First Angel Flight

Today, I had the opportunity to share the gift of flight with a young
burn survivor by taking her to a week long summer camp near Fresno, CA.
"Champ Camp" happens every year and when I figured out that the dates
lined up with an available flying day, I jumped at the chance for a mission.

I was supposed to pickup my passenger at Marysville, just a few miles up
the road from my home airport...but...the Golden West fly-in was going
on so plan-B was to pick her up at Sutter County, just a few miles away.

I filed IFR for the trip to and from Fresno. It was a good chance to
get some time in the IFR system and was my first single pilot IFR x-c.
All in all, things went well in the aviate/navigate/communicate
department. One "note to self" though would be to make sure I have
*all* of the arrival and departure procedures out of the binder when
calling for your clearance. I had the STARs but missed the fact that
there were two DPs from KFAT. Gee, they're on the same page...if you
flip it over, you'd see the other one! :-) When I clarified "Fresno
Five departure" with clearance delivery, they tossed me a bone and said
they could give me alternate departure instructions if I didn't have a
copy. I did have a copy but gladly accepted vectors to save digging it
out of my binder. KFAT clearance was really nice about it and, as it
turns out, the vectors were pretty much what was in the DP (first thing
I did getting home was to find the DP).

Our passenger did just fine the entire trip as she's done this camp for
the past 8 years. My wife was along for the ride as well and did a
great job explaining some things going on. She also baked some brownies
for our passenger. It was a nice touch. When we arrived at Fresno, it
was great to see our passenger recognize some friends from the camp.
She was very appreciative and asked if we'd be picking her up for the
return trip. Sure wish I could...an unfortunate "unable" for flying
next weekend.

Just for Jay B., two Marine F-18s landed as we were taxiing for
departure from Fresno. Sorry man, the camera was in the flight bag, in
the back seat. I didn't get to taxi close to the ANG ramp either or I'd
have some F-16 pix...well, as good as a $200 Cannon digital will do.
:-) A pair of T-38s took off as we getting established on a 6 mile
final. Didn't see them though, just thought "cool!" when the tower was
informing another plane about the departure.

While it felt good flying a 3.2 hour IFR x-c on a nice day, it was even
better that we were able to help get our passenger to camp. My wife
even made her some brownies to share with here friends. So, 3.4 hours
on Mr. Hobbs, 38.8 gallons of 100ll (I was running at 24/24 to see what
the fuel burn would be going "fast(er)"), a great day to fly, and last
but certainly not least, using the gift of flight in a very tangable
way...it doesn't get much better.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

While it felt good flying a 3.2 hour IFR x-c on a nice day, it was even
better that we were able to help get our passenger to camp. My wife even
made her some brownies to share with here friends. So, 3.4 hours on Mr.
Hobbs, 38.8 gallons of 100ll (I was running at 24/24 to see what the fuel
burn would be going "fast(er)"), a great day to fly, and last but
certainly not least, using the gift of flight in a very tangable way...it
doesn't get much better.

Cool report, Jack. Thanks for sharing it!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"

Great story Jack!! I have the Angel Flight paperwork that I am going to
fill out. Did you find it easy to get into the Angel Flight system? Any
requirements I need to know about?

What kind of speed and fuel flow does the Arrow get @ 24/24? Do you run
LOP?

Jon Kraus

Jack Allison wrote:
Today, I had the opportunity to share the gift of flight with a young
burn survivor by taking her to a week long summer camp near Fresno, CA.
"Champ Camp" happens every year and when I figured out that the dates
lined up with an available flying day, I jumped at the chance for a
mission.

I was supposed to pickup my passenger at Marysville, just a few miles up
the road from my home airport...but...the Golden West fly-in was going
on so plan-B was to pick her up at Sutter County, just a few miles away.

I filed IFR for the trip to and from Fresno. It was a good chance to
get some time in the IFR system and was my first single pilot IFR x-c.
All in all, things went well in the aviate/navigate/communicate
department. One "note to self" though would be to make sure I have
*all* of the arrival and departure procedures out of the binder when
calling for your clearance. I had the STARs but missed the fact that
there were two DPs from KFAT. Gee, they're on the same page...if you
flip it over, you'd see the other one! :-) When I clarified "Fresno
Five departure" with clearance delivery, they tossed me a bone and said
they could give me alternate departure instructions if I didn't have a
copy. I did have a copy but gladly accepted vectors to save digging it
out of my binder. KFAT clearance was really nice about it and, as it
turns out, the vectors were pretty much what was in the DP (first thing
I did getting home was to find the DP).

Our passenger did just fine the entire trip as she's done this camp for
the past 8 years. My wife was along for the ride as well and did a
great job explaining some things going on. She also baked some brownies
for our passenger. It was a nice touch. When we arrived at Fresno, it
was great to see our passenger recognize some friends from the camp. She
was very appreciative and asked if we'd be picking her up for the return
trip. Sure wish I could...an unfortunate "unable" for flying next weekend.

Just for Jay B., two Marine F-18s landed as we were taxiing for
departure from Fresno. Sorry man, the camera was in the flight bag, in
the back seat. I didn't get to taxi close to the ANG ramp either or I'd
have some F-16 pix...well, as good as a $200 Cannon digital will do.
:-) A pair of T-38s took off as we getting established on a 6 mile
final. Didn't see them though, just thought "cool!" when the tower was
informing another plane about the departure.

