KNEW Redeux

It was just a few days after the beginning of summer, so what better place to visit that hot, humid, New Orleans, Louisiana? Hmmm.....Seattle, San Francisco, Milwaukee, Traverse City...a few places come to mind, but I was headed down to the Gulf Coast for a couple of days at another tradeshow in New Orleans. We left early on Saturday, so as to make it down in time to 1.) set up the booth, 2.) check into our hotel room, and 3.) play golf by the gulf.

The flight down was right through the disapppating aftermath of a huge line of storms that had raced across Ohio and Kentucky earlier that morning. When we took off from Coshocton, we had to fly just under a cloud deck at about 2500ft that cleared up shortly after we passed Zanesville, OH. We climbed up over the cloud deck and danced among the shrinking clouds at 7500ftMSL.

Dillon Reservoir, near Zanesville, OH - The June rains have filled it back up!

Climbing through the clouds to the clear air on top!

Clear of clouds and cruising in the morning sunshiune on top....

We had some pretty stiff winds to cope with on the way down - 30-35kt cross-winds from the west, so our time enroute wasn't speedy. It really makes a big difference when you're only traveling at 100-105kts groundspeed versus 135-145, Those extra knots really start to add up over a couple of hours. One of the really cool things about this flight was that there were still some patches of virga or rain at these higher altitudes, and the sun was just at the right angle to catch a few really cool rainbows. Here's a photo of the best one - A giant, sweeping bow of color across the sky....and look! A Diamond right at the end of it! No pots o' gold in these rainbows!

A Diamond at the end of a rainbow - that thing about Pots o' Gold are definitely not accurate!

As we headed further south to our first fuel stop, the skies cleared up over Oak Ridge, TN and continued to be clear as we descended over Chattanooga Class C airspace into Barwick-Lafayette (9A5) municipal airport. We flew over the Sequoyah Nuclear Power Station, just north of Chattanooga, apparently one of the most efficient producers of electricity in the nation between 2000 and 2002 - only 1.14 cents per kW! That's some cheap, clean energy!

The Sequoyah Nuclear Power Station, just north of Chattanooga, TN

Chattanooga Metropolitain Airport - Lovell Field

Entering the pattern at Barwick-Lafayette (9A5)

Turning final for runway 20 at Barwick-Lafayette.

Upon landing at Barwick-Lafayette, we landed and were greeted by an friendly gentleman that helped us with refueling and gave me a quick tour of his home-built biplane project (a Sorrell Hiperbipe) in a nearby hangar. This little aerobatic biplane had a Lycoming IO-360 installed on the front, had side-by-side seating, and looked like a very hot little ride! In that same hangar, was a Taylorcraft F-22, serial number 1, from the newer Taylorcraft production line! Pretty cool! After we packed up, and switched pilots, we headed down south over Birmingham, AL, over Meridian, MS, and straight to New Orleans. We had to fly fairly high - 8500ft to get in-between the clouds, but the air was fairly stable, so not much turbulence, and it was really cool to zig and zag between the towering clouds, knowing that they were not full of rain.

A Southwest 737 landing at Birmingham Airport

Navigating the cloud canyons over Mississippi

Towering cumulus clouds sparkling bright white in the morning sunlight

Clouds over northern Mississippi

One of the really weird things that we continued to see as we flew over Mississippi, where these huge lots of what looked to be white semi-trailers. They were scattered in a couple of different places, and Dad & I were wondering what they were, when we suddenly realized that these were FEMA trailers that were in "storage". What a tremendous waste of money to have all these trailers just sitting in a field rotting and not being used or sold...but then, who would want them? Isn't central planning great?

Anyone need a couple of thousand FEMA trailers?

We managed to sneak into New Orleans, right before a torrential downpour that was making its way up from the Gulf. We managed to accomplish our goals of setting up the booth, checking into our squallid hotel, and playing a round of golf at The Player's Club of Louisiana. That was a pretty nice golf course, with difficult approach shots, and very deceiving distances. I kept playing my 100yd clubs, when I should've been playing my 150yd clubs. Oh well - it was a good time, and they had really great food at the clubhouse.