Oh, the joy of flight

Once in awhile I get to enjoy a really special flight and this was one to share. Friday my schedule opened and mid morning I departed McCook to fly to Wallace. Over several years I taught three persons, an adult and two young'uns, to fly at Wallace. The lady pilot Lea and her husband Stuart now own the very busy aerial application business flying out of the Wallace Airport. I was planning to share a ride or two in my 1946 Aeronica Champ as Stuart is in the process of rebuilding a J-3 of about the same vintage.

Friday was an atypical morning in Southwestern Nebraska with only light breezes and clear skies. A cold front was prog'ed to move through the area late morning meaning stronger winds in the afternoon and a possibility of thunderstorms. Actually that script could have fit the weather for any day in the past two weeks and probably for the next couple of weeks also.

Unusual for me there was no student in the front seat so the 65 horsepower powerhouse out front made for a right sprightly climb for the old girl. The batteries went flat in my portable GPS but no problem, a further chance to savor a flight navigating by pilotage as intrepid airmen have done since Wilber and Orville first slipped the bonds of earth. Besides that Wallace is only about sixty miles away located just west of the headwaters of Red Willow Creek. Simply keep the Willow Creek valley on the right and when the trees quit, turn left and land on the nicely paved strip on the edge of town.

When I departed the temperature was a nice 70 or so degrees. Climbing to 4500 feet I noticed a large temperature increase to I'd guess 85 degrees. Not unusual as lots of summer mornings it might be nice cool on the ground but when one climbs into hot air at altitude you know that a hot day is coming.

Warm and smooth, quite pleasant actually, with the side window open I was feeling on top of the world. Then I heard an airline captain friend calling the tail number that I normally fly as he was passing overhead on the way from Chicago to Denver. Even though I answered on my hand-held emergency backup radio, my deer camp buddy, John was able to hear me tell him I was in the Champ. "Hey brother I envy you!" was his response. Savor the moment, there he was at 30,000 feet in air-conditioned comfort in command of a multi-million-dollar airliner and he envies me popping along in the most basic of airplanes. Life was grand!

Then a strange thing happened somewhere east of the feed lot north of Hayes Center. I encountered a little turbulence and suddenly the temperature dropped about ten degrees, a guess as there is not a temperature gauge even close to that airplane. All morning I had been correcting to the left for a strong northwest wind which also caused slower than normal progress over the ground. When the temperature cooled I found it was necessary to point the nose considerably to the east to maintain my desired track, a sure sign of frontal passage in the northern hemisphere. Puffy little clouds just above also confirmed the front.

In the process of me figuring out that the weather "guesser" had been right, a pilot friend at Grant texted that they were experiencing a really nasty gusty wind blowing out of the north. Humm! I tuned my portable radio to the aviation weather station at North Platte and they were reporting a wind out of the northwest gusting up to 35 miles per hour. Time to turn around? Nah, hold fast to the plan and hope to be on the ground before the nasty wind hit Wallace.

Studying the wind effects on the ground, now only about 1500 feet below me, I began to see signs of strong surface wind. Windmills point into the wind and the wheel really spins if the wind is strong. The surface of small ponds gets churned up and had the lakes been larger I would have expected whitecaps. Looking down into tall corn one can see waves as gusts of wind bends the stalks entirely similar to waves on the surface of the ocean. Yep the wind was way stronger than I wanted to brave landing a thousand pound airplane built like a kite especially when the trip wasn't really necessary in the first place.

About five miles short of the Wallace airport, just an hour after takeoff, I gave up and pointed the nose back toward home. Thirty minutes later with a wind reported "variable at 4 knots," I touched down back where I started. And yes the wind did get strong here too but not until well after noon when my trusty old airplane was safely ensconced in its hangar.

If you want a treat and need the exercise, I suggest walking the paved alleys in McCook. I find the best time is the cool of the evenings but there is usually enough shade to make any time of the day comfortable. I admire the well kept yards, many with vegetable gardens, fruit trees and especially this year beautiful flowers. The alleys tend to have smoother surface than most sidewalks and at night are better lighted. Minor distractions are the occasional odorous garbage container and a few yappy dogs but I promise the stroll will be enjoyable. It is great to live in a community where the citizens take great pride in their surroundings.

That is the way I see it.