While it felt good flying a 3.2 hour IFR x-c on a nice day, it was even
better that we were able to help get our passenger to camp. My wife
even made her some brownies to share with here friends. So, 3.4 hours
on Mr. Hobbs, 38.8 gallons of 100ll (I was running at 24/24 to see what
the fuel burn would be going "fast(er)"), a great day to fly, and last
but certainly not least, using the gift of flight in a very tangable
way...it doesn't get much better.

"Jon Kraus" wrote:

Great story Jack!! I have the Angel Flight paperwork that I am going to
fill out.

Do it! AF always needs more pilots.

Did you find it easy to get into the Angel Flight system? Any
requirements I need to know about?

It's simple; the AF people will help you if you call them.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

Nice post. Glad your flight went well.

Welcome to Angel Flight.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

"Jon Kraus" wrote in message
.. .
Great story Jack!! I have the Angel Flight paperwork that I am going to
fill out. Did you find it easy to get into the Angel Flight system? Any
requirements I need to know about?

It varies a bit from region to region. Here in the Northeast (unless the
requirements have changed recently) you need to have 300 hours total time, a
current instrument rating (even if the mission is flown VFR), and 25 hours
of instrument time (their orientation document says 25 hours of IMC, but
that's apparently not what they really mean). To fly a mission at night, you
need 25 hours of night flying. (www.angelflightne.org)

There's also an orientation meeting you have to attend before you start
flying missions.

--Gary

Jon Kraus wrote:
Great story Jack!! I have the Angel Flight paperwork that I am going to
fill out. Did you find it easy to get into the Angel Flight system? Any
requirements I need to know about?

As Dan and Gary said, things can differ region to region and the best
bet is to call them. For our region, their website had most of the
information. The hardest thing I had to do was coordinate schedules
with a mission orientation pilot. It took a month or so before we could
hookup but the orientation process is a piece of cake.


What kind of speed and fuel flow does the Arrow get @ 24/24? Do you run
LOP?

According to Mr. Garmin, TAS was 137-138 kts. Running 50 ROP.
Indicated fuel flow was right at 11 gph, close to the 11.4 gph based on
gallons used/hobbs time. I've wondered just how accurate the factory
installed fuel flow gage was. I like the 8-ish GPH numbers when running
at 21/24. The 24/24 numbers from yesterday were at 5000 ft MSL and an
OAT of 18c.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

Dan Luke wrote:
Nice post. Glad your flight went well.

Welcome to Angel Flight.

Thanks Dan. It's been almost a year since I joined AF. Took some time
to get the mission orientation done and then finishing up my instrument
rating made for not much overlap in available time and available
missions. Had one back in the Dec/Jan time frame but got scrubbed due
to weather. I'm pretty much limited to weekend missions and there are
much less of them. Still, even if I can only fly a couple of them a
year, it's well worth the price of admission and airplane costs.


--
Jack Allison
PP-ASEL-Instrument Airplane
Arrow N2104T

"When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the Earth
with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there
you will always long to return"
- Leonardo Da Vinci

(Remove the obvious from address to reply via e-mail)

"Jack Allison" wrote:
I'm pretty much limited to weekend missions and there are much less of
them.

Same here. Unfortunately, doctors' appointments are scarce on weekends.

Still, even if I can only fly a couple of them a year, it's well worth the
price of admission and airplane costs.

Exactly so. Many pilots apparently don't realize that it is not necessary
to fly a bunch of missions to be an AF pilot. Even if you can only fly one
or two a year, it helps.

--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

Dan Luke wrote:

Exactly so. Many pilots apparently don't realize that it is not necessary
to fly a bunch of missions to be an AF pilot. Even if you can only fly one
or two a year, it helps.

When I give talks on AF, of of the questions is "What kind of pilot and
airplane is AF looking for." My stock answer is: "Well, preferrably a
retired ATP who just won the lottery and has his own Gulfstream! What
we are happy to get, however, is anyone with a private pilots license
and who wants to help. We have high time pilots who have lots of money
and lots of time to donate, and who fly several times a week. We also
have college students who have to collect empty pop bottles on the
sides of the road to get enough money to rent a C-172 for a single
mission a year. Doesn't matter - each and every one of those missions
helps someone, and that's what we are looking for."

Related to this thread: We have a similar burn camp down here in
Texas. A few years ago I was flying a brother and somewhat older
sister back from the camp. Big bunch of planes met them at the
airport, a hundred kids coming home from camp - all running around with
piles of dirty clothes and wanting to show off the crafts projects they
had made.

An interesting thing about our camp (and maybe others) is that
typically EVERYONE there is a burn survivor, including the staff. They
try to hold it every summer, and the kids really seem to enjoy it.

So I load up these two kids and we head back towards their home town a
few hundred miles away. The younger boy (about 10) gets tired pretty
quickly and falls asleep, but the sister and I talk a bit about the
camp. As you would imagine, she had all the usual tales to tell. She
talked about all the things they had done, all the activities... Then
she got real quiet, and I saw a bit of a tear in one eye.

"You know," she said, "that's the first time since the accident six
years ago that I wasn't 'different.' I've got lots of friends at
school, and all that, but there, even with my friends, I'm, you know,
the burned one. At camp... well, we were all just *us*."

A flight well worth the AVGAS.

James Knox
Director - AFSC