PPC Caravan Was A Success

[vie]

The first of its kind PPC Caravan could not have been more successful. Our group was able to fly our PPCs 14 days in a row. I will post photos as I can -- until then, this link has more information.

Vie

http://ppcpilot.com/ppccaravancomplete.htm

www.ppcpilot.com

[lockdoc600]

Man that looked like fun! I wish we could have been there to fly it with you all! maybe another year. Thanks for sharing with us. :cool:

[Waltm]

How about a writeup on the whole experience? I'm curious why y'all didn't fly at Tuba City and how the flying was around Grants, NM. Info on your experiences of the whole trip would be nice, too.

Walt...

[vie]

Walt,

Tuba City was one of the few disappointments of the trip. Hopefully Perry Pahlmeyer will post his comments here as well, as he was our "scout".

Tuba City's airport is 7-8 miles west of Tuba City and is surrounded by a fence and locked gate. We were told to pick up the key in town at the police station. However that turned out to be a hassle. They would not give the key to us ahead of time and we did not feel like asking the sheriff or a deputy to show up at 5:30 a.m. to let us in. We could not park our trailers or motor homes there. So we skipped Tuba City -- we did travel through the area, though, and wow! what we missed! Hopefully we can fly there another time.

As an alternative, we all voted to stay an extra day in Holbrook, AZ. What a great place to fly a PPC! The painted desert just north of the airport produced some of the most memorable photos from the trip. If you ever get a chance to fly there, do it!

I will post more about the trip here in another email -- to answer your question about Grants-Milan, NM -- it was an interesting place to fly -- we flew over the lava flows and through a great little canyon to the calderas in El Malpais. There also is a large mesa north of town that we ventured over. I would go back -- plus Wes, the airport manager, could not have been more accommodating -- we parked right out on the hard surface tarmack. It was a good experience.

More later -- plus I'll be posting some of the 1500 photos that I took.

Vie

[Waltm]

Wes is one of my favorite FBO managers. I fly into Grants 6 or 7 times a year (the Sheriff's office is one of my clients). He doesn't have a courtesy car but has always let me use his personal truck to get my work done. He's an all-around great guy! I knew that y'all would have a good experience with him.

Walt...

[vie]

Walt,

I remember your previous post about Tuba City -- I hope we can make it there some day. You are sure right, Wes is a great guy. We asked, "What if we go down in the trees getting to the caldera?" and he answered, "Well I'll just have to get my truck out and come and get you." The only problem with going back to Grants would be if we grow too large for that little airport.

If you have input on other airports out that way, I would appreciate it. We are already in the process of pre-planning the PPC Caravan 2006 and any input would be appreciated. Monument Valley will be on next year's list as well as Page, Utah and the Lake Powell area. And we definitely want to go back to Leadville before Sport Pilot restricts all of us to 10,000 feet!!!!!!

Head into the wind,

[Bruce Brown]

Bill,

I meant to ask you last week and forgot - did you fly from place to place? Or, did you drive to each stop, fly around, and then drive to the next?

With all the motorhomes and trailers I wasn't sure if you had designated drivers to follow while you flew from airport to airport.

Also, if you have Bob Hawks email address would you mind PM'ing me with it?

[vie]

Bruce,

We trailered our PPCs between the airports, then flew within 15 or so miles of each airport. Lots of scenery in between and talking PPCs in the evenings.

We averaged probably 150 miles between airports.

[vie]

Several have asked for a summary of our trip -- this will have to suffice.

I will not have anywhere close to enough time or space
to summarize all that happened on our caravan trip --
but over the next few months and at fly-ins, you all
can hear as well as share your experiences about the
trip.

Suzi and I arrived home last night (Sat.) at about
9:45pm -- a 12 hour drive from Denver. We were
totally exhausted from arising at or before 5
a.m.EVERY morning for two weeks and driving 2900 hard
miles in a 35 foot motor home pulling a 24 foot
trailer! But talk about worth it!!!!!!! It could not
have been better.

The company was superb. Lyman and Sharon Johnston and
Bill Crowley made every day of the trip. (That was
even better than Suzi and I as we had a glitch along
the way with our fuel pump and missed one morning of
flying.) So they get the award for being the first
ever wall-to-wall PPC Caravan participants. Dwane and
Valerie Richardson and Perry Pahlmeyer started and
ended with us, although they had committments in the
middle of the trip that took them away for a few days.
Dick Sommer made it all the way to the last day.
Dick, you have no idea what you missed!! Jim Jordan
(someone give me his email address, by the way,
please, and forward this email to him if you will)
started with us, and ended with us, but only flew a
couple of the days.

