Bringing it home

After I sold my C-170-B I was searching for another restoration project, but didn't want just another spam can. I contacted the late Gene Laymen who ran a company called Vintage Wings inc. to see what he had available.

Gene suggested several projects but none sounded all that great, all were already apart and had been in storage for many years. After I kept telling him no, he said call Dan Ramsey in Parkersburg Wv. Gene said Dan wanted to sell a 1937 F-24-G, that was flyable but out of annual.

So I called Dan and talked a while, And found him to be an old school southern gentleman, and a couple days later I receive a few pictures of the F-24, I fell in love with it. I called Dan again and told him I wanted the aircraft, we worked out the details and I sent him a certified check for $40K. and he sent me the log books a full box of them no less, all the way back to day 1.

Barb and I made arrangements to fly to Columbus Ohio rented a car and drove the final leg to Parkersburg Wv. to get our aircraft.

We started thinking we should get underway toward home, So we fuel up, and find we hold 60 gallons of fuel and Dan says we burn around 10 per hour, I'm OK with that but I will find out the real numbers on the first tank. I didn't bring anything except our Bose head sets, so I must find a plotter and sectionals for the trip home but Parkersburg has nothing.

As I set up on final at Fairfield I see we have a right quartering head wind, And make a great landing, as the Fairchild rolls out it starts to nose up into the wind, I feed full left rudder and touch the left brake, it grabs and spins the Fairchild around and we are taxing backwards in the grass. Wow it was quick, I get out to see what the damage is and found none, so we taxi to the ramp shut down and get out for a break, and to buy our sectionals.

We do weather at Fairfield and see the jet stream is bringing a storm in to northern Mexico up thru the Texas Panhandle, but everything north is clear, so the plan is get north and west as far as we can before dark.

We're off Fairfield at 1430 headed west, I pick a section line fence and we follow it until we can figure out how to operate the GPS

This is the first GPS we have owned, I pick an airport, punch in the numbers and hit -D-> and it does the brain work,, I'm liking this.

We switch tanks at 1545 and pick Indianapolis (terry) as our first fuel stop and we are down at 1700 to fill up with 34.8 gallons landing was uneventful, and my confidence goes way up.

We're off Terry at 1740 headed for Danville for the night. when we set up for entering the pattern at Danville we notice we can't talk to anyone. I over fly the airport, spot the sock and enter the down wind and then a voice comes on and says the winds are 40k and direct cross wind. I told him NOWAY. I circle and get the sock direct in line with wind and land into the wind on the huge ramp. The FBO guy tells me I can park in one of the open hangars, I taxi right into the huge abandon Airforce Hangars, and shut down for the night. It's 1855 local.

DAY 2 of the trip home, Is the most beautiful flying day you can imagine, we are up at 0500, shower, drive back to the airport, drop the car, and load up,

then preflight, and we are airborne at 0645, next stop Washington Iowa for fuel. we switch tanks at 0820 and are on the ground at 0955 for 44.3 gallons.

Getting off Washington Iowa at 1050 and we are on our way to Yankton S.D by switching tanks at 1350 and taking a few pictures along the way.

Yanton S.D. was our lunch stop, 1415 (local) along with loading 32.9 gallons fuel, and we're off again at 1530 following I-90 west. The farther west we got we could see a storm front to the west, I got Ellsworth AFB info and heard they were 1/8 mile vis in blowing snow. I panic, hit nearest on the GPS and it shows Wall S.D at 4 miles. and we set up for landing. Landing was another ground loop scared the crap Out of us again, no damage we taxied to the ramp and started to tie down, when a pickup truck drove up and announced he was the mayor of Wall, and could he be of service. I asked if he had a hangar I could put the Fairchild in for the night, he said YES!

We're on the ground for the night at 1815, and the mayor gave us a ride to the motel, 4 blocks away. and it started to snow, changing to rain over night and we slept in, had breakfast at the Wall Drug.

Day 3 we decide we would like to see Rushmore from the air, so we spend better part of 2 hours flying around the black hills trying to find it.

We spent too much time finding what we really couldn't see anyway, we were too low on fuel to continue to Casper, So now it's back to Spearfish S.D. for fuel.

We are on deck at Spearfish at 0925, and another ground loop due to a grabbing brake, with no damage, but we do find the tailwheel steering cables are too loose and we have very poor steering during landings. It's all rudder now.

We chat with the FBO guys and they tell us to fly west on I-90 until we are west of the black hills and then turn southwest to Casper and ride the mountain wave, you will get faster ground speeds that way, So we were off at 1018 and followed their advice, and it worked we got 121 on the GPS over the ground in a 90 MPH aircraft, trimmed all the way forward and flying a 45 degree crab. we switch tanks twice at 1120, and 1220. and take a few pictures

When we were within sight of Casper I got ATIS, and they say its winds at 40G65, I'm thinking we are dead.. no way can I land this in 40K winds in this condition. but Rock Springs Wy. is the nearest airport 2 hours away and I am 5 hours into a 6 hour fuel load.

