Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

Thursday, April 30, 2009

Florida slipped away beneath my wings yesterday and today Alabama and then Mississippi were behind me as I flew into southern Arkansas. Everything below is so similar ? there is no way of knowing when one state becomes another except by looking at the sectional.

It?s been so hot that everywhere I use Velcro, the items are slipping off as the sticky back softens in the heat. I reattach and reattach. Up in the air I?m comfortable with only a t-shirt, sweatshirt, ski jacket, jeans and flight suit. My thermals and woolen sweaters are in my wing, waiting for colder weather.

There were beautiful white cumulus clouds when we left Monroeville, AL this morning, but soon the horizon was covered with dark grey and black clouds. Even the land ahead looked black under the dark of the clouds. I tried going around to the north, but couldn?t avoid some rain cells completely ? the ?side curtains? of the rain storm. Facial acupuncture! I covered my face with my left hand and peeked out between my fingers to see where I was going. Happily, the rain was brief. I realized that I prefer flying in turbulence to flying under such a malevolent sky. But I could see streaks of sunshine and lighter grey clouds ahead, and as I continued on to Easom Airport, in Newton, MS I was happy that I?d outflown the storm.

Wrong! Even though we didn?t linger at Easom, by the time we left the clouds overhead were ominous. But they were high, so we didn?t consider staying, even though Newton had spread out its welcome mat. This charming welcome was painted on the side of a hangar
.

Here?s the lone occupant of the airport. It always makes me sad to see an abandoned aircraft, especially an ultralight.

Leaving Easom Airport, we had planned to follow a highway to the south, skirt around Jackson, MS? airspace, and continue almost due west until we crossed the Mississippi ? then turn north and follow another highway to Lake Village, AK. It would have been our longest leg so far ? almost 180 miles. We had a slight tailwind, so we thought we could make it. I changed plans within 10 minutes of being in the air. The wonderful broad highway I was following went right into a wall of stormy weather.

It looked like I could get around it to the north, so I headed north?then further north?then still further north.

Thank heavens for the Anywhere Map GPS! My original GPS only can tell you where to go, and you have to anticipate where you want to go and put in the coordinates. Once you leave the self-created route, you are completely lost. Or, more accurately, I am completely lost. I say that because using a sectional in land that is this similar, with so many roads going so many different curving directions ? starting and coming to an end seemingly without purpose ? well, it?s beyond my pilotage skills. Even when I found a road that corresponded to the sectional, I had to fly directly over it or else it would disappear in the trees. And once lost, roads were surprisingly difficult to find again since I couldn?t anticipate all the snake turns.

But with the Anywhere Map, towns and airports show up as you get near them. Highways have numbers on them! The sectional and the Map are wonderful companions.

Through Mississippi and now Arkansas, I?m no longer flying IFR. (I Follow Roads.) I couldn?t ? because of the storms. (There were three that I circumvented.) Instead, I?m now flying IFF ? I Follow Fields. The Anywhere Map draws a straight line to your destination (although you can put in waypoints if you don?t want to go in a straight line.) Once I left my original road route, I just put in Lake Village, and it pointed me there. Over lots of forest ? yet there were always fields around.

So I hop scotched from field to field, far from any road that went anywhere near where I wanted to go. Lots of roads ? red dirt and white coral sand ? just none going in a coherent direction. I had to let go of the idea that ?only paved roads count? and that everything else is motorcycle or ATV tracks. Not here ? here, significant roads are unpaved. From my perspective, probably a majority.

As I flew over this farm, I couldn?t help wondering ?What WAS this farmer thinking??

Randy also skirted the storms and we were in radio although not visual contact. At one point we were just a few miles apart, but couldn?t find each other. (I wanted to take air-to-air pictures.)

And then, to my delight ? there was the Mississippi! First just a hint of what was to come:

And then the mighty river herself:

I?ve walked across the Mississippi and now I?ve flown across it! It was so much fun that I flew back and forward across it. Finally I forced myself to fly a short ways to the Lake Village, AK Airport.

We couldn?t have come to a nicer place. The FBO manager is letting us take over the FBO for the night ? and there?s even a shower! I can hear thunder outside, and my tent isn?t waterproof. (I?ve been looking for a new one, but so far haven?t come up with anything at the last three towns we were in.) I hope the storm passes so we can continue flying tomorrow, but if not, we can hunker down nicely here. We?ll just have to wait and see what tomorrow brings. And tomorrow will come early, since this is an ag sprayer airport and they start @ 6:00 a.m. (The FBO computer has the farm report on it, as well as farm futures and information about ethanol ? instead of the usual weather and aviation-related screens usual on every other FBO computer I?ve ever seen.) As I said, we?ll just have to wait and see.