Brandtley's flight accross the USA

The Lord blessed the flight from Oregon across the US with a strong tail wind so less fuel was used and yet good time was still made.

After taking off from Roseburg I contacted approach control requesting flight following to Rawlins, Wyoming. They responded with “are you making a stop for fuel?” because they could not believe it would be non-stop. Since the winds were so favorable there was plenty of fuel when I arrived in Rawlins.

Once in Rawlins, there was a person on duty that refueled the airplane and gave me keys to a vehicle to use for free to run into town to catch a hotel. It turned out that there was a Holiday Inn right there and I was able to use accumulated points to pay for the stay essentially staying the night for free. Praise the Lord!!

The next day I took off at 6am and had even stronger tail winds. About 4 hours into the flight around Sioux City Iowa I caught up to a cloud deck and decided to fly over it. That was great until the clouds got higher and higher than I could fly without oxygen. So, I asked for an IFR clearance to go down through the clouds. No sooner had I started down through the clouds than the airplane picked up a lot of ice. This airplane is not able to fly in known icing conditions and so I was concerned to get through it quickly. The airspeed indicator stopped working and ice formed on the wings and windshield.

I broke out of the clouds at 7000 feet and with the help of pitot heat the airspeed indicator started working again. It was still too cold at that altitude to melt the ice so I asked to go down to 5000 feet.

Thank the Lord that his angels kept the airplane flying through all of that and by the time I reached Vinton Iowa the clouds were at 25,000 feet and the ice was gone.

After refueling, I flew another two hours to Berrien Springs Michigan to Andrews University.

The next day was a real learning experience where I flew with Harry Lloyd, the chief flight instructor at Andrews. He taught me how to safely and consistently fly into short airstrips. We also talked about how to conduct flights safely making sure a lot of variables are considered before attempting flights and if it does not look good to simply state we cannot go. In addition, we talked about how to keep people safely away from the propeller as well as proper loading techniques to ensure we do not overload the airplane.

On Thursday I flew from Andrews to Collegedale Tennessee, again with very good tailwinds arriving there 45 minutes better than if there were no winds.

The Lord’s timing has been so good to provide the winds in the right direction to save fuel and also protect me through the icing conditions. This is a good lesson I’ve learned over time – God delivers us through the trials, not from them. And He is faithful!!

Tomorrow, I leave Collegedale for Florida. May the Lord bless you as he is blessing me in this trip.

In His Service,

Brandtley