I report in, and ask tower if they have grass suitable for landing, they say no the green stuff is wheat, and it's about 2 foot tall, they clear me for runway 21, the winds are 230 at 30k and the other runway is 26, as bad one way as the other, I except 21, and can't hold the runway heading with right wind down and top rudder, so I crab and must add power to hold the runway in line, as I approach the intersection I turn into the wind and allow it to touch down at runway edge and it rolled about 50'. Once on the ground I had enough tailwheel steering control to make the ramp.

The fuel crew grabbed the aircraft and held it until I could get chocks in, then they parked a fuel truck in front of us so we could take fuel, and a short brake.

We asked the tower for taxi instructions for a west departure, and they informed us that the airport was closed, and we could leave if we wanted, but with out help from them, and any departure would be at my own risk. (Like it isn't anyway) so we told them we would be leaving from the ramp and for them to have a great day. we throttled up and were out of there at 1330.

Leaving Casper to the southwest is pretty country, but lonely place, we were heading for Rock Springs and cross the Rockies to Burley Id, and up to Boise. but as we noticed the GPS was showing 45 over the ground, we decide to change plans, weather was good so we hit nearest on the GPS and Pocatello showed as the nearest airport. But it is on the other side of this. but as we assume the heading to Pocatello we start getting 110 on the ground speed.

I start to climb by trimming nose up to 150' per minute, and leaning to best power at full throttle, and every time the VSI goes to "0" I lean again and I coax it up to 14,300' and cross the great divide east of Pocatello

Crossing was in and out of snow flurries, but VFR all the way. Barb had every piece of warm clothing she had on to stay warm, we discovered the heater wasn't working and the oat was -40F. she isn't too pleased with the captain.

Landing at Pocatello was uneventful, calm winds and a beautiful 70 degree evening at 1745. we fuel, take a little break, and decide we can make Boise by dark,

We could see huge thunderstorms on the high country of the Bitterroot range north of our route and the lighting kept crackling the radio for a couple hours until we arrived Boise, we report in, and ask tower for landing clearance and are approved, and I turn on the nav lights, all is good, (this is the first time I use any electrical device other than the radio) established on final I turn on the landing light, a nano second later every thing goes black.

After swapping a few fuses I got the radio and nav lights back, just in time to hear the tower hand me off to ground. that was a busy landing I forgot to touch the brakes and impress every one with my new taxi style. (backwards)

Day 4 on our trip home we knew would be a short one, we has called the home team and found that the Puget Sound was crappy weather, so we wanted to get as close to home as possible. just in case we had to leave the Fairchild and have the home team come get us. We were off Boise at 0815 after a very cold night and waiting for the frost to melt off the Fairchild.

Full of fuel and headed down the Snake river canyon toward Pendelton Or. we get into the old sticky stuff in the Blue mountains of Or.

As we leave Pendelton we can seed the Great wall of the North Cascades, and all we can see is clouds boiling over into eastern Wa, But we are still VFR and will make Ellensburg OK, but we did a little skud running to get there for the night. Notice I still have my coveralls on, and Barb is still bundled up :)

We rented a hangar for the Fairchild for the night, and spent some time cleaning the old bird after 4 days of flying. then went to the motel, checked in with the home team, weather is clearing on the west side and should make it home tomorrow.

Crossing the Cascades is always an adventure when we make Arlington, the wife decides she is riding home with the kids, (they live in Arlington) so after 5 days she bails and leaves me to get the bird down at home field by my self.

The winds at home are 330 at 20G25 and our runway is 25/07, I make 5 tries and can't keep the Fairchild on the 25' wide runway, So call it off and go to Bayview/Skagit reagonal to wait until the wind calms down.

36 hours of flying time, 315 gallons of fuel, costing $817.96, 1 quart of oil, total cost of the trip $565.00 including motels, and rental cars.


