Nuchatlitz
Well-known member
Wrung out a Super Decathlon yesterday. It’s a little smokey, so we kept it over a towered airport, above circuit height.
2026 WENT FLYING TODAY! ***PICTURES/VIDEO THREAD***
- Thread starter Bartman
- Start date
We’re had a lot of wildfires on the west coast recently. It’s made flying hard, visibility is like 3 miles or worse in a lot of places. I was flying last week in a remote area, and saw a fire in the wilderness that looked small and new. I was using Flight Following at the time, so I called up ATC and told them about it. (I learned from a CFI last year that this is a thing you can do). I didn’t think much more about it, and about 20 minutes later the smoke got so thick in the direction I was going that i couldn’t see the ground, and the horizon was starting to get blurry too. Over the previous hour and a half, I had already climbed to about 11,500’ to get above the smoke, which is about my service ceiling. I exercised the better part of valor (discretion) , and did a 180 to return to base. ATC asked my intentions, and I didn’t have enough fuel to do the whole trip in reverse, so i told them I would need a few minutes to figure out my diversion airport so I could refuel. I did that, then as I continued back the way I’d come, the visibility got a little better. About 20 minutes later i got back to where I’d seen the new forest fire, and it was bigger. But I noticed on the ADSB that there were two targets in approximately the location of the fire. So i looked really closely, and there were aerial firefighters working the fire 4000 feet below me! I guess my report worked. Check out the zoomed-in picture of the chinook pouring water out of the bucket, and the bigger picture of it refilling it from the small lake in the lower right.
at Blairstown, NJ, 1N7
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Ioneater
Member
I made it to Eastern Colorado to bring my newly aquired 7KCAB to its new home in Gulfport, MS. It was hangared but not flown for 4 years prior to that. I spent a few days there getting my helicopter brain reprogrammed for a taildragger. During those few days the Uavionix wing tip ADSB needed reset, the old B/K KX125 nav/com let the smoke out in my face and then it was time to fly south. Mostly tailwinds from Limon, CO to Dodge City, KS; Tulsa, OK; El Dorado, AR and finally Gulfport.
"Kermit" looks good in his new hangar. Took my better half up for her first ride this morning!
"Kermit" looks good in his new hangar. Took my better half up for her first ride this morning!
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Bob Turner
Well-known member
- Joined
- Apr 4, 2018
- Messages
- 4,223
Every cross-country stops at El Dorado.
The green grows on you!
The green grows on you!
Sully
Well-known member
Congrats. Hope you have many hours of enjoyment.
Ioneater
Member
Very friendly folks there. It was surprisingly quiet for such a large airport.
Ioneater
Member
Thank you!
That’s one of the main reasons I wanted a tandem seat airplane, less to reprogram that way. Inputs might be different but at least it’s still left hand power and right hand control.
It does a great imitation of a Champ!
vupilot
Active member
Good looking airplane! Ive always liked green on airplanes but I seem to be in the minority in my pilot group. Glad it found somebody to fly it regularly!
Ioneater
Member
I just installed a set of these today. Haven't flown yet. A question was raised by Bob in another post about any stress these may put on the stems. How are yours holding up?
