The Poker Run (and 1st Dual X-Country)

Mike has talked me into doing the Condor Poker Run (actually it's run by our venerable mechanic, so I think officially it's Jason's Aircraft Repair 4th Annual Poker Run). Anyway, I drove to the airport arriving about 8:55AM to attend the Condor Winter Seminar which focused on policies and procedures for handing, storing and using the airplanes in the wintertime. As usual, it was well organized, well run and informative. Kieth, the instructor giving the seminar, was even generous enough to bring donuts! After the seminar, Mike hustled me into our C152 (is there ever a relaxing moment?? :) as it was our duty to drop off the cards at the respective airports. In addition, we would hit Port Meadville to make it officially 50nm away from PJC so it would count as a cross country. The plan was KPJC to KUCP to 4G1 to KGKJ to KFKL to KBTP and back to KPJC.

The first thing I noticed after we took off runway 17 from Zelienople, was that it was windy, DAMN windy. The AWOS at Zeli was calling for 16 knot winds gusting to 25. The first leg to New Castle (UCP) was bouncy but we found the airport with just a little fussing around. Then came my first seriously x-winded and gusty landing. I have to admit, that it was hairy and truthfully Mike did most of the work at the end, it was bad. We popped in to say hi to Marty, the FAA examiner who will likely perform my checkride in the future, and dropped off the first batch of cards. We took off and headed to Greenville (4G1).

We found 4G1 fairly easily and landed on the grass airstrip that rolled over the paved runway. Dropped our cards off, took a bathroom break, said bye to the Civil Air Patrol guys and headed out to the runway. Here is where things got real interesting. Again with 16-20 knot winds and now gusting to 30, we gunned the 152, using all of the runway, with a direct crosswind. The problem however was the wind shifted into a tail wind about halfway down the runway with the airspeed indicator showing about 55. At this point the end of the runway was rapidly approaching and we were having trouble generating lift. Mike took over at this point and after a wheel bounce on the left, a wheel bounce on the right, he got the thing airborne, barely. I swear I could see the veins on the leaves as we just cleared the trees at the end of the runway.

So now we headed off to Port Meadville (GKJ) which a quick stop without shutting down as we did not need to deposit cards there. The we left for Franklin (FKL) for another very interesting experience. Franklin is, or was, used by USAir for I believe a flight a day, so the runway is fairly long, wide and has a PAPI. Coming in on final we were high with the PAPI showing four white. About 1/4M from the end of the runway, we were hit by a low level wind shear event which immediately to us to four red. Mike jammed in the throttle and for a few seconds it seemed like we were standing still. Luckily with Mike's quick reaction on the throttle we were able to squeak on to the end of the runway. A little shaken, but undeterred in our mission, we dutifully dropped off the Franklin box of cards, checked out the decent looking Italian restaurant there and headed out to Butler (BTP).

The trip to Butler and then on the Zelienople were relatively uneventful considering the rest of the day, and upon landing at Zeli we traipsed into Jason's repair shop for some much needed decompressing. Needless to say, I head learned a few good lessons today about flying in winds such as what we experienced, but the most important lesson being, until I've got several hundred hours under my belt, I'll stay home on days like today, and maybe even after several hundred hours...