Flying 4th
 

Megan and I set out on an ambitious mission this 4th of July. She wanted to spend the day with her Grandma in South Bend who she has not seen in months, but she wanted to be back in time for fireworks with her friends in Minneapolis and I had committments back here early Saturday. So I told her we would make it a day trip!

We launched at 7am when the Anoka tower opened and picked up Flight Following. ANE-JOT-05C-C20 Made an easy climb up to 9500 where the air was cool and the -9A is effcient. Virtually no wind at altitude so we went "green" and dialed the fuel burn back to 5.5 gph and 146KTAS - that gave a less than 3 hour ride to Grandma. My mom tracked us by APRS and met us at Andrews Univ Airpark right on time. Got a few calls from friends right after we landed - nice to have people keeping an eye out. We used Andrews vs the usual stop at Elkhart because of fuel prices ($4.70@C20 vs $6.05@EKM!) same dist for my mom to pick us up.

We had a great day with my Mom, and my sister's family, and then headed back to the plane for the jaunt home.

Some pics from the trip:

Great View between scattered layers


Low Stuff over Lake Michigan


Lake Cleared for the return trip


Chicago Motor Speedway?


Better than the Mini-van @ 170mph!

More South Bend Pics
 

Had some great scenery on the way home. The layer had some big holes, so I was fine above it:



Like Mother (remember Steamboat):


Like Daughter....... I get this a lot from women.....


Sun Setting Over the spinner


How Megs and I felt when we got home.....


We made it in time for fireworks back home......A great trip made possible by banging rivets in a frozen garage for 3+ years. Hard to describe how cool it is - keep banging!

Gotta get some "cool dad" points for that too! Great pics and write up.



14000 rivets and a kit, $20,000

Lycoming, $20,000

Prop, $2000

Your daughter wanting to spend the whole day flying with you, priceless.:cool:

For me this is what the RV is all about. My wife and I are getting to the stage in life where we can leave for a few days whenever we like and the 9 is going to make it easier to see a lot more of the country in a shorter period of time. We have three grandchildren that we can't stand to be very far from so we can go play and then get back to the kids before we start to miss them too much. Thanks for the pictures, it's great motivation. I hope everyone had a wonderful and safe holiday.

Pete, I have a hard time believing you struggle with entertaining the ladies as much as the photos suggest.



I suspect they are passing out from oxygen deprivation......... :D

Great trip!

Sam you might be right - as much as I enjoy watching the engine monitor and talking with Chicago Center - they like to sleep when they finish their book. I always offer them O2 - but they decline when they think it might keep them awake. The trip home was all of 20 awake minutes for Megan...that is really flying!

inspiration
 

Pete,
You are an inspiration to all of us builders. The end is in site for me and soon I will be up there dancing around the clouds with you.

I lived in Berrien Springs for a good 12 years and did all of my flight training from private through CFI at C20. It's a nice little airport. I hope they treated you right!

One of the things I want to do when I finish my -7 is to fly back in there and "complete the circle." Thanks for an extra little boost of motivation.

Andrews = Nice Place!
 

Hi David,

Andrews Airpark is nice little strip! We pulled up and a nice young man helped us fuel up and push the plane into a parking spot. We got a front row seat to watch a student abuse a 152 doing touch and goes(I remember when .......).

There are some nice experimentals and an autogyro on the field.

We'll be back for a ND ball game and will avoid the jet traffic at S Bend and Elkhart by using Andrews.

Only gripe on the whole trip is that Chicago approach will not take VFR flight following handoffs and ignored my requests when I called. Minne Approach, Minne Center, Chicago Center, Rockford Approach and South Bend Approach were all great to work with.

Glad to hear. At one point, you could have found me abusing the same C152, I'm sure. :rolleyes:

When I was training, the Chicago controllers had a reputation for unhelpfulness to GA aircraft. The one time I flew into Midway in a 172 confirmed that for me when they ignored the remarks in my IFR flight plan and tried to route me straight out over the lake. South Bend, on the other hand, was always a pleasure to work with and tolerated all manner of practice approachs and holding patterns.