Date:    Wednesday, July 24, 2002, 5:25:17 PM
Subject: IFR & VFR trip from SBA to OSH, via SDL, T29, T89, WWR, BFK, and IKV

Howdy all,

We filed IFR for our Santa Barbara to Scottsdale trip, but the trip at
mostly 9000 ft. was VMC all the way. Despite having standard arrival routes,
the PHX approach controller drove us direct from BXK (Buckeye) to
Scottsdale, mostly at 4000 ft, until we reported the airport in sight.

Last Saturday, a severe thunderstorm moved across Phoenix, and, like a child
angry at her toys, threw planes at PHX about and even flipped one or two
over. Scottsdale was less affected, but my newly painted, white and pretty
Cherokee 6 ended up with mud spattered over the left (windward) side.

We filed IFR for both legs of our trip from Scottsdale to Castroville, TX
(near San Antonio) trip. Unlike the previous flight, we spent some of the
leg flying through clouds at 9000 and 11000 ft. The density altitude was
about 13500, and our plucky Cherokee 6, fully loaded with 5 people and
maximum baggage, was willing to try but struggled with a 100+ FPM climb rate
just getting up to 11000.  The plane flew much better at 9000 ft (which was
a density altitude of about 11000).

It wasn't too bumpy in the clouds, though there was a small period of level
1 and 2 rain that did wash some of the mud from Scottsdale off. The
stormscope was very helpful in reassuring us that the nearest electrical
activity was about 30-40 degrees to either side, but mostly to the north and
moving further in that direction.

We landed for fuel at a small little airport called "West Texas" (T27); the
folks there were very nice, though the amenities were sparse. I like giving
small general aviation (GA) airports my business. It is these kinds of
airports that makes GA charming and sometimes romantic for me.

We left Castroville (T89) on another IFR trip, this time to West Woodward,
OK (WWR), which is the airport with both fuel and services closest to
Buffalo, OK. On this flight, the first part of the trip was IMC, sometimes
moderately bumpy, but after about an hour, the clouds thinned out. After
another hour, the clouds disappeared altogether and we entered VMC, with
blue skies above.

The right side door latch tongue pin, which had previously somehow become
bent, was replaced by Jim Judge, the new FBO manager/CFI/A&P at WWR, and the
line boy there earned some extra cash by washing the Arizona mud off our
plane.

On all the IFR flight plans up to this point, I filed by using low-enroute
airways even though I have two IFR-certified Garmin GPS units.  I did this
to get some direct experience in flying them, and on how ATC deals with
changes to the filed route.

For example, the Kansas City ATC had some radar service outage, and altered
my filed route to include Gage (GAG), and asked me to report my progress
(which I did). I guess that without good radar coverage, ATC won't allow
direct routes more than a certain distance, unless they happen to be along a
published airway. Anyway, he would not let me skip the Gage VOR and go
direct to WWR from the previous filed waypoint.

In contrast to the previous routes, on the IFR trip from WWR to Ankeny, IA
(IKV), I filed direct, with some almost linear waypoints of small airports
that make convenient progress markers. In other words, I did not use any
published routes, and ATC accepted the filed route as filed. Of course, I
had to figure out my own MEAs, based on the topography.

The IFR slots to OSH were all gone (until Wed AM), so we flew VFR from IKV.
We were able to obtain flight following until just past Waterloo, where they
cancelled and we squawked 1200.  The huge low front that would have required
an IFR flight had just moved east past our route, and we were able to fly
VMC with blue sky, except for a strange line of small puff-ball clouds, on
the last 100 miles.

So, yesterday, we arrived at OSH a little after 5pm.  At Fisk we were directed
to follow the road for a left base to runway 36, and told to land at the 2nd
exitway. There was a very strong cross wind which almost caused us to lift
off again after having landed, but we eventually landed and taxied into the
grass.

We taxied down the length of runway 36, then down the length of runway 9/27,
then across the approach end of 9, and then back up the entire length of
9/27 again, to finally park in the grass at the very easternmost GA parking
area, in 2nd row from the fence, about five or six planes down from the
taxiway.

As we were unloading, two FSDO guys showed up and sort-of ramp-checked me,
politely asking for my medical and pilot's license. Their attention had been
caught by the tail-low profile of our Cherokee 6, which they considered as
possibly being caused by improper loading. As I showed them my medical
(current, of course) and my new temporary IFR license, they congratulated me
and asked if I had done the weight & balance for this trip. I explained to
them that we had weighed everything in the plane, and that not only did I
have a sheet of paper with all the weights, but I had the W&B graph on my
laptop, courtesy of the Jepp Flight Star program.

I then explained to them that the most likely cause of our nose-high profile
was due to too much air pressure in the nose gear which has been a recurring
problem. I told them that when we landed in Scottsdale, it had been high,
but when we landed in Castroville, it was normal as it was in Woodward.
Ironically, it usually levels out as we roll for takeoff. They accepted
this, and didn't really want me to show them the W&B graph on my laptop.

So, my first ramp-check and it's no problem at all.

We're staying at a nice home in OSH, from which a trip to the north-side of
the airport takes only about 10 minutes.

We did not make it to the Pryor booth today (Tue), but tomorrow (Wed), I'll
make every effort to show up around noon.