March 15, 2001 Chatom, Alabama to Brundidge, Alabama

Steve Thomas/Proficiency and Training flights across America

Last night the thunder storms and heavy rains rumbled through Chatom. This morning the clouds were still there but moving northeast pretty steadily. Finally by 10:45 they were broken up and the sun was shining.

The winds were light from the south as I took off on runway 12. I climbed on up about 1,000' and began to level off. My ground speed was 32 mph so I slowly climbed on up to 3,000' and achieved a ground speed of 45-50 mph. The terrain was still mostly flooded pine forests and a few farms.

Along the way I encountered several military training jet as I was flying through an Alert Area with intensive Rotor and Fixed Training Activity. At one point one of them crossed right in front of me and I tried to get the camera out in time to catch him, but he was way too fast. At that very moment I looked to my left and there was a big black bird soaring along with me at 3,000' above the Tombigbee River and Dunn Lake near Jackson. I did get his picture!

Chuck got to Evergreen, Alabama about 5 minutes before me. The airport manager was out to lunch, but there were several Air Force and Navy Personnel there as support for the training flights that were doing touch and goes in T-34's. They told him to just have me make my normal announcements and the trainers would go up to 14,000' and wait for me to land.

I made my announcements and took the active on runway 19 since the military were using 28 for their touch and goes. All of the guys watched as I landed and packed up, then taxied in to refuel. The support crews came out and inspected the PPC and chatted with us while I refueled and prepared for the next flight.

After chatting with me for a while, they went back to the training missions. When I taxied out to runway 19 they asked if I could pull up short of runway 28 where they cross. I knew that they were wanting to continue with their missions, and I could have probably done it, but I didn't want to chance an encounter with a student Pilot in a high speed touch and go, so I told them that I would move to the south side of 28 to setup on 19 and they liked that idea! :}

Their missions continued as I setup for takeoff. I announced that I was taking off and one of the trainers told me that he was in the pattern on his downwind leg. I replied that I would takeoff while he was on his downwind and not interrupt the training. He had just passed in front of me and I took off. As I turned to head east and flew parallel to runway 28 I flew past the crew and they wished me well on the rest of the flight.

That was cool for me to have landed and taken off with all of that activity going on and interacting with the military guys. Chuck later told me that the airport manager got there as I was taking off and told him that he wished I would have waited so he could have gotten some good pictures! He liked the idea that I dropped in and everything went great through the use of the radios. I felt really good as I flew off to the east headed for Brundidge, Alabama just the other side of Troy.

I flew from Evergreen to Brundidge at 3,000' and maintained a ground speed of 50+ mph all the way. It only took me an hour and a half to get there and land. The place looked deserted as I landed and taxied down the runway. I took off my helmet and could here what sounded like a helicopter flying low over the woods. Then I didn't hear it anymore. A minute or so later I saw a Gyroplane coming in low and quiet. He turned in and landed behind me on the runway. I took his picture and then he taxied up beside me and shut down.

This fellow is retired and just enjoys flying his Gyroplane every day! He chatted with me for a while and then Chuck got to the airport and we loaded up and drove to Troy for the night. I only flew 158 miles today, but I didn't get started until 10:45. Total flight time was 3.5 hours. Tomorrow looks good so far!

Enjoy!
Steve

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