After purchasing the refrigerators, I made a trip to Home Depot and bought a nice sturdy set of tie down straps, the kind with the ratcheting handle so there was no way those refrigerators were going to work their way loose in the air. The last thing I needed was one or both of them falling off. So when I got the airport I carried them out to the airplane and began the task of mounting them to the underside of each wing. "January" has a tie down o-hook under each wing just past the outer line where the flaps were and were solidly mounted. Knowing these o-hooks were used to tie down the plane in order to keep it secured in case wind decided to lift the plane off the ground I was certain they were strong enough to hold a couple of small refrigerators weighing less than thirty pounds each. Also, for those pilots out there worried about weight, I had done a weight and balance calculation and as long as I kept the center-line right where the pilot and passenger sat, there shouldn't be a problem because a typical man weighs around 190 pounds. I was confident and knew things would work out.
After run-up was complete I switched to tower and made the call. "El Monte tower, November 4811 echo run-up complete, holding short of 16 for right turnout and North departure. I was told to hold short as a Cessna was on final and so I waited, checked my instruments, and listened for my clearance. There was another bird turning base so I thought I'd be there for a minute or two more but the tower called and cleared me for immediate takeoff. So I released my feet off the brakes, and rolled into position. I slowly firewalled the throttle and we were on the roll. While I was picking up speed I realized by airspeed indicator was not working. The EFIS and GPS was showing my speed so I continued on. I was full of fuel, and with the added weight of the refrigerators I knew she'd feel heavy on takeoff--but being that I was at sea level I knew I'd have no problem climbing out. After reaching 80 knots I eased the stick back and "January" lifted off slowly. I was airborn and the controls felt good. My climb rate was terrible and my speed never reached more than 95 knots. The added drag from pushing all that air with the refrigerators was probably what was keeping my airspeed so slow. But, I was able to climb about 400 feet per minute so I turned right, then right again and headed North.
The first mountain I needed to pass over was less than five miles away and with my climb rate suffering I was barely going to clear the mountain at best angle of attack. Slow and steady she continued to climb, I kept her going, hoping that reaching our cruising altitude at 11,500 would help us pick up speed and keep us on track for arriving in Utah within our allotted time. While continuing to climb I requested flight following and before I knew it I was passing over the first mountain ridge with about a thousand feet to spare. My next concern was now less than five miles ahead in the form of yet another range of mountains that was at least seven thousand feet in altitude. The ridge-line was locked into position on my canopy and I knew there was no way I was going to clear it at the rate I was climbing. Instead of things getting better as we gained altitude, it became clear that things were getting worse. I was praying for two hundred feet of climb per minute and airspeed was at a lousy 80 IAS.
In order to make the ridge with enough altitude for safety, I started making wide S-turns to give me more climb time before crossing over. I began to regret strapping those refrigerators under each wing as I looked at my estimated time of arrival into Ogden-Hinkley airport in Utah. I was now sitting on almost five full hours. That worried me because I had full confidence I could fly four and half hours with the fuel on board. But with this slow speed, the drag, and poor rate of climb, I realized I'd be making a landing somewhere along the way to refuel the airplane. As I continued to watch my gauges I noticed my oil temperature was higher than normal, she was not in the red, but it was still high. I twisted mixture to give her some cooling fuel but that didn't seem to help much. Finally I crested over the ridge and could see Barstow in the distance. I had made it to about nine thousand feet at this time and figured I'd just continue my slow climb. It was painful, and I quickly realized that I did not want to fly under these conditions all the way back home.
Fortunately, I had made a plan in the event the refrigerators caused a problem in flight. I am sure there are plenty of stories of Alaskan pilots strapping on some gigantic beast to the underside and then after lifting off realizing the plane was uncontrollable and ended up crashing and killing themselves. I was not going to be another story or statistic and so I devised a backup plan. I was over Barstow when I decided I had had enough and those awesome refrigerators would have to go. In my genius of the day I had rigged small nylon lines that extended from the quick release tie down strap handle which held the refrigerators in place, up and over the leading edge of the wing, toward the cockpit, under the canopy lip and then secured inside the cockpit where I could, with a quick pull, release the tie down strap and therefore completely release the refrigerators. And so, having made the decision to drop my cargo, I reached out and grabbed hold of both release cords and gave them a firm, aggressive YANK! The release mechanism worked perfectly as the tie down strap handle released and everything, including the straps and the cords fell from under the airplane. I almost lost a finger as the cords zipped out of my hands, out the lip of the canopy and downward with the falling refrigerator.
Immediately, "January" burst to life, her climb rate jumped to a thousand feet per minute and her airspeed was rushing toward 140 at a brisk pace. I let out a cheer in the cockpit knowing "January" was back to her old self. I looked downward to see two stainless steel mini refrigerators falling gracefully toward earth, a yellow tail streaming upward. I was sad to see them falling to their eminent death and i pictured migrant workers and their families working the fields below with one of the children seeing the falling refrigerators and pointing up at the sky so that all were looking skyward when they finally hit ground. I knew the refrigerators would be completely destroyed but I had to smile as I prayed that perhaps the four cases of Diet Mountain Dew inside those refrigerators would somehow survive and there would be a celebration on the ground complete with Mariachi music.
What I learned on this flight: Just because there's a killer sale on refrigerators and Diet Mountain Dew, don't feel like you have to bring them home. "Viva La Mountain Dew" Oh, and one more thing, "January" has an amazing 40 degrees of flaps, make sure she doesn't have them extended before takeoff.
TTSF: 162.3