We had 17 pilots along with us on the first day in
Trinidad, including Ron Luthi who brought his crutches
instead of his PPC. We ended with 8 at Leadville --
Leadville?? Yep, that's a long story.

Someone in our group flew their PPC every single day
of the trip. We did not miss a day or a location! I
think that’s amazing! Great planning, right?!! Pat
me on the back. I apparently control the weather. Or
maybe it was Suzi and her prayers. We should probably
credit her and some other power besides myself.
Anyway – fourteen days of flying in a row – awesome! (Actually Lyman flew 16 days in a row as he and Sharon and Dwane and Valerie attended the EAA event in east Denver on the 25th and 26th.)

We deviated from our original route somewhat for a
couple of reasons. First, Tuba City turned out to be
a hassle. We learned about it ahead of time, so we
did not go there and get shut out. The group elected
to stay an extra day in Holbrook, Arizona (truthfully,
they were sympathetic for Suzi and me as our motor
home was incapacitated). It turned out to be a good
plan for us as the flying and the accommodations in
Holbrook were both fantastic. Holbrook was one of my
favorite places to fly of the entire trip.

Because of the extra day in Holbrook, the drive to
Kanab was twice as far in one day. But that didn’t
slow anyone down much. The group flew in Kanab and
didn’t miss a beat the next morning.

Bryce Canyon was interesting, but scary. The wind
coming up out of that canyon was the most bouncy I
think I have ever flown in. Suzi and I were both glad
to be back on the ground there. We skipped the second
day there because of the wind and found a new location
– one we all want to go back to, by the way – near
Lyman (yeah, that’s right) Lyman, Utah – the airport
is called “Wayne Wonderland” and it provided terrific
scenery and flying. East of the aiport was Capitol
Reef National Park, south was rolling hills and
canyons with lava stones cluttering the ground
everywhere, west were huge boulders, and in and around
the airport, lush irrigated alphafa fields. DO NOT GO
INTO THAT ONE CANYON, however. That’s an interesting
story in itself. It took us 20 minutes to go a half a mile back out.

From there, we drove through Capitol Reef N.P. and on
to Moab – we skipped Green River. Along our route we
passed an unattended airport near Hanksville that
would be a great airport for a future trip. Spires
(a miniature version of Monument Valley) stuck out of
the ground everywhere and mountains were the backdrop.
We need to remember Hanksville.

Moab was interesting – we flew from Canyonland airport
north of town the first day and from the old drag stip
(old airport) south of town the second day. Great
scenery and good flying, although quite hot during the
day.

We changed the final two days of the trip from the
south route up to I70 as I was getting so bugged by
our motor home having so much difficulty with the ups
and downs. So we went to Mack, Colorado (near Grand
Junction) and flew along the Colorado River south of
town. It would be a great place to return to as well.


The last day we decided to go to Leadville – at 9,927
feet MSL, it is the highest hard surface airport in
North America. With Sport Pilot looming and them putting a ceiling on S.P.s at 10K, we decided now was the time to do it.

Eight of us flew from Leadville on Friday morning. It
was an amazing flight. Mt. Elbert (Colorado’s
highest) and Mt. Massive (2nd highest) are in the
background of a lot of our shots. Looks like we are
flying right over the tops of the mountains. We all
got certificates for flying from the airport. Ask
Lyman, however. The climb rate was a little suspect,
although we had no problems.

Actually we had no problems anywhere on the trip with
our planes or our flying – no breakdowns (although
Dwane almost had a disaster with his strings and
chute), no engine outs, no nothing. (Suzi and I about
collided – seriously! – but that’s campfire talk, not
for emails.)

The reception we received from the airports was
exceptional. We had no idea what to expect, but we
could not have been more welcome in most of the
airports. Most allowed us space to park our rigs,
many on the tarmack itself. Las Vegas, NM blocked off
part of their airport tarmack just for us. A couple
of the places left their buildings open at night so we
could use their facilities. Robert in Trinidad
apologized because he said, “Sorry, we don’t have any
showers.”

