Double-Header Weekend
Having missed the Great Bend, KS air show due to high winds, I seized the opportunity to combine the 51st Tulsa Regional Fly-In and the Alva, OK Festival of Flight into one weekend of flying activity. It seemed like a good way to compensate for missing the earlier air show. Makes sense to me. Being able to put two fine aviation events back-to-back in one weekend was a first for me, never before have I attended a "double-header" like this.
Wow, what a great weekend it was! 350 miles of flying, variety in my navigation, met old friends, made new ones, participated in a most excellent airplane display Saturday then on Sunday, topped off the weekend watching a 2-hour air show. It was a great way to spend a weekend. Actually it was more than that, it was phenomenal! It also included one tense flight leg.
Departure & Diverting
After filing a flight plan and calling Bartlesville’s temporary tower to announce my arrival I left Hamilton Field at 8:30 AM. The sun was already up but the sky was hazy with about 5 miles of visibility. Thirty minutes later that ended when a solid cloud layer at 3000 feet obstructed my flight path. Too thick to go on top I decided to go under. That didn’t work either because it was solid fog to the ground. Visibility was about 100 yards! At 300’ AGL I gave up and diverted to Winfield airport, which was beyond the fog but 90 degrees to my flight path.
An hour later I had refueled at their credit card pump, filed a new flight plan and took off, again still in fog but visibility had improved to at least 3 miles. Later I would realize a mistake I made during refueling.
Arriving at Frank Phillips Field in Bartlesville, OK I entered the pattern, watched for other planes, sequenced myself then landed on the grass runway paralleling the concrete. Ground crew directed planes where to park. They were well organized and knew what they were doing, very comforting!
Camaraderie
Surprise surprise! Upon parking, a number of friends came over to greet me: there was Melinda from St. Joe MO., David & Dennis from Gage, OK, and Steve & Arbie from my own EAA Chapter 88! You always hope to meet old friends at an event like this but I never expected them to be all in one place before I had even shut my engine off! My God, it suddenly was Old Home Week! This feeling of companionship is what I really like about fly-ins.
The camaraderie of seeing friends and enjoying an aviation event ranks right up there with the act of flying to the event. It is just a wonderful feeling to share experiences with so many people who feel similarly. As the day wore on I met others and made one new friend (Tony) from Arkansas who is building a Mini Max. He was taking flying lessons at this airport.
Two More Surprises
Shock greeted me when the fuel truck finished filling my tanks and I tried to pay my bill with a credit card. My card was missing! Fortunately they let me pay my bill with a check. I then spent an hour retracing my steps on the field and vendor areas looking and asking for my card. Eventually I called my bank to put a hold on the card. Ever lose your card, talk about anxiety! Eventually I concluded that I had left my credit card in the fuel pump card machine at the Winfield Airport in Kansas (remember that flight path diversion and fuel fill up?). Did you ever do that?
Late in the afternoon I erected my tent then cleaned up for the evening’s banquet. Did you every try shaving and taking a sponge bath with Wet Wipes in the FBO single-place bathroom? Well, it can be done but you have to be fast to avoid the irate glares of people waiting by the door when you exit.
The banquet was held in the air-conditioned country club and attended by about 150 people. An awards ceremony complete with special speeches and bantering was held following the meal. To my surprise I won “Grand Champion” for my category of plane! Of the 270 registered planes about 20 were in the Ultralight, LSA category. My 9-year old well-traveled hangar-rashed plane can still hold its own!
The fly-in organizers arranged for my transportation back to the airport, they drove others to their motels. What a neat benefit!
Anxiety flight to Alva
Delayed two hours by the Sunday morning fog so thick the birds were walking and dogs crawling on their bellies my anxiety mounted as 9:00 approached. That was my ”drop dead” departure time for me to arrive at Alva, OK airport before they closed for the air show at 11:30. The fog burned off enough for me to depart following filing a flight plan for a 9:00 departure. This was going to be close, I had 148 miles to go and needed to make one fuel stop. If everything went well, I could just make it.
Switching on the GPS it was soon obvious that I had not entered the coordinates for my fuel stop at Blackwell, OK. You can imagine my frustration and irritation. I said “OK go to plan B”, fly due west using pilotage. There were roads, Ponca City Lake, and I-35 to act as major landmarks. I can do this and did. I pushed the throttle to 6200 rpm, 400 past my cruise rpm. This moved my speed up to 70 mph thanks to a rear-quartering tailwind. By 10:05 I was landing at Blackwell for fuel.