	Bringing it home home Bringing it home 4/07/2001 After I sold my C-170-B I was searching for another restoration project, but didn't want just another spam can. I contacted the late Gene Laymen who ran a company called Vintage Wings inc. to see what he had available. Gene suggested several projects but none sounded all that great, all were already apart and had been in storage for many years. After I kept telling him no, he said call Dan Ramsey in Parkersburg Wv. Gene said Dan wanted to sell a 1937 F-24-G, that was flyable but out of annual. So I called Dan and talked a while, And found him to be an old school southern gentleman, and a couple days later I receive a few pictures of the F-24, I fell in love with it. I called Dan again and told him I wanted the aircraft, we worked out the details and I sent him a certified check for $40K. and he sent me the log books a full box of them no less, all the way back to day 1. Barb and I made arrangements to fly to Columbus Ohio rented a car and drove the final leg to Parkersburg Wv. to get our aircraft. This was the first time we saw the Fairchild. Setting in the hangar pretty as can be. Dan and I pulled it out for a picture shoot. We started thinking we should get underway toward home, So we fuel up, and find we hold 60 gallons of fuel and Dan says we burn around 10 per hour, I'm OK with that but I will find out the real numbers on the first tank. I didn't bring anything except our Bose head sets, so I must find a plotter and sectionals for the trip home but Parkersburg has nothing. We're off Parkersburg at 1300 headed home, First stop is Fairfield Ohio for sectionals, and stuff. As I set up on final at Fairfield I see we have a right quartering head wind, And make a great landing, as the Fairchild rolls out it starts to nose up into the wind, I feed full left rudder and touch the left brake, it grabs and spins the Fairchild around and we are taxing backwards in the grass. Wow it was quick, I get out to see what the damage is and found none, so we taxi to the ramp shut down and get out for a break, and to buy our sectionals. We do weather at Fairfield and see the jet stream is bringing a storm in to northern Mexico up thru the Texas Panhandle, but everything north is clear, so the plan is get north and west as far as we can before dark. We're off Fairfield at 1430 headed west, I pick a section line fence and we follow it until we can figure out how to operate the GPS This is the first GPS we have owned, I pick an airport, punch in the numbers and hit -D-> and it does the brain work,, I'm liking this. We switch tanks at 1545 and pick Indianapolis (terry) as our first fuel stop and we are down at 1700 to fill up with 34.8 gallons landing was uneventful, and my confidence goes way up. We're off Terry at 1740 headed for Danville for the night. when we set up for entering the pattern at Danville we notice we can't talk to anyone. I over fly the airport, spot the sock and enter the down wind and then a voice comes on and says the winds are 40k and direct cross wind. I told him NOWAY. I circle and get the sock direct in line with wind and land into the wind on the huge ramp. The FBO guy tells me I can park in one of the open hangars, I taxi right into the huge abandon Airforce Hangars, and shut down for the night. It's 1855 local. The FBO allows us the use of the airport car, and we drive to the motel and bed down for the night we are beat. DAY 2 of the trip home, Is the most beautiful flying day you can imagine, we are up at 0500, shower, drive back to the airport, drop the car, and load up, then preflight, and we are airborne at 0645, next stop Washington Iowa for fuel. we switch tanks at 0820 and are on the ground at 0955 for 44.3 gallons. We find every one wants their picture taken by the F-24 Getting off Washington Iowa at 1050 and we are on our way to Yankton S.D by switching tanks at 1350 and taking a few pictures along the way. Peoria Ill. crossing the big muddy Yanton S.D. was our lunch stop, 1415 (local) along with loading 32.9 gallons fuel, and we're off again at 1530 following I-90 west. The farther west we got we could see a storm front to the west, I got Ellsworth AFB info and heard they were 1/8 mile vis in blowing snow. I panic, hit nearest on the GPS and it shows Wall S.D at 4 miles. and we set up for landing. Landing was another ground loop scared the crap Out of us again, no damage we taxied to the ramp and started to tie down, when a pickup truck drove up and announced he was the mayor of Wall, and could he be of service. I asked if he had a hangar I could put the Fairchild in for the night, he said YES! I could use his buddies hangar, and he went to unlock it.. man was I glad We no more got the Fairchild under cover than it started to hail 3/4 inch sized balls. We're on the ground for the night at 1815, and the mayor gave us a ride to the motel, 4 blocks away. and it started to snow, changing to rain over night and we slept in, had breakfast at the Wall Drug. and were airborne by 0712 day 3. Day 3 we decide we would like to see Rushmore from the air, so we spend better part of 2 hours flying around the black hills trying to find it. That it? no That it,,,,,Yes,, but it is really hard to see we spotted the parking lot first. We spent too much time finding what we really couldn't see anyway, we were too low on fuel to continue to Casper, So now it's back to Spearfish S.D. for fuel. We are on deck at Spearfish at 0925, and another ground loop due to a grabbing brake, with no damage, but we do find the tailwheel steering cables are too loose and we have very poor steering during landings. It's all rudder now. We chat with the FBO guys and they tell us to fly west on I-90 until we are west of the black hills and then turn southwest to Casper and ride the mountain wave, you will get faster ground