March 13, 2001 Baton Rouge, Louisiana to Hattiesburg, Mississippi

Steve Thomas/Proficiency and Training flights across America

This morning we met Kevin Manual and Ray Morrow at Omni Airpark. They were already flying, and landed when we pulled in. We took off a few minutes after 8:00 and they flew along with me for about 7 miles and turned back after we crossed the Mississippi River.

The winds were strong even that early and as is "par for the course" it was a head wind. My ground speed was bouncing up and down between 20 and 25 mph at tree top level! Up higher it got slower in a hurry and at about 300' above the ground was down to 16 mph. I flew the entire flight at about 100' or less above the ground except to cross major power lines.

The sun was out and it hot and muggy. That made for some devilish thermals thrown in with the gusty wind blowing over the treetops, and the ride was not enjoyable at all! The 76 mile flight ended up covering 81 miles by the time I corrected for the winds, and took 2 hours and 50 minutes.

At Franklinton, Louisiana I was lucky that the airport was another tree lined runway. The winds got right before I landed and were coming right down the runway. I landed on the runway and then taxied off into the grass to drop the chute.

I was totally exhausted from the flight and fighting the winds all of the way. I was going to refuel and go again after a short rest, but decided to pack it in and wait for the winds to lay down.

I finally made up my mind to go again at 3:30 even thought the winds were still up a bit, but they were better than earlier. This flight was still endless mile after mile of pine trees. The winds were down enough that I could fly at 500-800' above the ground and that made it a lot smoother.

It took me 2 hours to get to Hattiesburg, Mississippi and the winds got smoother and lighter as I neared the city. Chuck arrived ahead of me by a few minutes and talked with the airport management. At first they were apprehensive of my arrival and landing, but were O.K. with it when they learned that I have communications and know how to use them. They assigned a patch of grass as my landing zone, as Chuck parked next to it.

The airport office emptied into the lot to watch my landing according to Chuck. I didn't know that they were watching, but I sure am glad that everything went picture perfect. The manager later commented to me about how pretty the landing was and it made me feel good.

We left and they told me to use the field whenever I flew out. Here are a few photos from the flight today.

Enjoy!
Steve

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