Tuba City was a mistake we won’t make again, but wow,
the flying there would have been special. Bryce
didn’t want us very badly, but seeing the traffic they
get, we understand – plus I’m not so excited about
going back there anyway.

The airports were pretty emphatic, however, that we
all have aviation radios (and use them). If we do
this again, that will be a requirement for anyone
wanting to participate.

We not only flew in fantastic places, we drove through
fantastic scenery. Route 12 through Utah will never
be forgotten by any of us who took it. At one point
it was a ribbon of road at the crest of a mountain,
straight down forever on both sides of the road!

The only thing that could have been better would be
for the wind to settle in the evening. I was able to
fly on Thursday evening in Leadville, but only a very
brief “I did it” type of flight, nothing more. But
even with all the afternoon wind, Suzi and I flew
about a dozen times, averaging about an hour and a
half each flight for a total of about 500 miles of
flying in two weeks (Lyman, at the speed he travels,
had about twice that amount, I’m sure.)

The company was superb, everyone flew safely and were cordial. The scenery was beautiful, the flying exceptional. I can't wait to do it again. I hope everyone reading this can join us next year. Keep watching PPCPilot.com for information on PPC Caravan 2006.

[Waltm]

Walt,

I remember your previous post about Tuba City -- I hope we can make it there some day.

As interesting as it would be to fly Tuba City, I wouldn't waste too much time trying to fly from there if I were you, Bill. You'll probably encounter a number of problems along the way. I won't go into detail in a public forum since I do business with them. :-)

There are quite a few cool places out in that area. I've flown over a lot of them on my travels out to Sacramento and San Francisco thinking "Man! I'd love to fly my ppc out here.". I'll have to go back over some of my old routes and find some good suggestions for your next trip.

Fly safe!

Walt...

[aj_aviator]

Awesome!

You and your band of traveling aviators have truly captured the adventurous flying that Powerchutes can offer. It must have taken a lot of effort to get 500 miles of flight time in two weeks. I'm sure some of those flights were probably not in the best of conditions, but very memorable.

I checked out the first 57 photos and enjoyed the tour.

Some questions that cross my mind are; What did you use for your weather forcast resource? Did you change your jetting for the higher altitudes? Were there any 503 Dual Carb Powerchutes flying, if so what level of preformance did they experience?

Congratulations are in order for the pilots, ground crew as well as the Airport personel you met along the way. It's a new approach to the traditional fly-in... a mobile aviation event!

Into the wind!

AJ

[vie]

AJ,

In answer to your questions -- most of the airports had ASOS. Some even had internet services or the weather channel going on their TVs. Some of our group had motor homes or fifth wheels with satellite receivers or stayed at RV parks some of the time with cable hookups. As we arrived in the afternoon at each airport we were able to get weather forecasts at each site. This is a big advantage to flying from airports, by the way. The weather conditions were great almost every morning -- flying over Bryce Canyon was a challenge with the funky winds. We got bumped around a lot at Las Vegas and Grants was a little windy. The other places were all just fine -- we could have flown more than we did at most sites.

I don't know about any 503 engines -- I don't think there were any in our group. Most of us had 582s. Performance was not a problem. Gaining altitude was a bit of a problem at Leadville.

500 miles -- we averaged flying around each airport about 1.5 hours each day. At 28 mph, that would come out to be somewhere around 42 miles. If you multiply that number by 12 -- that gets to about 500 miles of flying. It is not an exact number by any means.

I didn't change my jets -- I should have. My EGTs were running around 900 most of the time when flying around Leadville. Perry changed his jets. I don't know if anyone else did or not.

We didn't have much of a ground crew. We just trailered our PPCs between airports then flew around those airports. The airport personel were terrific. I would recommend any of the airports for flying PPCs -- the airports we visited were -- Trinidad, CO, Las Vegas, NM, Grants-Milan, NM, Holbrook, AZ, Kanab, UT, Bryce Canyon, UT, Wayne Wonderland, Lyman, UT, Canyonlands Airport, Moab, UT, Mack Mesa, Mack, CO, and Lake Co Airport, Leadville, CO. I would also suggest Panguitch, UT, Hanksville, UT -- we didn't fly either place, but they looked like places to go back to. I would recommend Panguitch over Bryce Canyon -- they are about 30 miles or so apart.