November 9 - 12, 2006 Cross-Country Bi-plane Trip

Flight was fun.

Flew 6 hours at about 125 mph with an indicated airspeed of 90 mph
and ended up in northern OK at dark. Turbulent...so since I flew the
whole thing (Jim took off and landed) I had to really concentrate. I
had to have him take the stick when I had to change charts because
the plane would end up in a 30 degree bank or dive etc.

The next morning we only had 125 miles to go but it took us over 2
hours as our ground speed was only 60mph or so because the front had
passed and we now had a really turbulent headwind as well as just
above freezing temps. The cars were passing us! It was very cold,
and sitting in an open cockpit plane with those temperatures gives
you a real appreciation of the early air mail pilots.

We landed at the repair place that we were flying to and Jim just got
out of the plane and headed inside to the wood stove in the office.
The plane we flew is a Great Lakes and was mfg. in 1976 but is
exactly the same as the original that was designed in 1927. The
repair service has been working on only these planes since the middle
70's. They have a grass field and it is really like back in the
1920's. By the way, the reason we flew it there is that the fuel
tank in the upper wing was leaking out of the bottom of that wing and
lots of fabric was loose and corrosion problems from being down here
so long. OSHA has no jurisdiction as far as we know, and anyway, it
is in El Dorado, Kansas alreadyl

The cockpit is so cramped that I could only take 2 changes of
underwear, a toothbrush and toothpaste along with charts, clipboard
and GPS. I had the same clothes on for 4 days.

I enjoy the planning, flying, scenery etc. but would rather do it in
a plane with windows!

This side picture is this kind of plane, but Jim's plane is Orange with blue trim and much prettier than the one in these pictures. One of those is attached too.

This story pretty much captures what flying one of these is about.
http://www.russellw.com/biplane_trip/default.htm