A Pilots N' Paws Adventure to Flying W (N14)

All week long there were negotiations.

Desi, the original passenger

I first offered to help with a transport of 9 dogs, but from the time of my offer Monday night, I heard nothing more about it.  Until Thursday, that is.  At that point, the coordinator presented a long and complicated run sheet (times and places for the pilots to meet and transfer the dogs) between North Carolina and Groton, CT.  With sincere apologies, I had to inform them that I'd already agreed to another flight.

That was because I'd been hooked by the prospect of conveying an emaciated 20-pound hound named Desi from South Carolina to Rhode Island where her adopting family lives.  They wanted me to fly the leg from Lynchburg Virginia to New Jersey.  They first suggested Essex NJ but I remembered that airport as the one that charges a $17 landing fee and then continues to harass you, long after you've paid it.  Very poor accounting services there.

I was willing, but it seemed like a lot of flying for one dog, suffering and deserving as she might be.  Then, on Saturday morning, Doug Weir (the coordinator) sent me a text message asking "if you are OK to add 3 Labrador pups (25 pounds each) to the flight -- seems urgent and going to the same destination tomorrow.  Please advise."  So, of course, I said fine -- the more the merrier.

N97RJ at KROA

All was looking good during the planning, but on Saturday morning the weather at Lynchburg (KLYH) was not welcoming -- low IFR and not expected to get the ceilings up until about noon at least.  If the ceilings were really 500 or more we could land IFR, but there was a good chance it would not work and we'd have to divert. Marcia had helped me get the airplane all loaded with dog crates, leashes, avionics updates, etc. while the rain eased and the ceilings lifted at Leesburg (KJYO).

Steve, the pilot coming up from Chester, South Carolina (KDCM), suggested in phone calls that we could shift to Roanoke which had clear conditions.  He was meeting an Angel Flight from Philadelphia, so whatever we did decide was complicated by his need to get the Angel Flight patient's destination shifted from Lynchburg to the new airport.  While he worked on that and getting fuel, we proceeded to change our flight plan and file for KROA.

Steve cleans up N5131N

After changing runways to avoid a wait while Potomac made arrangements with Dulles Tower to let us off runway 17 (who knew that this explains the often long delays departing from 17 at Leesburg?), we finally lifted off about 09:13 local.  It was a pleasantly smooth flight above the cloud banks at 8000 feet.  As we neared Roanoke we could begin to see the green mountains and valley farms.  I made a nice RNAV approach to KROA runway 24 and landed gently on the centerline at 10:19 EDT.  We refueled, got Virginia Aviation passports stamped, used the facilities, and waited for Steve to arrive from Chester in his 182.  He got there about 10:50 a.m.

The dogs were sweethearts, but they had managed to piss themselves in the flight up.  This would not have been too much a problem, but I got soaked by wet dogs as I wrestled them one by one into our crates in the plane.  There was a little yipping and whining, but they quieted down after the hot start (run the boost pump for 20 seconds, then reverse throttle and mixture while cranking until the engine coughs to life) worked pretty well. Steve was breaking down and washing out his crates in preparation for his Angel Flight patient as we departed, again IFR, about 11:39 a.m.

We flight planed around the southeast side of the SFRA. Potomac was pretty good about shortening up the route where they could.  We were in or above the clouds almost all the way -- saw nothing of Richmond, Patuxent NAS, the Chesapeake Bay, unfortunately -- but it did clear off once we were over Delaware and New Jersey.


I'd picked the Flying W airport (N14) at Lumberton, New Jersey because I flew there once years ago with Glenn Shields in N9167S.  I remembered the friendly atmosphere as well as the pool shaped like an airplane.  Well, it was better than ever.  As we landed on runway 1 over the trees on approach, a four-ship flight of World War II aircraft started their radial engines in clouds of smoke and the rumble of thunderous exhausts.  Next to them, a small R-22 helicopter was preparing to give free rides to throngs of excited kids.

Rob and Brian put Desi in N1588R

Rob was already waiting there when we landed at 13:51 EDT and signaled me to park next to his Gruman Tiger on the ramp.  We were also met by Sue and a friend who were there  to take the three Labradors to a local adoption shelter.  Desi was to continue with Rob to North Central State  Airport in Smithfield, RI (KSFZ) where she already had an adoptive family waiting.  The airplane-shaped pool was full of splashing children, an ecited line of kids waited to take the copter rides, there were rocking chairs on the veranda, and the warbirds made a heck of a racket taking off -- all the while we unloaded dogs from N97RJ.

After handing off our charges (the dogs) Marcia and I spent a few minutes at Flying W flight planning the trip back to Leesburg and looking around at all the activities.  We paid for fuel and bought a soft drink -- neither of us felt particularly hungry even though there is a nice restaurant right there at the field -- and filed to depart.  Of course, ATC gave us a roundabout route back to Leesburg -- east out of Lumberton, around the north side of Philadelphia, and then along the airways down to Westminster (EMI) and over to FDK.  Finally they let us turn south and straight in to runway 17 at Leesburg.  

The good news was that it was relatively clear and we had good views of metro Philadelphia, the rivers, and the Pennsylvania countryside on the ride back.  Because of all the circuitous routings, it took us an hour and nine minutes (until 15:53) to get back to Leesburg.  There was about another hour of getting crates disassembled, cleaning up the airplane, cleaning windshields, etc.