To Oshkosh in a Long-EZ – Part 2

Packing: complete. Oxygen: stowed. Wings: attached. We were ready to fly to Oshkosh. The night before, we packed up the airplane and met with our formation to discuss the flight and route. Huddled around a meeting table in the Regal Air conference room, we decided on route of flight, RON points, meet-up time, frequency for air-to-air comms, sleeping arrangements, and anything else we could think of.

Like any first plan, this one didn’t survive.

Renton

Saturday morning. Early. Very early. We were going west, and that meant flying over the Cascades and Rocky Mountains, both formidable mountain ranges. Traversing mountains during the afternoon can be an unpleasant or even dangerous experience, so we wanted to get over them as early as possible. Since the airplane was packed up, all that was needed was me and Miguel to hop in and start flying. But first, we had to go north.

First leg: Renton to Paine

North of Renton, on the other side of Seattle is Everett, WA, home of Paine Field (KPAE). It was there we were meeting Bernardo and Jordan, the two pilots who would be accompanying us on our over 1400 nautical mile journey. They would be flying in Bernardo’s RV-6a, and we were planning on joining them on the ground, getting a little fuel for the first leg, and taking off shortly after landing. Unfortunately for us, the front tire had other plans.

Upon landing and taxiing to the fuel pump, the nose wheel sprung a leak. We discovered it after getting out of the airplane and soon realized it would have to be replaced. Aircraft repair away from home can be a difficult task, even if it’s only a few miles away from home. Not having the tools, parts or space can make the process take longer and require more effort than if it were to happen in the comfort of your own hangar. Fortunately for us, we had a few things on our side.

We carry some of the tools and the most common parts in the Long-EZ for field repair, including the nose tire inner tube. Unfortunately, since these are not frequently used items on a trip, they were buried in the depths of the cargo hell hole, behind all of our carefully packed personal effects. Rummaging through the EZ, we finally found the tools and the tube.

Starting to work on taking off the tire, it became very obvious that we didn’t have all the tools. There is a bolt and nut that hold the front axial in place. This is undone with the same size driver on either end of the wheel. Being a limited tool set, we only had a handful of wrenches, and no two were the same size.

Fortunately for us, there was an open hangar door and a very friendly pilot inside doing some working on his airplane. After describing our predicament to him, he lent us some tools and we were on our way replacing the tube. A good half an hour later of uncomfortable work next to the gas pump, we had the tire on. Now we had to repack and take off. All told, the process gave us about an hour delay.

After contacting tower as our now flight of two, we took the full length of runway 16R and took off towards Oshkosh!

First Real Leg: Paine to Coeur d'Alene

As Paine Field vanished behind us, and the entirety of the Puget Sound came into view, we contacted Seattle center for flight following. Unfortunately, getting through was unusually difficult. After calling multiple times and not hearing a response, we started to wonder if they heard us at all. After 20 miles or so had passed, and with Snoqualmie Pass in sight, we finally got a call back with a squawk code, and altimeter setting.

The Cascades are a beautiful mountain range, and this was actually my first time flying over them in a GA airplane. I’ve spend many times either in the heavy metal flying high above our altitude or from a more terrestrial vantage. The mid-altitudes in the Long-EZ allowed me to be high enough to get a sense of the enormity of the terrain, but also low enough to see some of the detail in the ground. At least this was the case when there wasn’t a gigantic wing strake that blocked most of my view.

After getting over the cascades, the plan was to fly as far into the Rockies as possible, probably getting to Missoula, fueling up, and then continuing to head east. We climbed up to about 13,500 for this first leg, and this meant using our Aerox portable oxygen system that was conveniently placed in between my legs.

Settling in and getting comfortable, I noticed one of us wasn’t going to make it to Montana. It was my bladder, which clearly had other plans, so we had to divert to Coeur d’Alene, a small town on the Idaho panhandle. We got down, we filled the tanks and I emptied mine, and tried to get into the air as quickly as possible once more.

Second Leg: Coeur d'Alene to Missoula

Climbing out of Coeur d’Alene was a bit of a drag. Having come out of our crusing altitude for the diversion, it’s a little annoying to have to try and claw back up to our desired altitude, especially when the Long-EZ would much rather prefer a lower one. The terrain also meant we had to do our climb starting south, then turn east to rejoin I-90 and head to Mullan Pass on the border of Idaho and Montana.

After getting flight following, settling into our altitude, and playing some music, we heard that Bernardo wanted to make a precautionary landing at Missoula. He was finding the fuel pressure was very low and wasn’t sure if this was a normal indication. Not wanting to mess around with engine issues over inhospitable terrain, we followed him in to Missoula, bleeding off our hard-fought altitude once more.

On the ground we got some guidance from Alan, the other owner of the RV-6a, that the low fuel pressure indication was normal for the airplane and nothing to be alarmed about. We got some more fuel and headed out once more.

Third Leg: Missoula to Miles City

By the time we were climbing out of Missoula, it was around noon. It was getting hot and windy. When we were landing, we noticed some turbulence, as was expected. Climbing out, the heat and high density altitude made our anemic climb out of before seem like a rocket ship in comparison to what we were getting now. The terrain of Missoula is also a little difficult, requiring us to climb around the airport first before we started to make our way over I-90 and the river valley where it’s located.

But even more uncomfortable than the heat and the poor climb were the bumps. The heat and wind from the afternoon sun had created a number of mountain waves and rotor turbulence. There was no out climbing the turbulence and it stuck with us for the length of this leg.

After the roughly three hour flight, we landed at Frank Wiley Field in Miles City, MT. Even though this airport and town seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, it was quite busy. This desert oasis was the only stop for miles around, and it seemed like everyone there had the same idea we did.

While fueling up, Bernardo came up to us and pointed at an RV-12 that was parked on the other side of the ramp.

“I think that’s Vans” he said.

“It kinda looks like him. But what are the odds of us running into Dick VanGrunsven in the middle of nowhere?”

It was then that Dick VanGrunsven came over to Bernardo’s RV-6a and commented “that’s a nice looking airplane you have there.”

He was flying his RV-7 over to Oshkosh as well. He was traveling with the TeenFlight RV-12 and a couple of the team’s participants who were flying the airplane. We did a little route talk, and talked about how quickly the sun sets in the flat lands since there is no terrain to create long shadows and twilight periods.

After a little more conversation, we all went back to our airplanes, and it was time to keep heading east.

Last Leg: Miles City to Sioux Falls

Our last leg of the journey was to take us to Sioux Falls, SD. There, we’d have plenty of time the next day to get to Oshkosh before the airport closed at 20:00. And fortunately for us, there was a massive tail wind of about 30 kts that rocketed us to our destination.

We approach the airport at the very end of daylight. Lined up on final with the RV in front of us, we descend and I watch the sun blink out of view below the horizon as we enter twilight. Vans was right – it doesn’t last long. We have to go around due to our limited space in front of the RV, and the second approach was noticeably darker than the first.

We get to the FBO, a Landmark Aviation, one of the mega FBO chains. As far as these go, Landmark is one of the more pleasant. They literally rolled out a red carpet for Bernardo. Not for the EZ though. There is no dignified way to get out of an EZ, nor an obvious door.

Before we even leave the airplanes, we talk with the lineman about the accommodations we would need, and he radioed the front desk who made the reservations for us even before we got inside the office. We grabbed a courtesy van to the hotel, unpacked our myriad of batteries, chargers and cables, plugged them in, ordered a pizza and got ready for the next day.