[Rhodes22-list] Compass Stories

[Bob Weber]

Thanks for the story Brad, I now recall how I loved the excitement of Flying 
up to a certine point.  There was a good level of excitement and then there 
was "I wish I was anywhere but in this cockpit excitement"  I don't miss the 
later too much.  Radio aids (when working) really give an airplane pilot 
much better situational awareness than a skipper gets.  I am taking Advanced 
Coastal Navigation thru the USCG Aux right now and it is a good thing that 
our boats go so slow.  I would not rely on a steering compass on a R-22 
short of seeing whether I am getted headed or lifted.  Next time you are in 
STL drop me a note.  Cards game no problem, sailing, even better, Joy ride 
in a plane - sure as long as your PIC - don't want to dust off any 
braincells.  There is no real way to fly to the boat short of a seaplane.  
If you have that license - I am way in.  Bob

>From: brad haslett <flybrad at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: The Rhodes 22 mail list <rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org>
>To: rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org
>Subject: [Rhodes22-list] Compass Stories
>Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2005 02:30:57 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Bob Weber,
>
>Since its 4am and I can't sleep I may as well tell a
>couple of compass stories, one involving your beloved
>Redbirds.
>
>In the late 70's I was running a small freight company
>in Little Rock.  FedEx and the air freight forwarders
>only delivered within the city so all the little
>factories around Arkansas would have to send a driver
>daily to LIT for their inbound freight, often a 4-hour
>or more round trip.  My business was to put the
>freight on an airplane and deliver it much sooner.  A
>lot of these guys liked getting out of the factory so
>you had to identify who had the power to make a
>decision (usually the traffic manager) and get their
>approval to use us.  Our marketing efforts consisted
>of picking these guys up in an airplane and flying
>them to Little Rock for an overnight stay on my bosses
>44-foot houseboat.  We'd take them out on the Arkansas
>River, feed them steak, get them drunk, and show a
>classic movie, say something starring Linda Lovelace.
>It was pretty heady stuff for a lot of these guys and
>it worked.  One morning we headed back to the dock in
>fog so thick you couldn't see either bank of the
>river.  We were navigating using a compass and map,
>and the depth finder to stay in the channel.  I was
>posted on watch on the bow to listen for barges.  I
>looked up and saw a major powerline and my boss found
>our exact location on the map.  About thirty minutes
>later I saw another overhead powerline and pointed it
>out.  The throttles suddenly went to idle and we had a
>conference.  There was only one powerline that crossed
>the river in our location.  In the fog and confusion
>we had done a 180 degree turn in the river and was
>headed back downstream.  Keeping with the old Navy
>tradition, "better to die than look bad", we did
>another 180 and never mentioned our "problem" to our
>guests.
>
>My boss was a big Cardinal fan he flew to a couple of
>games each month.  The one time I went with him I
>agreed to fly to STL with the understanding I could
>drink beer during the game and he'd fly back.  We
>landed at Parks Bi-State and took a cab downtown.  I
>got up to go get some beers and my boss said, "yea,
>get me a couple more too!"  OK, so much for him flying
>home. I like baseball but the game goes a lot slower
>without beer. We got in the airplane after the game
>and I said I'd go inside and get our IFR clearance on
>the phone.  "Ah hell, lets just pick it up airborne"
>I pleaded with my boss that the weather looked pretty
>shitty and that wasn't a good idea.  Long story short,
>he intimidated me into launching and we called Scott
>AFB approach for the clearance.  "Remain VFR and
>standby".  It was a bit late for that since we went
>popeye at about 500'.  We got our IFR and pressed on.
>The wx at LIT was about 400' overcast and all we had
>on board was a localizer.  Then my boss started
>explaining what all didn't work.  No G/S, no marker
>beacon, no ADF, and the number two VOR was EXACTLY 90
>degrees off.  "Are you sure?  Exactly 90 degrees?"  We
>used a crossing radial off the #2 VOR, corrected 90
>degrees of course, to identify the outer marker and
>descended to the MDA.  And flew and flew and flew and
>flew and flew.  After about 10 minutes I couldn't take
>it any more and started to go missed when all of a
>sudden the approach lights came into view.  We must
>have let down about 30 miles from the airport.  That
>was my last Cards game with that employer and a few
>weeks later I found another job.
>
>"What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!"
>
>Brad
>
>
>
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