We would like to extend a welcome to
Mrs Rimov and her students at:
Lebanon High School
Lebanon, Oregon

LATEST UPDATE

We made it home safely - Each of the entries from Pecos, Texas on, are listed below. Thank you for following along with us on our flight.

N5440M LOG

After many months of searching and much patience, we FINALLY own a Cessna 152!! We took delivery of N5440M officially in Lebanon, NH, activated our insurance coverage through AOPA Insurance Agency, and are ready to begin our cross-country trip!

We will be uploading pictures and updating the map later tonight once we arrive in Boston, Mass.

After prepping the plane for our flight, and programming it into our FANTASTIC new Garmin GNS-430 IFR GPS unit, we were ready to fly our new airplane to Boston, Mass.

We logged 0.9 hours of flight time, flying from Lebanon, NH (LEB) over Concord, NH (CON) direct to Beverly, MA (BVY) (just outside of Boston, Mass.

Along the way, off our right side wing, flew an historic airplane, the Lockheed C-121C Super Constellation - N73544. It was great to see one of this example of an early airliner - you can read more about the airplane we saw from their website: "Constellation Historical Society"

After securing the plane at Beverly, Mass. we were met by Frank Rossetti, owner of the Assist 2 Sell real estate office in Lynnfield, MA who also owns a limo company called Limousines by Liz, Inc. We are helping him get his office network fine tuned and running smoothly and will complete the work tomorrow before heading on our way.

Tonight, he invited Eric and I to join him for a dinner flight to Nantucket Island 40 miles off the Mass coast in the Atlantic Ocean, The flight was in the Frank's Cessna 206G ...The weather was clear and calm and the island is a classic East coast fishing themed Island with the most expensive Real Estate in the U.S.A... the charm of the New England houses in the town are enhanced by the cobblestone streets in the town area. We dined at a Restaurant named the Atlantic Cafe it is frequented by the local Island folks. that atmosphere was loud and boisterous and all were having a great time. The food was great and the service quick and friendly...the ceiling beams were full of early row boats and sailing ship model hulls as well as flags of various rowing fraternities..

We flew back, and arrived at Bedford airport (BED) 3 minutes before the tower closed at 11:00pm. A fantastic flight, and a great seafood dinner!

We departed Beverly, Mass. today and arrived at Georgetown, Delaware (GED) for a fuel stop and to check weather. After finding that thunderstorms were building in the Williamsburg, Virginia area, and increasing into the evening, we decided to spend the night in Georgetown to wait out the storm.

We talked to a FAA weather briefer, he reported that parts of Virginia were reporting 1"-2" hail storms, so we opted to have the airplane put in a hangar to protect it while the storms moved into our area. Here is a weather map showing the storm.

We have pictures from along the route, and will post them to the web site, as soon as we can.

The storm finally passed, and it looks like it will be VFR weather (clear and sunny) from Delaware to Texas for the next several days!

Our plan now is to check the weather at First Flight in North Carolina (FFA), and check to see if we can get in. If the weather is good there as well, we will fly the 160 miles from Delaware to North Carolina to visit the Wright Brothers monument, and then we will head to a local airport to refuel.

Once we are ready to go, we will head towards Texas, but since the distance is nearly 1100 miles, we will stop for the night somewhere along the way. We have not decided yet where the best place would be to stop - we will decide that in the morning based on the weather at First Flight. If it is bad weather there, we will head directly from Delaware toward Texas, and that will change our "mid-point" stop.

Clear and sunny! Outlook: VFR

That was the forecast all across the Southeastern states! We are heading for First Flight, North Carolina!! The birthplace of powered flight, where the Wright Brothers perfected their designs and started a revolution just over 100 years ago!

We are both looking forward to visiting this historic site and experiencing the origins of aviation that we love so much.

Arrived at First Flight, and took pictures of Wright Brothers National Memorial (a.k.a. the monument) from the air before landing at the airport.

Upon arrival, we were both amazed at how much there was to see and experience here -- much more than we had imagined. There is the towering monument, which is awe-inspiring in itself.

Then there is the field where the Wright Brothers camped out and performed their experiments for three long years, leading up to December 17th, 1903, at 10:35am when they launched their Wright Flyer for a 12 second flight, consisting of only 120 feet.

Subsequent flights were longer at this location until their fourth flight was almost a full minute and spanned over 800 feet. Each of these distances are commemorated with granite stones from the launching rail to the touchdown point.

Then there is the museum/National Parks exhibits, gift shop, and finally the hangars commemorating flight and sponsored by the Centennial of Flight committee. And let's not forget the incredible AOPA Pilot's Lounge and computerized weather briefing station which was paid for by the Aircraft Owners and Pilot's Association (AOPA) on behalf of it's members.

All in all, this was a very stirring and memorable site which we would highly recommend anybody who loves aviation should visit.

