KPDK - Tour Champ at East Lake

[gotyacovered]

i am leaving for Atlanta with my son and my pops for the tour championship saturday morn. not sure who is more excited... my kid for his 1st PGA event or me for getting to go IFR with what looks like some def potential IMC

this is all he wanted for his bday, going to be some great grandpa/father/son time.

[Flying Razorback]

i am leaving for Atlanta with my son and my pops for the tour championship saturday morn. not sure who is more excited... my kid for his 1st PGA event or me for getting to go IFR with what looks like some def potential IMC

this is all he wanted for his bday, going to be some great grandpa/father/son time.

Awesome.  I always found actual IFR a little easier than simulated.  The air can be smoother in actual IFR, hence why there are lower ceilings, and there are fewer people out.  So you're not trying to see and avoid and fly instruments breaking up your instrument scan.  Also the radios should be calmer and everyone should be on a similar arrival path instead of mixing approaches, opposite direction approaches, and a mix of visual downwinds/overheads/bases/straight ins.

Just make sure you get plenty of rest, actual IFR can be very taxing on the mind and eyes, it's worse when you're tired (or hungover, ha).  Remind your passengers about the taxing nature of actual IFR and a cross check and to keep conversation and non-essential comms to a minimum while in IFR below 10,000'.

[GusMcRae]

The trip to the tour championship sounds awesome.  Hope the wx doesn't cause any problems and y'all have a great MANeth weekend.  We expect pics upon your return.

[bvillepig]

I have been to two Tour Championships and it is my favorite tourney. This was before they moved it to Atlanta.

The two were held at Southern Hills in Tulsa. Just a great tourney. Watson, Couples, Norman, Payne Stewart, Tiger, Davis Love, Ernie Ells, Michelson etc.

We were so close to whatever group you wished to follow you could here the conversations of the caddies. It was not a very long day either. With only 15 groups on the course it made for a very short day.

Enjoy

[gotyacovered]

Just shot the ILS 36 (not IMC-other then broken cloud deck at 3000) lotsa fun.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N42653/history/20130921/1700Z/KLIT/KTUP

[gotyacovered]

Just shot the ILS 36 (not IMC-other then broken cloud deck at 3000) lotsa fun.

http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N42653/history/20130921/1700Z/KLIT/KTUP
http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N42653/history/20130921/2300Z/KTUP/KPDK

I will have my IR by 2014.

Shot the ILS 21L into peachtree with a big tail wind... Look at my speed on the flightaware graph 3nm out on GS was getting 170kts. The flight from ktup to kpdk I got re-routed--twice.

[gotyacovered]

headed back to East Lake again this year... My sons early bday present, my dad is also going, looking forward to it. probably do about the same thing, stop for fuel/lunch/watch hogs in Tupelo then head to atlanta for a night on the town!

same FBO/Holiday Inn... hope its as smooth as last year.

[john c]

OK, OK, rub it in, make us all envious.  Sounds like a great trip, three generations, especially meaningful to each in similar and different ways.  You are blessed.  What I would give to make that trip with my dad.  My son and son-in-law made several of those trips to the Masters.  Godspeed.

[gotyacovered]

OK, OK, rub it in, make us all envious.  Sounds like a great trip, three generations, especially meaningful to each in similar and different ways.  You are blessed.  What I would give to make that trip with my dad.  My son and son-in-law made several of those trips to the Masters.  Godspeed.

ha!!! well, we are real excited!!! with this front passing we should have pretty good tailwind!

i hope we get to di it for years to come, we need to make it to the masters--thats on the list!!!

[bvillepig]

Gotya
Have a great time. Glad you have your wings back.

Before I got a plane a few years back (about 18 years ago I think) I drove to Tulsa two years in a row to the Tour Championship at Southern Hills.  I love it and keep thinking I will make it to East Lake some day. 

[GusMcRae]

How did it go?  Was hoping y'all didn't get socked in last Thurs or Fri.

