Original Posted By: RDeets(at)aol.com
You must have been burning auto fuel. No? 32 buck is pretty cheap for5+hours.Steve EldredgeIT ServicesBrigham Young University> -----Original Message-----> Wayne and Kathy> Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 1999 10:52 PM> To: Pietenpol Discussion> Subject: First Cross Country>>> WOW!Talk about exciting. I did all my flight planing and figured it> would take me 2hours to go from Cold Lake ( on Saskatchwan border) to> Camrose ( east of Edmonton). At 7:00am the air was smooth as glass and> the view from VUU was just incredible.I kept passing my landmarks at a> regular interval and could see Camrose on the horizon. Right> about then> the wire guage bottomed out on the gas cap, so I knew I had> about a good> 30 min of safe gas left. Just cause you can see your destination does> not mean that it is very close,( at least not in a Piet!) being the> intrepid aviator that I am I pressed on. Incidently at this> point 2 hrs> had passed. I pulled into the Camrose patern was instantly and very> rudely passed on all sides buy a half dozen or more "spam cans" all of> which where flying "corporate" patterns complete with 5 mile> finales! It> is about here that I start to relize that I have been> airborne for 2:40> on about 2:30 worth of gas!! I cut the pattern down to more managable> size and splip inbetween a couple of them "cans" on finale. It's now> 2:43 and I am setting up the Pit for a gorgeous show stage> center grand> arrival and boy ! I did not dissapoint the hungry crowd.> Silence at 2:44> even the prop has stoped moving! followed by a near perfect landing at> 2:45 and roll it onto the grass to clear the runway. My gardian angel> was with me and all was well. I had a tailwind going back and> was doing> really good time but prudence being the better part of valour> I stopped> along the way for a little gas. $32.00 for 5.25hrs of flying $5 for an> incredible breakfast, several hours with good friends, clear skies and> of course one old Pietenpol aircamper that loves me... yes Virginia> There is a God and I'm in Heaven>> Have A good night all> Wayne Tokarz (CF-VUU)>________________________________________________________________________________