You never know who you meet in aviation. While at Triple Tree looking at an RV-8 to garner some ideas for my build I met Neil. Later that week I ran into Neil again at Sun N Fun. As it turns out Neil is an avid Reno Racer in his RV-8 and a super cool dude who also built and operates a Murphy Yukon. Fast forward a few months and Neil suggests I fly out to a (dry) lakebed just north of Reno and south of the Burning Man location to a stol drag fly-in. Challenge accepted. Having invited a buddy from Chattanooga (who is planning his Sling build) to go with me I flew to Chattanooga to pickup my buddy before the cross country jaunt to the western edge of Nevada. The flight from Apopka to Chattanooga took me through the typical scattered thunderstorms that exist this time of year although on this flight something different happened. The long channel shaped hole I was flying in between two lines of storms closed up. Slowly the flight I was making started to feel a lot like one of the AOPA Accident Case Study videos. As I was watching lightning out either side of the airplane’s windows get closer and closer I suggested to Atlanta that I divert and leaned on the kind woman on the other end of the transmitter to ease my workload. Its the first and only time I have leaned on ATC for assistance like this and I can say that watching the AOPA videos among others allowed me to have already thought about what to do in a situation like this. I routinely do an audible impersonation of the “Accident Case Study” videos intro and outlay my flight plan before I take off. If my flight sounds remotely like one of the AOPA videos I take time to critically think about what I am trying to accomplish. One thing the videos have taught me is that you can be cool under pressure but staying too cool for too long and not looking for help early enough in a situation has cost many pilots and passengers their lives. A pilot must be able to handle difficult situations under pressure yes, but staying too calm for too long and not taking help early enough seems to precipitate unfavorable outcomes.
A few items I have come up with on the subject:
It seems to be common in these case studies that a lot of those pilots kept their cool and did not ask for or accept assistance soon enough.
Back to the story. So ATC vectored me to Macon after suggesting that my original diversion airport was not my best choice. She vectored me through relatively smooth air that my Dynon with FIS-B weather did not agree with. Matter-o-fact I blindly trusted her vectors as what I saw on my FIS-B weather in that direction looked bad and I never would have headed that way on my own. I can liken it to trusting the attitude indicator instead of your inner ear except this time I was trusting a human sitting on the ground instead of my own intuition. Let that soak in for a minute. By the time I got to Macon I was clear enough of the storm I could have continued the flight to Chattanooga uneventfully but I decided to decompress on the ground.
A few hours later and my head was clean so I decided to make the flight to Chattanooga for the night. With potential hail forecast I setup a spot in a hangar at Wilson Air. KCHA’s runway was receiving maintenance nightly and closed by notam so I made my way and landed 15 minutes before it closed, rolled 7ZK into a hangar and retired to the snooze room in the FBO until the next morning. Having remembered that the line guys at Wilson air scratched my newly painted wheel pant the last time I was there I no longer let FBO personnel move the airplane. This was not an issue as the next morning at 5 my buddy showed up and we loaded into the airplane to depart in the dark with a low ceiling before any other airplanes needed to leave the box hangar.
The flight to Dead Cow was uneventful with a few stops along the way. The airplane performed as it generally does, fast and efficient. Once we got to Dead Cow we followed the procedure and landed on one of the three “runways”. Imagine a large dry lakebed that is about 3 miles square. The stol event is held on the NW corner of the lake. We landed the airplane and taxied to the line (marked by porta-potties) where mandatory shut down occurs. Later I watched as people would ramp up their groundspeed before shut down and coast into the tie down area. This seemed to be an early indicator of the culture at the event. As luck would have it Neil was already there and helped pull the airplane the 500 or so feet we needed to move it to park next to his Yukon. After getting the RV-10 sealed up from the dust with blue painters tape and the tents setup I watched as Neil started unloading his grill and food out of the Murphy and onto his horizontal stab. The stabilizer made a fantastic table at the right height and was almost level. The baggage hold of the Yukon was like a magicians hat that never seemed to empty. Needless to say Neil fed us like kings the entire time we attended the event. Something that happens in the desert that does not happen in Florida is the wild temperature swings from day to night. The first night we left some water in a pan and it froze. My 25 degree bag was hardly enough to keep me comfortable and I am glad at the last minute I bought a Little Buddy propane heater as Neil suggested. The first night I would heat the tent up and turn it off, go to sleep, wake up cold and repeat the process. The second night I let that baby run until it ran out of propane. That brings me back to the culture of the event. It is part Mad Max, part fly-in, part desert party. Not sure which order it goes in. It was not uncommon in the middle of the night for a random dirt bike to crank up and brap, brap, brap a few times before the operator shut it off. Or a single random song to come on really loud and turn off at 3am. Strange to say the least. It was also a “ride what you brought” type place. All variety of powered machines doing their best to redline across the open lakebed. Side by sides, dune buggies, three wheelers, four wheelers, dirt bikes, one wheels, and various other craft roamed the area. It felt like the event has grown a bit larger than the management that backs it in a way. Safety was a bit more Mad Max than other aviation events I have attended. A few RV aircraft attended. I saw a few -7s and of course the -15 showed up.
While at the event we watched as a fifth wheel toy hauler exploded. It was apparently carrying a hot air balloon rig and associated propane tanks when it exploded and caught fire. It exploded over the course of 15 minutes or so. No one was injured.
Wilard unloading gear.
The Yukon makes a perfect table.
Skyscraper settled in for the night.
As soon as the sun went down the cold came out.
A fire that was put on by the event organizer.
Frozen water in the morning.
Neil demonstrating his engine pre-heater he let us use to pre-heat the following morning for departure.
Rv-15 made an appearance.
Watch the YouTube video of this here. This is after the initial explosion before it caught fire and the remaining tanks exploded.
A good while into the fire.
Part of a propane tank where it landed. It landed closer to my airplane than where it initially exploded.
Neil putting my cat food dinners to shame.
Hours later the fire department made an appearance.
Little Buddy heater keeping me alive in the tent.
One of the many vehicles that came for a “party” atmosphere.
A cub that went down on the other side of the lakebed. NO one died although a helicopter flew someone away.
Photo credit: Neil. This was just prior to departure for the flight back to Chattanooga.
Always nice to make the font page of VAF.
New longest leg for N7zK 847 nautical miles
30.5 hours round trip with engine running,
305.51 gallons of Avgas burned,
4.6 hours of IMC.
