AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2012 - 90

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KEEPING PILOTS SAFE. SAFEGUARDING THE FUTURE OF GA.

made the southbound trip especially challenging from a weather standpoint, but still safely doable with the Tornado Husky’s capable tools. The instrument panel has a Garmin GPSMAP 696 linked to graphical XM Satellite Weather that allows pilots to make informed choices about conditions well beyond what they can see through the windshield. The Doppler radar displays as well as METARs and TAFs proved especially handy as weather came into play throughout the trip, which began on an overcast afternoon in Maryland. Instead of making the trip solo, I was accompanied by AOPA President Craig Fuller in his own airplane, a 1999 Husky A–1A that he was bringing to Sun ’n Fun for the week. (Huskys run in packs!) Leaving Maryland, we crept along under the overcast; flew through the well-known notch in the mountains at Harpers Ferry, the historic town where the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers meet; and continued southwest through Virginia’s scenic Shenandoah Valley. We finally happened upon our first blue sky there and climbed to 6,500 feet where we easily topped the low clouds. We had planned to fly to the Atlanta area but a building line of rain and thunderstorms seen on the XM Weather display along that route convinced us to make a left turn toward the coast instead. In addition to being more direct, it also has much lower elevations and, on this day, fewer clouds. On to Frogmore We refueled in Danville, Virginia, then

set our sights on South Carolina’s Beaufort County Airport (a.k.a. “Frogmore International”) and expected to arrive a few minutes after sunset. Having elected to go over the clouds on the first leg of the trip, we went around them on the second, but still managed to get good and wet at the edges of a few downpours in the Carolinas. Paul Harrop, the videographer who recently joined AOPA staff, traveled in the Tornado Husky with me, making his first cross-country trip in a GA airplane. I guess I felt compelled to reassure him about the weather many times during the journey, and the laconic Oklahoman eventually tired of my frequent (and false) pronouncements that each line of showers we went around would be the last before a “straight shot” to our destination. “You don’t need to keep saying that,” he told me. “I’ll panic when you panic— and not before.” For the record, no one in our traveling party ever panicked. But I did push the power on the Tornado Husky’s 180-horsepower Lycoming engine up and had the three-blade MT prop singing at 2,500 rpm for the final dash into Beaufort. (My wingman, whose 13-year-old Husky is equipped with normal-size tires instead of the Tornado Husky’s 29-inch Alaskan Bushwheels, had no trouble keeping up.) We arrived in Beaufort a few minutes after sunset and landed on the eastfacing Runway 7 with the powerful LED landing lights on the Tornado Husky’s left wing putting out a beam powerful enough to stun the swarms of sand flies that call the marsh home.

DONATE TODAY!
Call Toll Free 800-955-9115 or Donate Online www.aopafoundation.org The Tornado Husky was battered by last year’s destructive Sun ’n (not-so) Fun twister. But the 2012 event brought perfect weather and a full week of Florida sunshine.
AOPA PILOT •

90 • MAY

2012

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - May 2012

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