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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Jul 5, 2008
Description:
Eric was right: we weren't going anywhere.
It was then a little before 3 pm, but still morning in the Ivoprop office in California.
No, they didn't have a blade of the right weight to match the other two blades, but (of course) they did have three new blades to send me. The blades arrived at 11:03 the next morning. Installation went smoothly. The test flight over the lake went well, and so did the flight to Cherry Ridge, where Eric managed to find a couple of other things for me to fix. (Even I found something to fix--a bad tailwheel bearing.)
Our sojourn with the Battermans was very good. Their lake is serene, and their family, lovely. We had a grand time--well, except for the mayday thing, and even that was kind of fun in a way. (My only regret is that I never actually SAID 'mayday mayday mayday.' The guy in the 172 made the calls for me.)
A front was coming the next day, so instead of landing on Batterman's lake--I'm sure it would have felt good that time--we had to skedaddle for home.
The 30 knot headwind caused us to stop for gas at Ridgely Airpark (KRJD), on Maryland's eastern shore, where naturally it was a 20 knot crosswind.
As we munched on sandwiches from the Cherry Ridge airport restaurant, we were watching two guys shooting at targets with fancy high-powered single-shot Belgian air rifles, with the biggest telescopic sights I've ever seen. The muzzle velocity, they said, is close to 1000 feet per second.
When I allowed as how I had done a little shooting in the army, one of the guys offered to let me try his rifle.
I managed to hunker down at his shooting station and get lined up with the sight. Even with that huge telescope, the paper targets at about 100 feet looked rather small, so not wanting to embarrass myself too badly I went for the big tin squirrel instead.
Lined it up and... squeezed... POW-clink-whap. The squirrel went down and everyone shouted 'You hit it!' (I do wish they hadn't sounded quite so surprised.)
Well, crap, I KNEW I'd hit it--was much more interested in the blood running down my face from where the scope had smacked me in the forehead. (That was the '-whap' part, in case you wondered.)
I hadn't expected that much recoil from a B-B gun. Jeez. Thought I was plenty far enough back from the scope. One of the guys applied a bandaid and gave me his card for hang glider instruction (on less windy days).
But guess what? This time the GPS didn't fail when we flew between the DC ADIZ and Patuxent Naval Air Station. That was comforting. And we got home with no further adventures.
Ho hum. Been home a whole day already. It's so booooring here.
Date Taken:
Jul 5, 2008
Place Taken:
Richmond, VA
Owner:
Don Maxwell
File Name:
ScopeItOut_0704082144.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZTOQ0000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZTOQ0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZTOQ0000s">
Category:
23, Max Pix
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Read what others had to say:
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Dave Edward - Jul 05,2008
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Son of a moose Don !! What a hell of an adventure. Good for Carol remembering those fateful words of long ago. ' For beter or for worse '.<br />Thanks for sharing this with us.....although the Tstm picture is scary.
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Don Maxwell - Jul 06,2008
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Thanks, Dave--and thanks to Lynn, too! Carol did really well. A lot of people would have freaked out, but she stayed calm and collected the whole time.
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Dan Nickens - Jul 05,2008
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With any luck, Don, you'll have a great scar to prompt the re-telling of this story again and again to appreciative audiences. 'Yeah, I got this scar when I was in the Army Air Force Canadian U.S. Gaggle engagement.....' Actually, you won't need any hype. The real story is exciting enough!
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Frank A. Carr - Jul 05,2008
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Great story Don, thanks for it and the photos. Next time up near Ridgely, try Bay Bridge Airport instead. W29. Located on the Bay at the Eastern side of the Bay Bridge from Annapolis. Six miles down the road are the best crabs around.
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Jon Ladd - Jul 05,2008
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Best crab award goes to Tangier Island.
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Don Maxwell - Jul 06,2008
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Didn't think of Bay Bridge, Frank--forgot that a squawk code is no longer required there, now that the thoughtful folks in Homeland Security have shrunk the ADIZ somewhat. The Ridgely FBO guy said he used to manage Bay Bridge. We originally thought we'd have enough fuel to get home--until realizing that the headwind was keeping us below 60 knots groundspeed most of the way. The GPS said 54 kts for a loooong time before we got south of the hills.
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