as Paul was going to take me around some strips that belonged to friends of his. I was hoping to wangle an invite to some more fields and broaden my circle of flying friends. The forecast was for winds from the west gradually moving to the south by the end of the day. And, increasing in velocity throughout the day. I was in my trike and preparing for takeoff by 0600! The image on the left was taken while approaching the Capital City Airport at 2500' AGL. You can see the 06 end of the runway in the lower righthand side of the image. The bright light at the east (left) end of the runway is the dome of the state capital. The picture does not do the view justice, it was truly breathtaking. |
Paul and I had been hoping to land at a strip on the south side of the Kentucky River in the palisades area. The strip from the air had basically a north-south orientation and appeared to be approximately 1500' x 100, and in good shape. The north end of the strip dropped off a sheer cliff about 300' to the Kentucky River. I had a yearning to take off and watch the world fall away dramatically beneath me, and this strip offered just such an opportunity. We landed and the strip proved very accomodating and smooth. Then we walked to the river (cliff) end of the strip to check things out. Looking down the strip towards our trikes on the left you can see a small image on the strip (a speck actually). It is a motorcycle coming towards us. |
It is the owner of the strip, Jim Misheff! Presently, he does not have a plane, but he keeps a windsock and the strip mowed for visiting flyers! What a nice sort of fellow, he visited with us for about 20 minutes and then left to continue turkey hunting. Paul and I were elated that he was so nice and generous, and invited us back anytime we wanted to drop in. You can bet we will take him up on his offer! Thanks, Jim. |
This is a view from the north end of the strip looking north. |
This view is from the north end of the strip looking east-northeast. |
After leaving the strip on the river palisades we flew basically east into a stiffening wind towards Fayette (Lexington) and Jessamine Counties. This is a view from 3000' AGL over some of the horse farm country. We passed over wonderful little villages like Nonesuch and other little out of the way places. There was considerable wind, but above 1200' it was smooth and bump free. From 1200' to about 900' there was considerable turbulence and strange air, but then it calmed down some with a wind from the west about 15 knots. We landed at a very exclusive, private strip on one of the farms that was undoubtedly one of the nicest turf strips I have ever seen. It was manicured like the fairways at Augusta! The owner has not charted the strip and prefers his privacy, so out of deference no more details will be furnished, but it was a beautiful strip and hopefully someday I will be able to post it on one of my web pages. |
I started not to relate the last portion of our sojourn, but in some ways it was the most eventful part of the trip. If you squint and have really good eyesight you can maybe, just maybe make out the City of Lexington in the background of the last image (above). We flew around the city and the class C airspace. And heading west encountered headwind from 30 to 40 knots! We went up, we went down, but there was no escape it was going to be a long flight home. I checked my GPS and saw a whopping ground speed of 25 mph! Gadzooks, my bladder is beginning to make some demands, FLY FASTER!! So, I bar in and take the little Rotax up to 5800 rpms. I check my ground speed again, oh wonderful it is now 35 mph! I look at my airspeed indicator and it tells my I am flying 70 mph. ETA to my strip 2 hours, yikes, I can't last that long, I punch in Paul's strip, not a whole lot better, but less than 2 hours. Unlike Chuck Slusarczyk I do not have a 3 hour bladder. Any of you that have spent some time with Chuck know what I am talking about, and if you don't make the time to hear him speak. His flying stories are wonderful. Anyway, after an interminable period of time that seemed like weeks, Paul's strip, Seldom Scene, came into view. Man, time is of the essence, I am on final, I cut the engines, I bar in and stand on the brakes. My landing roll was probably less than 200'. I jump out and take care of business, whew! We flew a total of 145 miles with a maximum altitude of 4,000', maximum ground speed of 99.2 mph, minimum ground speed of 24 mph, and a total flight time of 4 hours and change. After such a magnificent feat of flying there was nothing left to do but have a repast of equal grandeur. Let's do the buffet at Casa Fiesta! We did and I am still full. Happy flying to all. |