[gotyacovered]

Gotya
Have a great time. Glad you have your wings back.

Before I got a plane a few years back (about 18 years ago I think) I drove to Tulsa two years in a row to the Tour Championship at Southern Hills.  I love it and keep thinking I will make it to East Lake some day. 

me too... think ive racked up a good 15 hours since 9/5!!!!

east lake is a really, really, cool place. this will be an annual ting for us... this was year #2, already looking forward to the next one. when doing stuff like this with my dad and my son... i always come away saying we dont do it enough.

[gotyacovered]

How did it go?  Was hoping y'all didn't get socked in last Thurs or Fri.

it was great... i had to get into KLIT Saturday morning to pick up dad and it was 10 and 2000 over, not the best circumstances. it was 4000 over and 10 out of M18. i got jacked around by LIT approach, ended up getting a (VFR) hold south of KLIT about 10-12 miles while the heavies landed 4R&L.

the KLIT dept was awesome... and the KPDK dep yesterday was sweet... they didnt have any take off mins, but they were att app minimums. took off 004ovc and 3, climbed thru 3k feet of soup. perfectly smooth and flew into vfr conditions about the time we passed tupelo. didnt get to shoot any approaches.

i got very familiar with my new engine prop though... went over at 7 and came back at 8. m18-klit-kpdk-klit-m18 was 9.07hours and 131.8gals. (14.6gph); that was WOT which was about 23 and 22 squared, respectively. i picked up about 6kts true. i have a 140-142kt airplane now at 14.6gph. after engine break in i will probably run it as 22 squared judging by the performance this weekend.

i have pics/videos that i'll upload... gonna make a video with all of it. i did two really dumb things, though. i forgot to hit "record" when departing out of pkd, which kills me b/c it was awesome.

dad was impressed with my IFR skills, i had no radio comm probs and was only told once to verfiy altitude... while the take off mins were low, it was about as good of an IMC flight i have been on... toss in some rain, bumps, whiny kids/wife, etc i could see how it would get very overwhelming... also, made me realize how exhausting flying in the soup with no auto pilot can be... when i get my instruement rating its imparitive that i flight plan really good for 'on top' in 'in between'.

i did all the comms including the 696 and dad did navs 1 and 2 (tuning in VORs) so he put all the load on me... that was my 3rd/4th time in bravo and would not have a problem going into bravo VFR by myself, now.

i had one slight confrentation with memphis approach.

on the way there i filed a route appropirate to my equipment suffix--/A. route was ATERS-V54-HLI-V159-VUZ-V18-ATL... after ATERS i requested Direct HLI--ATL (which i got).

i the way back there was a recommended route (in foreflight) for 8000 (which is what we wanted) so i took it--it was: WETWO-HEFIN-V231 GAD-LIT. off of kpdk we got an vector WETWO; upon reaching WETWO wegot vectored for GAD. i requested direct GAD and then direct LIT (not KLIT), which i got. when i got handed off to memphis approach i was questioned about /A and my routing; after talking in circles for what seemed like FOREVER, i told him i was flying my clearance and that i had a non-certifed GPS... he then went away. had i told him that on the front end, conversation would have been quicker. i was also a little defensive--that didnt help.

[gotyacovered]

dropbox link with pics and the flight video back: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rk3dzazlovfy622/AACN_GQHhxyGRnEWe--1EL5Ea?dl=0

the video kinda sucks... it took forever to get our release out of PDK so i stopped recording... and guess what i forgot to do??? START IT AGAIN i followed that up with forgetting to start it back up when we landed in KLIT i always said i wouldnt let that darn camera distract me and i was right

dang it....

[john c]

Very nice pics, videos, thanks for sharing.  Prop looks cool.  Don't you live in Hope?  My sis and brolaw and boys lived there while he was a State Farm agent.

[GusMcRae]

Sounds like a great trip and great IFR experience.   
New engine performance is impressive!  Congrats!