As an update to our trip, we made it back Monday morning. We left Saturday morning but had to stop at Frankfort IN because of weather near Kalamazoo MI. We were about 1:30 from our home airport but decided to spend the night. I have to tell you, Frankfort airport is as good as it gets for general aviation. The manager, Nick is great. He let us use a courtesy car for the night to get a hotel and found a spot in a hangar so the heavy rain that came that night didnt soak our plane. They have a nice kitchen, lounge, and even a bedroom with full bathroom with shower if you need it. This is the second time Nick has helped us out and it is really appreciated.
Sunday morning we hung around the airport for about 4 hours waiting for the clouds to part. Nick was calling airports along our route for info and checking weather for us. Finally we got a break in the clouds so I sent my intended route to my friend and instructor Terry Lutz for him to check out. He said it looked good so we gave it a shot. We made it to Holland MI and decided to land to check the weather the rest of the way and make some phone calls. It looked like we had a chance to make the 40 minute flight later in the day so we just hung out at the airport. KBIV is a nice airport too. My wife said it was reasonably clear and it looked like we had an hour open so we tried to skirt Grand Rapids to the north to get into Lansing or Owosso. We made it about half way and started hitting rain so we went back to Holland. We got a space in a hangar which was lucky since it rained very hard that evening. We took a lyft to a hotel for another night! Monday morning is looked good so we made the final 40 minute flight with out issues. We did have to drop to about 1500 agl to get under clouds the last 3 or so miles but a nice 8kt crosswind kept me on my toes for the landing. All in all it was a great trip!
Things I learned.
1. Always look for airports that have x wind runways. You dont have to land there but know where they are if the wind gets bad.
2. Have some snacks in the plane you can easily reach!
3. The auto pilot is a big help when you are trying to stay connected to flight following
4. There are some really nice people at most of the airports we visited. We planned about 2:00 flight legs and that worked well.
5. Having a little bigger plane would be nicer on a long trip!! I love my 9A but a 10 or a 14 would be really nice!
6. There is always another day to get home. Or even 2. We waited 2 nights to fly the last two hours of the trip. We made it a fun part of the adventure.
