Thread: Another Trip

Evening All: nancy and I are back from a trip to San Antonio (from our home in Pensacola) were we attended an Recce Reunion (RF-4s, RF101s etc) and it was another terrific get together. We told war stories (loosely defined as anything to do with flying in the military); renewed old friendships (and I might say that now they are "old" friendships as I left B-52s to go to RF4 in 1966) ; and we saw folks we have not seen in 30+ years. I would like to say for the record that the transition to the CTLS was not unlike my transition from the B-52 to the RF-4, it was fresh, different, and so much fun that my (then pregnant) wife Nancy realized that she had competition; the CTLS has assumed some of the same attraction. However, the difference now is that she gets to share directly.

The Texas trip started from L 38 Louisiana Regional, near our son's house and it was 4+ hours to Stinson (SSF) just south of San Antonio. The weather was hot, but clear and we had headwinds both ways. Going back to 82J from L38 was a really different flight in that we were dodging CBs. But for the reunion, the grand kids we had a great trip and the CT's performance was flawless ; we flew out at 75 and back at 85, fuel burn was 4.9/hr average. Oh yes, we are going on a family cruise next week and nancy wants to fly to Meritt Island (COI) A/P (Port Canaveral) rather than drive the nine or so hours. The trip to TX was good practice for packing a suit/dress for a semi formal sit-down dinner, and cloths for a week of other stuff. Rolling clothes neatly and soft luggage works great!! We find that packing for as much as a month trip is not too difficult, but it does take planning and discipline--resulting in more aircraft utility.

Well that's it for now, I am flying tomorrow morning--a two hour pilot pro flight to include some instrument approaches so that my Garmin SL 30 doesn't get rusty.

See ya, Ken and Nancy Nolde, N840KN 160+ hours

Hi Ken, Here is a tip I got from driving my Mazda MX5 (I think they call it the Miata in the US of A) on long trips. If you pack soft stuff in a plastic bag, then use one of those cardboard pumps they use to evacuate air from freezer bags, for exactly the same purpose on your clothes and take all of the air out of the bag, they take up about half as much room as they did before and you can get a lot more in.

(I did consider trading in my leggy blonde wife for a short brunette, so I could get more in the front, but that seemed to work out very expensive in the long run)!