After taking off from First Flight, we flew to nearbyPlymouth, NC to fuel up.

When we arrived at Plymouth, NC we were greeted with a closed FBO, with no fuel available ...further searching turned up a vandalized phone (Praise the Lord for cell phones) after a call to the airport manager he arranged for a local fellow pilot to refuel our aircraft...all was done with friendly and warm attitude...and then we head on our way to Columbia, SC to spend the night.

We arrived in Columbia, South Carolina, and parked at Columbia Aviation to tie down for the night. All in all a great day of flying, with some very memorable experiences along the way.

We were able to fly Direct from Plymouth, NC to Columbia, SC, because of the Garmin GNS-430 IFR GPS installed in N5440M -- and that shaved off well over 35 minutes of flight time. It's a well known fact that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line -- and with the GPS, we are able to fly a direct line instead of having to zigzag along our route, thereby saving time and fuel.

We've got a long way to go today - we're heading to Houston, Texas, which is just under 800 Nautical Miles (NM). Of course, our airplanes range is a lot less than that, so we will have to refuel along the way -- all told, we are planning on logging over 8 hours of flying time today alone. We will be crossing several states, the Mississippi River, and one time zone (from Eastern Time, to Central Time).

After making our fuel stops, we were on our IFR flight plan headed for Houston Southwest Airport (AXH), and were switched over to the local communications frequency to set up for a landing at the airport. After making our initial call, we were greeted by the airport Unicom operator telling us that there was an aircraft stalled on the runway, and that the one and only runway at this airport would be closed for the next 5 minutes.

At first we decided to head over to the West of the airport and circle in slow-flight mode waiting for them to clear the runway - but decided that it could have taken more than 5 minutes to clear, and decided to head to West Houston (IWS) airport instead, which was closer to family members anyway, who would be picking us up.

We contacted Houston Approach, told them of our intentions, and programmed a direct routing to West Houston into our GPS, and in about 10 minutes, we were on the ground in Houston, Texas! We tied down at West Houston (IWS) and were met by family members and taken to their home. We got a great nights rest and the next day we had to ourselves to recoup from the long day of flying.

Eric took the kids to the airport for a short flight -- however, when we ran the engine during the run-up, the engine was running rough, so we decided not to take the family for flights until we could figure out what the engine roughness was all about. After talking with Stephen Lutz, Eric's IFR Instructor and friend, he described the procedure to clear out the excess lead that was building up on the bottom spark plugs. We'll give it a try tomorrow morning.

We went out to the airport this morning to give the procedure a try, and it cleared right up. Eric took it up for a few hops around the pattern to make sure all was well, and it ran strong and steady as before. It pays to know a fellow Cessna 152 pilot/owner as experienced as Stephen Lutz! Thanks Steve!

Eric took his nephew Jonathan up for a 90-minute flight around the West Houston area - they flew over the Brazos river, up to Highway 290, down to I-10, and over his house for some pictures.

Jonathan plans on becoming a pilot when he grows up and just loves everything about aviation - he kept saying "This is cool, this is cool".

We knew that Jonathan had the flying bug when he said after the flight "So when is the next time I get to go flying????"

Well, we're grounded today due to an intense line of embedded thunderstorms marching directly into our route.

We're checking the development but from the looks of it, it's not getting any better.

Thunderstorms have passed,and we have a window of opportunity to head westbound. We've filed our IFR flight plan and paid for our tie-down at the West Houston Airport and we're ready to go!

Texas is a very wide state, so it will take a few fuel stops before we're even out of the state. First stop: Junction (JCT - Kimble County), Texas.

We arrived in Kimble County to the Junction Airport, and were greeted by a Good Ol' Boy kickin' back in his recliner inside the FBO. Showed us how to use the self service fueling system.

Eric used the phone inside to file an IFR Flight Plan and receive a clearance over the phone with a 10-minute clearance void time. After receiving that, we were off, headed west once again!

As we traveled west, we had planned to stop in Van Horn, Texas to refuel. Van Horn sits on the south side of I-10, and our path along the airway was to the North of I-10.

As we looked about 60 miles up ahead and over our destination, we noticed what looked like a storm brewing. Instead of continuing on to Van Horn, we decided to divert farther north to

PECOS, TEXAS (PEQ)!

...the Home of the first Rodeo.

The FBO was friendly and very helpful ...He provided a courtesy car for us to go into town... as we headed to town we looked at the rapid deterioration of the weather, and even saw what looked like the start of a tornado, so we decided to return to the airport and see about putting the aircraft into the hangar to protected it from the huge storms that were headed our way.

With the aircraft secure in an hanger we headed for town to get a bite to eat and a room for the night. as we cruised the streets of downtown Pecos we were surprised at the number of closed business and homes. It looked like a ghost town in many parts. As a result, our dining choices were few, and we ended up at a Sonic burger.

