Hot Springs, AR - Cameron, MO - Carbondale, IL - Elkhart, IN

We are on the ground in Elkhart, Indiana! For those of you that have been watching the weather, we are all in one piece and the plane is hangared. Assuming the hangar hasn't blown away, we should be fine. More on that later.

The departure from Hot Springs was a little hairy. There was a Falcon behind us on departure (a jet) that kept asking us where we were at. I'm thinking to myself, "Friend, you are a Falcon. You can outclimb us. What seems to be the issue?" He was all hot and bothered about us departing. And guess what? We were no factor. Off to Cameron!

There isn't a whole lot to see on that leg and it was very hazy, so not a lot of pictures from there. Cameron is a single runway uncontrolled field with no weather station. Which leads me to my next point: altimeter settings.

Jann and I saw a shining example of this in Hot Springs. Along the way, the altimeter setting continued to change. We updated accordingly. We fly by, we land, and everything is peachy. Suddenly, we hear this screaming engine. We turn, and there is a racer, doing a flyby at (I kid you not!) 20' AGL off the runway. Yikes. They were so low, you could see the plane get into ground effect from the ramp. They didn't crash, and I'm not sure where they are at now.

The altimeter monster was back at Cameron. We had been checking weather stations in the area, and the altimeter settings were very widely varied. We didn't like the spread, so we called the field and informed that we would not be doing the flyby, but to get our time "wheels on." We would take a hit on time, but who cares? There are obstructions around the airport, and I don't want to smack into them.

After we landed and got into the conga line for fuel, I talked with a few other racers. Each conversation went something like this:

M: What did you think about the spread of altimeter settings?
Racer: I know! That's crazy! I heard you do wheels-on timing! You know that's bad for your time, right?
M: . . . Yes. But safety comes first, right?
Racer: Well, I just want to get a good time! I flew off of one of my three GPS altitudes! They didn't agree with each other, but I wanted a good time!

Jann and I waited for fuel for 1.5 hours at Cameron. They didn't have a truck; only a self-serve fuel pump. Ouch. So I sat and judged how low everyone was on the flyby. That particular flyby was supposed to be 200' AGL. Some were at 50', some were at 300'. Interesting. After we got fuel, it was off to Carbondale!

Carbondale is a towered airport, and I was expecting more insanity like we had in Tuscaloosa. I have to take my hat off to the controller at Carbondale. He was a pro. We were vectored in, did the flyby (perfectly, I might add), and turned right in for a crosswind to landing. Not once did I feel unsafe, rushed, or forgotten. I should also mention that this guy was also working ground. There were approximately 4 planes in the pattern with us, 5 waiting to depart, and about 3 or 4 waiting to taxi. He was AWESOME!

Jann and I checked the weather in the FBO. We saw a line of storms, but they were far out and moving at 30kts. Seemed easy enough to beat. We got our fuel, said our goodbyes to the awesome controller, and were off again!

There were more interesting things to see on the way to Elkhart. Wind turbines, power plants, rivers . . . much more entertaining. My eyeballs were glued to the NEXRAD radar watching that storm that had looked so innocuous on the ground. It had picked up speed and strength and was cooking in toward Elkhart. Jann and I had originally planned to go around some MOAs, but I didn't want to waste the time, so I called up Chicago Center and made sure it was cold to cross through. Chicago Center was totally intrigued about us racing, and gave us the go-ahead to go on through.

We were getting a really good tailwind from the storm, so we pressed on the Elkhart. The poor controller was overloaded, and got us confused with a plane 1 mile behind us. Very scary. We became one airplane to him, but I straightened him out. We landed and taxied to parking. There, we found an interesting situation.

The weather had really picked up steam and was throwing hail and tornadoes. It was about one hour to the west of us, and there wasn't enough hangar space for all of the planes that had landed. Jann and I stayed with the plane and made SURE that it was in a hangar before we left the airport. At the hotel, the tornado warnings started going off. We headed to the basement and camped out for awhile until we got the all clear. And here we are now!

We would like to press on to Parkersburg, WV and then on to Frederick, MD tomorrow, but I'm not sure if the weather will cooperate. I'm going to have to check in the morning. We're both so tired, we are even saving the route planning until tomorrow. Missing dinner to take care of the plane and wait out the tornado warning hasn't helped the brain fog either. A good night's sleep...