Fuel stops are never fast especially when I need to close a flight plan, open a new one and this time get clearance to fly across Restricted Air Space to maintain straight-line flight to Alva. Taking off 30 minutes later I knew that the airport would be closed by 11:30 as the Notam said, my only hope was for a tailwind and that the real start of the air show would be noon. Otherwise there was no way I could cover the 70 miles in 45 minutes. Alternately I could just go home from here.
Uncapped Fuel Tank?
Departing Blackwell and reaching 3,000' MSL two things grabbed my attention: The SE tailwind had now changed to due south and was very strong and bumpy. Secondly, the sight tube for my right fuel tank read only half full! I was sure I filled the tanks and recounted the fuel price with what I had paid. Yes I did fill the tanks. So why was the gauge reading only half full? When shutting the valve on that tank, the sight tube immediately showed full. I began to wonder why that would be. The best answer I could come up with was that I had forgotten to put the fuel cap back on and started kicking myself for not installing a safety chain on it like I said I was going to do years ago.
Failing in my attempt to remove the plane's rear view mirror so I could hopefully hold it in front of the wing to check for the missing cap I had two choices: 1) Turn around and go back to Blackwell thus completely missing the Alva air show or 2) keep going, monitor the fuel situation and try to resolve the problem. In my flight path were two airports, Vance Air Force Base and Cherokee. Also in my path was about 15 miles of marshland, lake and salt flats known as the Great Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge, not a good place to go down. It seemed reasonable with two alternative airports to continue. So I did.
The fuel gauge was reading horribly low as I passed Vance AFB but I knew I had enough fuel in the other tank to make Cherokee. Ahead of me was the Salt marsh. I could just imagine fuel spewing out the uncapped tank but could not reach far enough aft to put my hand in the slipstream behind the aileron to verify that situation. Not only was the pucker factor going up but so was my anxiety while I seriously questioned the logic of my earlier go decision.
The right tank sight tube eventually displayed empty but when I shut off the valve, the gauge read at the 1/4 full mark? Man, I couldn't figure this out. Leaving the salt marsh behind me it seemed reasonable to make a precautionary landing at Cherokee 15 miles ahead and abandon extending my flight to Alva, I needed to stay on the safe side of this situation. Now I figured I had just wasted a lot of time, burned fuel unnecessarily and put myself at risk, perhaps I should have just gone home from Blackwell. I was irritated at having made a bad decision.
Dropping another 1000 feet in anticipation of a Cherokee landing the air became very bumpy and my heart sank when I saw the runway. There were no hangars (only remnants of concrete where they once stood), no fuel truck, no fuel tanks/pump, no airport shack. Nothing. The place looked abandoned and town was about 3 miles away, this was not a good place to land.
Pressing on I endured the bumpy air confident that I could still make Alva on the left tank's remaining fuel and that in my fuselage reserve tank. At 11:45 I was in Alva's airport area, vigilant for air show planes; I saw one take off and climb for altitude. I also saw a C-172 in the pattern and setting up for a long approach; for whatever reason it was going to land and it was not a part of the show. Cutting my pattern short I planned to follow the Cessna in, if I got waved off I would land in a field next to the airport and walk to it. I was out of options. To avoid fuel feed problems during descent; I switched to my reserve tank.
Following landing I was waved into a parking place where I exited the plane, and apologized for my transgressions to the lineman. He said not to worry, FAA was not on the field and only the flag jumpers had gone up to do their thing. Whew!!!!
Now the best part. After tying down between the runway and the tarmac I could see four people waving frantically from behind the safety tape. Immediately I recognized them as EAA members from Gage, OK whom I had told I planned on being there Sunday. It was Gail, Don, Ron and Cliff. They changed their attendance day from Saturday to Sunday to greet me! How about that! Man, did that make me feel good! Aviation folks are fantastic, I need to "pass forward" all the friendship I received this weekend.
We spent the balance of the day together enjoying each other's company, getting caught up, and marveling at the air show acts. By 4:30 I was refueled and on my takeoff run for home, sun and wind at my back. It doesn’t get any better than that! I made the 87 miles in one hour and 10 minutes! That's almost 80 mph! Man what a ride (at 4,000'). What a weekend! I live for this stuff!
AirBike Ace
PS. The fuel cap was in place, however the cap’s vent tube was angled about 45 degrees to the line of flight. I believe this caused air to be siphoned out of the tank and caused a low-pressure area in it. It then became easier for the fuel pump to draw fuel from the sight tube until equilibrium was reached before drawing down the tank. Hence the false reading but an accurate reading when the valve was closed. Any ideas?
Logged
"If in doubt, Chicken out." 
