This day is memorable only in that it is the first time we have seen sunshine in about a week. People hereabouts are not real complimentary about Lansing weather.
After last night's ground level dense fog, we never expected to be able to fly. So we slept late, were greeted by the expected yucky weather, and headed to the airport with a full load of laundry to see if there was somewhere we could get our clothes done and back in a day or less (still hoping to be able to fly out of here someday). Spent at least an hour asking people, and checking the yellow pages with no luck... people just don't understand the concept of getting laundry done.
In a moment of inspiration, I happened to mention it to Carl Dye, the world's greatest Waco biplane pilot. He grunted something like: "Yup, out near my house. I'm going there now for lunch. Gimme your stuff and I get it done." Just like that! It's not everyday you can get your laundry handled by the world's greatest Waco biplane pilot. Just one more reason why he's TWGWBP. So while he dropped of the laundry, I used the free time to find a haircut.
Returning to the airport, Art decided to get his windshield replaced with the new model, which is higher and wider and cuts back on the wind, making the ride a lot more comfortable and nowhere near as cold. And since we were going to be here another day with that modification, I decided to get my propeller spiffed up with a paintjob at the tips.
Almost immediately after our two planes were rendered unflyable with the work in progress, THE SUN COMES OUT!!!! Damn! There was this huge hole in the clouds right over Lansing. So we call Flight Service to see if we can get out of here, but no way. Everywhere around Lansing is pure, thick, down to the ground IFR. Maybe tomorrow. So we went to the movies. "Phantom". Good but not great.
A few questions have been posed by some friends who get these emails, so I thought I would share the answers with everyone. I'm doing this to relieve the boredom, for you and for me.
Q. Is this part of the oft-discussed Round the World flight?
A. No way! This is just a very unserious flyabout the USA. The Round the World flight probably won't take place for another couple of years, maybe in the year 2000. I need more practice, and it takes a lot of planning.
Q. What is the itinerary?
A. A what? :) We don't need no stinking itinerary, man. We are flying open-cockpit single engine biplanes and the wind and the weather and the whims of the pilots are not conducive to making an itinerary. There are no schedules, by design. The general idea is to get to Maine then go down the east coast to Florida, then back west, maybe via the Gulf Coast, then take the lower route (south of the Rockies) to San Diego. Maybe we get back home in a couple of months.
Q. I have a friend who would like to get these email messages sent directly to their email address. How?
A. It's easy and free, and you can encourage as many people as you want to sign up. Here's how: Just have them send an email to:
majordomo@MichaelMcCafferty.com
They can leave the subject blank, and in the body of the email text, simply put this single line:
subscribe news-l
(The last character in the line above is the letter 'el', not a 'one' ) Don't put anything else in the email, it will not be read as this process is completely automatic and handled by the computer. It's no bother at all for me, so have fun.
Q. Do you have radar?
A. Not really radar, but I do have a thing called TCAD (Traffic Collision Avoidance/Detection). It let's me know about most of the air traffic in the vicinity, but it only tells me the distance and vertical separation, and whether it's getting closer or farther away. The important thing it doesn't tell me is the direction, so when the thing beeps in my headset, and I read the numbers on the instrument panel, I have to look all around the sky to find the traffic. It's better than nothing, I suppose. Real radar would be VERY expensive, more than the plane, probably. And very heavy... impossible to carry in this plane. So TCAD is the next best thing. As always, the first principle of flying these planes is to "keep your head on a swivel", always looking around outside, "see and be seen".