We wait around all morning and most of the afternoon for Fedex to deliver my new rotor to the backwoods of Maine. Two hours later the part is installed, and the great Jacobs R-755 radial engine leaps to life and seems to run better than ever.
Now things start to happen really fast. The engine fairings are refitted, the cowl replaced, safety wired, and the entire job is inspected twice over. While I'm making a final walk around ground inspection, Art is calling Flight Service for weather information, and we learn that a low fog is moving in from the coast. At the same time conditions are deteriorating where we are. The ceiling is lowering with each passing minute, and the cumulus clouds are getting darker, threatening to keep us at Moosehead Lake for another couple of days at least, if we don't get going right away.
Conditions are OK in Bangor Maine, halfway between Moosehead Lake and Bar Harbor, on the coast, so we figure that if the coast goes IFR then we can land at Bangor, and that's better than staying where we are.
These are the times which are the most challenging. Last minute decisions based on rapidly changing information. Trying to get going in a hurry always produces a greater chance of making a mistake. My defense against this is to slow everything down and be sure.
I take off first and pick up a heading of 159 degrees, direct to Bar Harbor, and put the throttle at maximum cruise. The air is very calm because we are flying under a heavy overcast, the sun can't make it through the clouds to cause the updrafts that make for a bumpy ride. About 20 miles before Bangor, the sky starts to clear. I radio Bangor Approach control and request, and get, clearance to transition the Class C airspace at only 1000 feet above the ground. A few minutes later, a pilot departing from Bar Harbor calls Bangor Approach with a report that there is a large fog bank over the ocean off the coast of Bar Harbor and he estimates that Bar Harbor will go below VFR minimums very soon.
We get lucky. The fog stays offshore, and we land at Bar Harbor under clear skies in calm air. We are immediately shown to a large hangar and the manager greets us personally and helps us with our baggage. We rent a car, drive around the island to check it out, and find our hotel, clean up and head out for a MAINE LOBSTER dinner.
It's an anti-climax: we have flown 3000 miles to see the Atlantic Ocean, and when we finally get there, we can't see it from the air because of the fog bank. And when we get on the ground, the fog moves in quickly, and thickly, and we can't see out beyond the boats in the harbor. During dinner, I take a break from the action, and walk outside in a very heavy, very typical, Maine fog that wraps everything in a muffled quiet with a cold wet air that chills you thoroughly. This is the kind of country where a fireplace is a necessity, even in June.
The weather for the next couple of days may be more of the same. To the south fog and drizzle are forecast, so if we fly at all, it will be back north toward Eastport, a small fishing village which is the easternmost point in the United States, the place where the rays of sunlight first touch American shores. This is a major goal: to get as far away from San Diego as possible, and still stay in the continental US.