March 10, 2001 Galveston, Texas to Jennings, Louisiana

Steve Thomas/Proficiency and Training flights across America

This morning I met Pete Contenta and Scott Hill on East Beach at 8:00. They were thinking about flying with me up the coast a ways in their PPC's, but the winds were pretty strong and ominous clouds were hanging over the island. They elected to hang out and fly close in case it got bad. Smart thinking!

I got airborne somewhere around 8:30 and headed across the ship channel. The winds were gusting around 15 mph or so and my take off wasn't the prettiest, but was without incident. Once airborne I climbed up fast and then turned downwind to cross the channel. I was cooking along at 45 mph. Then on the other side I turned more northeast into the wind and as the beach curved around more and more to the east, my speed slowly but steadily decreased. First it was 33 mph, then 30, 28, 26, and finally stopped at around 24-25 mph.

I flew 20 miles up the coast from Galveston to Gilchrist, then turned north toward Winnie-Stowell. My speed went back up to 42 mph+. I was glad to be going faster too since I was over the most inhospitable terrain so far! It was nothing more than one huge swamp after I crossed the Intercoastal Waterway for about the next 5 miles.

At Winnie-Stowell the wind was 90 degrees across the runway. There was a group of guys flying radio controlled airplanes in the parking and refueling lot. They waved and landed their planes as I flew the pattern. There was a runway connector running east-west from the parking area to the runway, and I decided to use it and land into the wind since it was blowing 10-15 mph and gusty.

I taxied up to the parking area and dropped the chute behind the cart on the connector. After explaining about how my PPC worked to the guys, I packed up the chute. At that same time Chuck had arrived and parked in the lot. He had great luck getting on the ferry from Galveston Island to the peninsula that took him to the mainland.

We stayed there for at least an hour watching the winds blow from 10- 15 mph on the ground. Then I launched from the parking lot facing SE since the winds were varying between south and east.

I headed northeast to Orange, Texas. I had to fly below 1,300' msl to keep under the floor of the controlled airspaces of Beaumont and Lake Charles. I flew between Beaumont and Port Arthur over and around the oil refineries. The turbulence was fierce due to all of the varying temperatures plus the high winds and the fact that I had to fly low in the dirty air.

Orange had a grass strip that was too wet and soft for a conventional plane to use, but the airport manager told me on the radio that it would be O.K. for my PPC. That was great since it was facing directly into the wind that was now down to 8 mph.

We chatted with the airport manager and a few other Pilots at the airport for a while, then using their advice I changed my plans and bypassed my next planned stop. Instead I flew along I-10 and deviated to the north to get around Lake Charles and avoid congested areas. I could not avoid the refineries without burning up a bunch of extra fuel though! The ride was again pretty bumpy as I had to fly low still, due to Lake Charles Regional airspace and Chennault Airport.

It was 70 miles to Jennings and the winds were from the east, the direction that I was flying, but getting slower all the time. I had arranged with Chuck to have him wait for me on I-10 at another small airport 10 miles west of Jennings, just in case I was getting low on fuel and had to land short of Jennings. When I reached that point I still had nearly a half a tank of fuel. At these low altitudes and warmer temps my engine is running extremely efficiently with the elliptical chute.

I told Chuck to go on to Jennings and let the guys know that I was on my way. At Jennings there was a couple of PPC's in the air. It was a nice sight to see others at the airport. Tim LeBlanc was on the ground with Doug Miller and after Chuck told them that I was coming in Tim talked to me on the radio and guided me in to where they were. I landed on a taxiway and dropped my chute in the grass beside where they were all waiting for me.

The flight was just over 75 miles and took 2 hours and 30 minutes. I haven't refueled but judging by my sight glass I would say that I only burned around 7 gallons of fuel. The total flight today covered 164 miles and took me from the beaches across swamps and rivers and now I am into Bayou country!

Doug Miller put us up for the night at the motel right on the airport, and took us put for supper! He is one heck of a nice guy! Tomorrow looks as though it could go either way as far as being flyable.

Sunday March 11, 2001. Doug met us for breakfast early this morning and the sky was cloudy with winds beginning to get gusty already. The forecast for Louisiana is for strong gusty winds and thunderstorms for this afternoon and tomorrow. I decided to not temp fate any more that I already do, and stay put until the storm passes.

Doug has a family camp house on the bayou on the edge of town that he is letting us use while we are laying over. It is better than any motel and is very peaceful. It's great sitting on the back porch over the water looking across the Cypress swamp and river while working on my computer! The hospitality really flows down here! It's great.

Have a good one,
Steve

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