Every two weeks in South Carolina, on Sunday morning, people from all over the state and a few from bordering states, get up early and fly to a designated location to have breakfast. This has been going on since 1938, missing only events during World War II when fuel was not available. Since the completion of my latest KR2 upgrade, I have been flying to as many of them as possible. This morning was particularly nice and a bit of something new for me. The route took me over two military airports with the destination being cut out within the airspace of Shaw AFB. So, I knew that I was going to have to bite the bullet and utilize the ATC system that I have avoided for all these years of flying. I know this would be nothing for most of you, but all of my flying has been from UNICOM to UNICOM, so I was apprehensive about venturing into this other realm of flying. My aircraft is equipped for it, but I have had noise in my headsets for some time now when the GPS is on, so did not want to take a chance on missing any of their communications to me.
This last week, I got rid of the noise and everything is working perfectly. This morning, the weather was perfect. Severe clear with NO wind. The only problem I encountered was the sun directly in my face, making it difficult to monitor everything, make the setting on the XPDR and keeping the plane at the reported altitude and heading. I set my alternate comm freq for Shaw approach and as soon as airborne, listening to the engine humming and feeling like I was just floating around at 140 MPH, I flipped the freq and called Shaw. They asked me for my request and I told them that I wanted to fly direct to Sumter. This put my path right through the center of the two military airbases. They told me the XPDR code and asked for my desired altitude. I set the XPDR, with much difficulty, because I could not see the screen very well and could not even remember how to work it. You think I would have worked all that out before I took off, but I forgot that I did not remember. Oh well, I finally figured it out and reported back that the code was set and I wanted to fly at 2000 ft. They came back that they had me on radar and to proceed on course. When I got directly over Shaw, they told me to resume VFR and radar service was terminated. Now, I am relieved and wondering what was all that anxiety for, and feeling a little bit emboldened that I had ventured out into a place that I was apprehensive about and relieved it all worked out very well. I got to fly directly to where I wanted to go and felt kind of good knowing that someone out there would know where I was if I had a problem. So, now I am seeing the Sumter airport and I am early, so there is no traffic. No one is answering the UNICOM, so I decide to circle the airport to determine which end to land on. I had picked out 5, but then realized that if I land on 23, I will coast right up to where the other planes are parked. So, I put the KR in a nice tight turn, still feeling like I am floating and almost in a dream. The engine is just purring and the KR is making the turns with no effort at all. I lined up on downwind for 23 and pulled back on the power to get me to 1000 ft. and about 95 MPH. Then I called base just after my wing passed abeam the end of the runway and drop the speed brake ( belly board ). She quickly slows down to around 85 MPH as I lower the nose. I am a little short and a little high, so I cut the power almost all the way and put the nose down a little more. This caused me to pick back up to about 95, but that is OK. I am a little long before being able to "flare", but that is OK too. The term "flare" is a little misleading as I really only, sort of, leveled off just above the runway and then just held the KR there while she took care of the rest. She just settled down on the pavement without even a peep and just kept rolling to the turnoff to the parking area, with her tail held high. Oh, what a beautiful feeling. The tail is now wanting to come down, so I let it and pull the stick all the way back, so I can guide her to follow the guys in the golf cart, to my place to park. As I get out of the Black Bird, the usual thing happened. Even though I was the first one there for breakfast club, people started coming around. They had never seen a plane like that. I am happy! See N64KR at <http://krbuilder.org/> http://KRBuilder.org - Then click on the pics See you at the 2013 - KR Gathering in Mt. Vernon, Il - MVN Bad Weather at Gathering time, is a killer or a real bummer. Daniel R. Heath - Lexington, SC
