How I flew my '68 Cherokee 140 to Savannah from Maine...
Or
"Wow! My butt is sore..."

Here is the set up.

I found a '68 Cherokee 140 that was a good fit for my wife and me.
It was priced right, it looked pretty good, and it had almost
everything I needed in it so I could get my instrument rating. There
were a couple of flies in the ointment, however. For one thing, it was
in Sanford, Maine. And for another it was out of annual. I sent the
guy a deposit, and he put it directly in the shop to get the annual
done. While that was being done I asked the mechanic to go ahead and
install pitot heat so that I could certify the plane for IFR. Between
the annual snowballing into a $6K affair, and the parts for the pitot
heat addition not coming in the date for me to fly up and retrieve the
plane was slipping. The weekend prior to the Holiday weekend was my
last hope. If we hadn't been able to get it then it would be
mid-January before I could have my own plane at home.

Here is the story.

After rescheduling eTickets once ($$$ my wife and I were finally on our
way from Savannah International at 5:30 pm on Friday. We were to
arrive in Portland, Maine at 9:37 pm. After being diverted due to fog,
landing in Boston, and being bussed back up to Portland, we finally got
in bed at 2:30 am.

The seller picked us up the next morning at 8:15 am and took us to see
the plane. Of course the plane wasn't quite ready... Seems that the
airspeed indicator was screwed up and when they checked out the
pitot/static system it showed up. So we were waiting on UPS to bring
the new one.

My insurance company required that I have an hour with a CFI before we
left for home. The seller had booked me for an hour on Saturday,
however, my hour came and went as the mechanics were installing the new
airspeed indicator. My wife and I decided to go get lunch while the
instructor took his scheduled student up for an hour.

By the time we finally got the plane rolled out, fueled up, and flown
for an hour it was nearly 2:30 pm. The folks at the FBO really were
concerned that we would blast off into the wild blue in an unfamiliar
airplane for a LONG VFR NIGHT cross country. They suggested that we
wait until morning to leave, but, we both felt that we needed to at
least "start" for home.

We took a quick look at the sectional and picked out something down the
road that looked big enough to have a place to eat and sleep. Bedford,
MA was going to be our first stop.
As in a lot of first flights after annual, we had a little problem show
up as we headed into Bedford's Hanscomb Field. It seems that they
could receive our Mode C. In fact, they couldn't see our transponder
at all. *Damn!* After having us do a couple of turns for
identification, they let us come on in and land. Less than an hour
into the trip and we've already had an issue.

By the way, Signature Flight Support treated us like a King and Queen.
Even though we taxied up in a lowly Cherokee, the treated us just as if
we had flown in a 747.

The next morning at 8:00 am we headed out. Because the xponder was on
the fritz, the controller asked us to cycle the power three or four
times before she finally turned us loose. Because I knew we were going
to be difficult for ATC to see and track I punched a route into the
GPSMAP 195 that kept us clear of all the busiest airports.

We flew southwesterly into a 30kt headwind for about 2 hours before
Mother Nature notified my wife that it was time for us to stop. We
took a restroom break in Middletown, NY and continued on, after going
around and landing to close her door.

Our next stop was Reading, PA, west of Philadelphia. After a pretty
good lunch and 44 gallons of 100LL we were on our way again. We turned
the corner and headed south at Hagerstown, MD. I knew that we were
going to have to make at least one more fuel stop before we got home so
I picked out Lynchburg, VA. I figured that if we could make it that
far, even if we had troubles Brother Falwell could probably pray us on
home !!! (just kidding...)

We made it to Lynchburg at about 3:30 pm, bought fuel and picked up
some snacks. Leaving Lynchburg headed south we saw about 120 kts
groundspeed !!! Whoo Wooo, we're cooking now!!! One of the most
beautiful sunsets I've ever seen was as the sun went down over the
mountains south of Lynchburg.

Somewhere over southern North Carolina we were cruising along at 4500
AMSL when the ground lights went out !!! We ran through a layer of
little puffy clouds. I dropped down to 3000 AMSL for the remainder of
the trip.

We arrived in the Savannah, GA area at about 8:30 pm. What a welcomed
sight! We were on the ground and tied down by 8:45 pm.

I learned quite a lot on this flight. I learned that the little
Cherokee was a good, dependable plane. During the annual it had two
cylinders replaced, so I flew it firewalled all the way home to break
in the cylinders and it never missed a beat.

In one day I flew the plane more hours than the previous owner had
flown it in the last year.