speeds that way, So we were off at 1018 and followed their advice, and it worked we got 121 on the GPS over the ground in a 90 MPH aircraft, trimmed all the way forward and flying a 45 degree crab. we switch tanks twice at 1120, and 1220. and take a few pictures the white spots are snow When we were within sight of Casper I got ATIS, and they say its winds at 40G65, I'm thinking we are dead.. no way can I land this in 40K winds in this condition. but Rock Springs Wy. is the nearest airport 2 hours away and I am 5 hours into a 6 hour fuel load. I report in, and ask tower if they have grass suitable for landing, they say no the green stuff is wheat, and it's about 2 foot tall, they clear me for runway 21, the winds are 230 at 30k and the other runway is 26, as bad one way as the other, I except 21, and can't hold the runway heading with right wind down and top rudder, so I crab and must add power to hold the runway in line, as I approach the intersection I turn into the wind and allow it to touch down at runway edge and it rolled about 50'. Once on the ground I had enough tailwheel steering control to make the ramp. The fuel crew grabbed the aircraft and held it until I could get chocks in, then they parked a fuel truck in front of us so we could take fuel, and a short brake. We did not want to spend any more days waiting for the winds to die down so we elected to fly away. We asked the tower for taxi instructions for a west departure, and they informed us that the airport was closed, and we could leave if we wanted, but with out help from them, and any departure would be at my own risk. (Like it isn't anyway) so we told them we would be leaving from the ramp and for them to have a great day. we throttled up and were out of there at 1330. Leaving Casper to the southwest is pretty country, but lonely place, we were heading for Rock Springs and cross the Rockies to Burley Id, and up to Boise. but as we noticed the GPS was showing 45 over the ground, we decide to change plans, weather was good so we hit nearest on the GPS and Pocatello showed as the nearest airport. But it is on the other side of this. but as we assume the heading to Pocatello we start getting 110 on the ground speed. This is the wind river range 14,000+ So we do an end around and stay off the high rocks and go to Pocatello, I start to climb by trimming nose up to 150' per minute, and leaning to best power at full throttle, and every time the VSI goes to "0" I lean again and I coax it up to 14,300' and cross the great divide east of Pocatello Crossing was in and out of snow flurries, but VFR all the way. Barb had every piece of warm clothing she had on to stay warm, we discovered the heater wasn't working and the oat was -40F. she isn't too pleased with the captain. Landing at Pocatello was uneventful, calm winds and a beautiful 70 degree evening at 1745. we fuel, take a little break, and decide we can make Boise by dark, We could see huge thunderstorms on the high country of the Bitterroot range north of our route and the lighting kept crackling the radio for a couple hours until we arrived Boise, we report in, and ask tower for landing clearance and are approved, and I turn on the nav lights, all is good, (this is the first time I use any electrical device other than the radio) established on final I turn on the landing light, a nano second later every thing goes black. After swapping a few fuses I got the radio and nav lights back, just in time to hear the tower hand me off to ground. that was a busy landing I forgot to touch the brakes and impress every one with my new taxi style. (backwards) Day 4 on our trip home we knew would be a short one, we has called the home team and found that the Puget Sound was crappy weather, so we wanted to get as close to home as possible. just in case we had to leave the Fairchild and have the home team come get us. We were off Boise at 0815 after a very cold night and waiting for the frost to melt off the Fairchild. Full of fuel and headed down the Snake river canyon toward Pendelton Or. we get into the old sticky stuff in the Blue mountains of Or. The farther northwest we got the worse it became, until we were looking hard for a hole to get thru to Pendelton. Finally we found the river canyon was open and followed it thru to LeGrande and dropped down to Pendelton for lunch. Flying down the Snake river canyon Crossing the Columbia,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, we are in Wa. ! As we leave Pendelton we can seed the Great wall of the North Cascades, and all we can see is clouds boiling over into eastern Wa, But we are still VFR and will make Ellensburg OK, but we did a little skud running to get there for the night. Notice I still have my coveralls on, and Barb is still bundled up :) We rented a hangar for the Fairchild for the night, and spent some time cleaning the old bird after 4 days of flying. then went to the motel, checked in with the home team, weather is clearing on the west side and should make it home tomorrow. Day 5, we are up early, check weather it looks great, we decide to try to make it over the mountains to home. There is Rainer, we're getting close Crossing the Cascades is always an adventure when we make Arlington, the wife decides she is riding home with the kids, (they live in Arlington) so after 5 days she bails and leaves me to get the bird down at home field by my self. The winds at home are 330 at 20G25 and our runway is 25/07, I make 5 tries and can't keep the Fairchild on the 25' wide runway, So call it off and go to Bayview/Skagit reagonal to wait until the wind calms down. about 1700 the 5th day we get it home. 36 hours of flying time, 315 gallons of fuel, costing $817.96, 1 quart of oil, total cost of the trip $565.00 including motels, and rental cars. click your browser back button to go home.