As we settled in our room the skies darkened, and the thunder started to rumble! Suddenly, the skies just "dumped" a rush of water (it could not be called rain) mixed with lighting overhead. Then great big hail balls at first they were small but within seconds the hail size was as large as a quarter began raining down, hitting the room window with so much force that it seemed that it might break the glass.

I asked Eric to open the door so that I could get a picture.(bad idea as the hail was hitting so hard that it bounced clear across the room to nearly the front door before we could close the window again!)

Praise the Lord that the Bird and us were safe and protected from it all. Here's a picture of the severe weather warning on the weather channel.

Tomorrow we head on to Phoenix, Arizona!

When we arrived in Lordsburg, NM and were greeted with a windy warm day

The FBO was staffed by a nice fellow and he fueled our aircraft ... and we decided to go into town to get a bite to eat. the FBO offered us the use of the airport car and he colorfully said "OK, Before you go, let me tell you about the car. Now this is an airport car and it has sat for a while so you will have to pump the gas a few times before you try to start it...and then let it warm up and it might stall if you try to give it too much gas"... so armed with this info we started it right up and it didn't give us any trouble at all. no air-conditioning and the drivers side window didn't come down. but it proved a "trusty steed"... and we had our lunch and headed back to resume our flight to Phoenix

As we approached the Phoenix area, the urban sprawl stretched out before us and seemed to go on forever. Phoenix is a very big city, with over 10,000 new people moving there each month. There were very few tall buildings, but every hill had houses stacked up and climbing the slopes.

The Approach Controller guided us right over the top of Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport and then handed us off to the Deer Valley approach controller. As we searched the vast houses to get our first glimpse of Deer Valley, we noticed that it was tucked in the middle of several industrial areas, and our GPS unit pointed the way right to runway 25L that we were cleared to land on.

After landing, we taxied to Westwind Aviation. It was a large and well run FBO.

Since the sun was beating down at nearly 100 degrees, we were offered protection from the sun for our "Bird" and they parked her in a covered parking area.

We used the local Car rental agency and rented a new Toyota 4Runner then we headed for our hotel of choice the Hampton Inn in I-17 Phoenix Metroplex

We spent the next few days visiting Ed's sisters who live there. Although the first day was rather warm, it cooled down a bit over the next few days. It was funny to see the locals wearing jackets in the (cool to them) 80+ degree weather.

Our first fuel stop along the way was Apple Valley, California

This airstrip is host of a yearly Aerobatic competition, and several of the entrants were already there and practicing in a training area west of the airstrip for the competition during the upcoming weekend. Competitors come from all over. Arizona, California, Colorado, etc.

The sound of the "Extra 300" performing his maneuvers could be heard echoing off the nearby hills sending a beautiful symphony of engine power and unusual attitude flying.

Traveling through the Southern California desert community's did not betray that just 50 miles away was one of the most populated areas in the entire country "The Los Angeles Basin".

We glimpsed the sage brushed desert terrain and saw the Dry Lakes of El Mirage and Edwards Air Force Base. This historic area is home of the flight of the "Record-breaking Voyager". Burt Rutan is a engineer, adventurer and entrepreneur.

This area is also the site chosen for the landings of the space shuttle, and in the same area is the new "Skunk-Works" at the Palmdale airport.

The Central Valley of California began to unfold as we topped the Tehachapi Pass Area

We began to see the "Smog" as it spread from the LA Basin across the entire central valley with its thin brown film that destroys what would be a magnificent sunny valleys:

We made the necessary fuel stops eventually coming into the Rice farm Areas of the Sacramento Valley, the smog layer began to dissipate and you could see from the Cascade range

all the way to the San Francisco surrounding mountains. Quite impressive.

Our last refueling stop was in Red Bluff, California, before crossing the mountains to go into Oregon

We were the last customers before they closed up for the day

The Coolness coming off the snow capped mountains cooled the air and made the flight comfortable. We climbed to the altitude necessary to clear the lower passes on the way to Medford, Oregon

As we climbed over the Redding, California area, we were greeted by the "Huge" presence of Mount Shasta, and the large blue "fingers" of Lake Shasta

As we left the Medford area we "Tipped the can" and traded altitude for airspeed as the lower valleys allowed us to decrease the altitude and at the same time we picked up some tail wind, so our ground speed was 110 KTS (127MPH)!

We passed to the Northwest of the Eugene Airport and traveled north, we finally saw in the distance the runway edge identifier lights of the Corvallis Oregon Airport (CVO)!

This is the new home for N5440M and the end of one of the most wonderful flights and adventures we have ever had -- all done in a 1981 Cessna 152.

We crossed over or landed in 20 States, landed in dozens of new airports, and conversed with Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) controllers, Approach Controllers, and Tower Controllers from each of these states.

We will tally up the total number of hours flown, and miles crossed and post them soon. For now, we are home, and now begin to enjoy the pleasures of aircraft ownership once again!