First the good news, Ole' 84 is Red and it looks FANTASTIC... (Pics soon.)
And now for the rest of the story....
If you ever wonder how things get started down a slippery slope here is a diary of what might have been a disaster....
Everyone knows that flying an airplane out of the paint shop is a high risk activity. Every control surface has been removed, lots of wires have been unhooked and hooked up. All the antennas have been removed and replaced. It is a much bigger deal than an annual inspection and the opportunities for errors are everywhere.
I got the call that the airplane was done, and for those who have been watching the weather you know that the northern plains have been buried in a three foot blanket of snow. As the warm air of spring arrives to melt it, the result is daily morning fog, that may or may not break by noon.
The fog broke right at noon yesterday and we took off at noon in a Cherokee 180 to retrieve the Rocket. The forecast called for 2500 BKN until dusk when the fog would roll in again. Everyone knows that flying a freshly painted airplane in low IFR would be a bad idea.
We climbed through a scatter layer and ten miles east of the airport it was clear all the way to Quincy and the Rocket looked great. I gave the airplane a good look over, and paid the bill. I checked the WX back at MCW and it was 500 OVC and 6 miles vis. I told my time building VFR chauffeur that if the WX did not improve to meet the forecast at home, he should go to Charles City CCY, just 30 miles east of home, where the snow was gone and the sky would be clear. I said if everything worked I would shoot the approach to MCW and if it didn't I planned to go to CCY as well.
I took off and the airplane performed wonderfully. Everything worked, no issues except the weather at home was not improving. I was chatting with the Cherokee on "fingers" about the weather and watched it on XM. About half way home it went to 300 & 1.... Everything was working perfectly and I shoot routinely fly approaches to minimums. So I continued....
I flew the ILS and it was not 300 and one, I was right at minimums when the lights appeared and I landed without incident....
I got in my RED Truck to drive to CCY to retrieve my chauffeur and called the F1Boss Mark Frederick to tell him his old Rocket was RED and it looked GREAT.... In passing I mentioned I was driving because the WX was low at home.... He grumbled at me.... "You know better than to be flying a freshly painted airplane in Low IFR..."
He was right, I do.... I would have never left to go pick up the airplane had I known that the WX at home would be 500 ft overcast on return... Much less 200.... What was different once I was there? Inertia.... We get moving in one direction and everything is working and the farther we go into it the harder it is to change direction.....
If the RV-List had a report of a Rocket that was crashed by a multi-thousand hour ATP, DPE, with over 700 hours in the accident airplane picked up the airplane, flew it home and crashed on an ILS to minimums, everyone would say, "What an idiot." I would too, but it worked so well, it was so easy....
Oh yes, when I was took off, I said to myself, if everything is not working well, I can land in VMC 30 miles short of home. If it is working, I a 500 ft approach is not a big deal. When it went to 300, I said, wow, that is not anywhere near the forecast of 2500. And when I broke out at 200 ft I was thinking what an incredibly capable airplane.... I really never gave it a second thought until Mark smacked my up the side of my head.....
The flight was so smooth, so simple and so stupid.... The inertia of the trip lead me to a place I would have never gone standing on the ground looking objectively at the facts. But once the plan was in motion, it was so easy to keep rolling along. So all I have to report is this, the guy I saw in the mirror shaving this morning is a bonehead.
Tailwinds,
Doug Rozendaal Chief Bonehead
RED Rocket
And now for the rest of the story....
If you ever wonder how things get started down a slippery slope here is a diary of what might have been a disaster....
Everyone knows that flying an airplane out of the paint shop is a high risk activity. Every control surface has been removed, lots of wires have been unhooked and hooked up. All the antennas have been removed and replaced. It is a much bigger deal than an annual inspection and the opportunities for errors are everywhere.
I got the call that the airplane was done, and for those who have been watching the weather you know that the northern plains have been buried in a three foot blanket of snow. As the warm air of spring arrives to melt it, the result is daily morning fog, that may or may not break by noon.
The fog broke right at noon yesterday and we took off at noon in a Cherokee 180 to retrieve the Rocket. The forecast called for 2500 BKN until dusk when the fog would roll in again. Everyone knows that flying a freshly painted airplane in low IFR would be a bad idea.
We climbed through a scatter layer and ten miles east of the airport it was clear all the way to Quincy and the Rocket looked great. I gave the airplane a good look over, and paid the bill. I checked the WX back at MCW and it was 500 OVC and 6 miles vis. I told my time building VFR chauffeur that if the WX did not improve to meet the forecast at home, he should go to Charles City CCY, just 30 miles east of home, where the snow was gone and the sky would be clear. I said if everything worked I would shoot the approach to MCW and if it didn't I planned to go to CCY as well.
I took off and the airplane performed wonderfully. Everything worked, no issues except the weather at home was not improving. I was chatting with the Cherokee on "fingers" about the weather and watched it on XM. About half way home it went to 300 & 1.... Everything was working perfectly and I shoot routinely fly approaches to minimums. So I continued....
I flew the ILS and it was not 300 and one, I was right at minimums when the lights appeared and I landed without incident....
I got in my RED Truck to drive to CCY to retrieve my chauffeur and called the F1Boss Mark Frederick to tell him his old Rocket was RED and it looked GREAT.... In passing I mentioned I was driving because the WX was low at home.... He grumbled at me.... "You know better than to be flying a freshly painted airplane in Low IFR..."
He was right, I do.... I would have never left to go pick up the airplane had I known that the WX at home would be 500 ft overcast on return... Much less 200.... What was different once I was there? Inertia.... We get moving in one direction and everything is working and the farther we go into it the harder it is to change direction.....
If the RV-List had a report of a Rocket that was crashed by a multi-thousand hour ATP, DPE, with over 700 hours in the accident airplane picked up the airplane, flew it home and crashed on an ILS to minimums, everyone would say, "What an idiot." I would too, but it worked so well, it was so easy....
Oh yes, when I was took off, I said to myself, if everything is not working well, I can land in VMC 30 miles short of home. If it is working, I a 500 ft approach is not a big deal. When it went to 300, I said, wow, that is not anywhere near the forecast of 2500. And when I broke out at 200 ft I was thinking what an incredibly capable airplane.... I really never gave it a second thought until Mark smacked my up the side of my head.....
The flight was so smooth, so simple and so stupid.... The inertia of the trip lead me to a place I would have never gone standing on the ground looking objectively at the facts. But once the plan was in motion, it was so easy to keep rolling along. So all I have to report is this, the guy I saw in the mirror shaving this morning is a bonehead.
Tailwinds,
Doug Rozendaal Chief Bonehead
RED Rocket
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