Aurora, Oregon, USA
             to
       Angel Falls, Venezuela

       in an RV-4

        Part 1
 

The short version:

This was a fantastic trip. It was long, it was a lot of work, there were a few things that could be done for the next one that will make it a little easier. There are some things that the plane could have that would make it an easier trip next time. Now that I've been there and done that, I want to do it again.

The longer version:

1300, Friday, November 24th, 2000

JUST GETTING THERE

We planned to get out of Oregon VFR on Thanksgiving Day. We never even started the plane. In retrospect this wasn't a bad start to a trip like this. It cemented in our minds that we want to run a tight ship if not a tight schedule. We would go on to catch up with the rest of the group and enjoy what was a very unique vacation. Not necessarily a relaxing trip, it was quite a lot of work to go to 7 different countries in the span of 15 days. I was learning a lot along the way about international flying, this was one of the reasons I went on the trip and for that I got my money's worth.

The flight from Oregon to Florida was pretty routine by RV standards. This can be done easily in two days of flying even in the winter if you don't mind flying at night for a couple of hours. For a VFR plane though the plan from the beginning is that you have time to wait for the weather.

We got out of Oregon about noon the day after Thanksgiving. The fog lifted in the northern half of the valley and we headed south. We spent the first night in Los Osos, CA after landing in San Louis Obispo. Diana's dad took the picture that appeared in the Last Home Wing NL with the SBP tower in the background just before we headed east. Day two we got gas in Blythe, CA, then Demming, NM where we entertained a group of Army helicopter mechanics with showing off the plane and explaining where we were headed. We headed for our final stop of the day which was supposed to be Midland, TX, but called it quits at Carlsbad, NM when it started to get dark. After a good nights rest we got to the airport before sun up and cleaned the ice off the wings. We launched into the New Mexico sunrise and got to Corsicana, TX for the next fill up. Leg two took us to Fairhope, AL. The last leg of the day got us to Ocala, FL where we landed in the dark with an obvious alternator problem. We had lost two hours that day crossing time zones.

The next day in Ocala I pulled the cowling off and started trouble shooting. It should be noted that a strange RV on the ramp with the cowling off is an open invitation to other past, present, and future RVators, to stop by, introduce yourself, update you on how many RV's are on the field, see what's going on, and "oh, sure I know someone who can help with that alternator".
  While we were moving cowling pieces to Carl's hanger and loading ourselves into Carl's car he showed off his very nice RV-4 sporting an army paint scheme. He hauled us way across town to an automotive electric shop that caters to the home-builders crowd where we found the alternator brushes had given their all for at least 100,000 miles. With fresh brushes and a good bench test we headed back and got the plane back in the air. It could be speculated that we might have been at least a day behind without the repair time just due to the weather conditions. I know we could not have made it to Boca Raton that Sunday night and possibly not the next day. Many thanks to Carl Wood for his hospitality and helping out a couple of RVators a long way from home.

Unfortunately 15 minutes out of Ocala the ammeter laid down again. Since this airplane, I like to call a J-3 cub-with-a-speed-kit, needed only electrical power to run the transponder and comm radio we pressed on to Boca Raton. Now I'm running through my head what I had done to the plane that in the last 20 hours might have killed an alternator. It had worked fine for a hundred hours prior. I had a new metal prop that was noticeably more "vibrant" than the wood props I had before. I also had cleaned up the baffling around the engine and blocked some air passages that "leaked" air to the underside. In retrospect the air leaks probably provided cooling air to the alternator and my fix is what did it in. We landed in Boca Raton and repeated the scenario from Ocala. A local retired airline pilot found working on his CJ (Chinese Yak) was good enough to haul us into Pompano where another shop put it on the bench and found the diodes and/or internal regulator had given up. We decided a complete overhaul was in order and he provided us with a fresh ready to go unit by the next day. During the installation I re-fixed the baffling to direct more air to the alternator and subsequently had no more problems for the rest of the trip. An hour before dark we went up for a shake down cruise that gave us a nice tour of the Florida coastline from Boca to Fort Pierce and back. Once again many thanks to a local experimental pilot Terry Lewis, for his assistance to the wayward travelers.

We met a number of fellow experimental and otherwise pilots while we were on the ground for two days in Boca Raton. It's actually very fun and interesting to go to a strange airport a long way from home and just wonder the T-hangers looking for open doors with interesting planes and people inside…but that's another story.

0900, Wednesday November 29,
two days behind the rest of the group, we blasted off from Florida and put the dry land at our backs. Water and butterflys..serious, angry, butterflies. With my first international flight plan filed (thanks to a very helpful Miami Int. FSS) and without the security of the group we headed for Exuma International at Mosstown, Bahamas. After awhile, the angry butterflies backed off and we enjoyed the sight of the islands passing underneath. As it turned out we had better weather than the group did when they took off two days earlier. We did drop down low to go under some clouds a couple of times.

We landed at Exuma International for gas and a sandwich. The first customs clearance seemed easy and proved to be typical for most of the trip. Have a few General Declarations filled out when you get there and it saves some time. Of course in all the excitement, I was late in closing my flight plan with Miami. They were on the phone looking for me when I climbed up to the tower after landing. Full of fuel and food I filed the next leg to Providenciales, Turks and Caicos Islands. We climbed in and once again put the terra firma behind us. The leg to Provo wasn't as long and we lined up with the runway about 10 miles out.

When we landed and rolled to the ramp we could see a group of small planes that looked conspicuously out of place. On a ramp that wasn't used to having this many small planes, I spotted the C-195 of John and Sarah Hambleton and knew we had caught up with the group. With weather delays, mechanical problems, and not even being sure if I was going to have the plane ready to leave Oregon in time, I would always say we were "trying" or "planning" to go to the Caribbean. At this point I felt like I had crossed the finish line of my first marathon, we made it.

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 The continuing saga..