Summer Evening

[petehowell]

Here is some motivation to keep pounding rivets.....

Get to the airport after work, change into shorts and preflight the -9A. The goal is to find cheap fuel for a Saturday flight to deliver the neighbor to his son's baseball game in Omaha, then hit the RV day at Boone, IA. Rumor has it that Amery, WI has 100LL for $3.49. Program the 396 and off we go.

Hazy at 2500 but not too warm. Get the the winds and temp off the Dynon and make a pirep over the St. Croix river(I'm sure I did not tell them any thing they did not know......) 34 nm slips by quickly and soon I am on unicom racing an ultralight to the pattern. I win ....

Land, taxi up to the pumps and see gas is still $3.49, giddy up. Start pumping gas and see a beautiful Bonanza start up and taxi. As he taxis by, something looks odd, yikes, the towbar is still attached! Stop the gas, run across the ramp waving arms and screaming. I'm sure he thinks "Oh Great, another lunatic RV driver. I finally get him to shut down, when he opens the door, I tell him "I think the towbar is still attached". His face goes white as he gets out to look. He turns and thanks me - good deed for the day done....

Finish pumping gas, reset the Dynon to 36 gals and depart Amery low and slow. I set the GPS for my younger daugther's soccer practice field and the engine for 16.5" MP and 2200 RPM leaned to 3.8 GPH. Call St Paul Tower 10 out and tell them I need to circle a soccer game just north of the Class delta. Circle approved! - let me know when you are moving on. I get a dozen waves from 8 year old girls and they get a wing wag in return.

Tell St Paul Tower I need to circle baseball 2 miles west of the soccer game - A laugh and an OK - "let me know when you are there and maintain altitude". Head west and circle my 13 yr old son's baseball practice at 800ft. They try to hit baseballs up at me! Tell STP Tower I am heading home and they thank me for checking in.

Off to ANE for a nice landing - the Dynon says I have 34.1 Gals left, nice. Park the plane, clean the bugs off and head home for dinner.

Both kids tell me their teams thought the plane was "sweet" - I agree.........

 

[Ironflight]

Now THAT's the kind of eveniong we're talkin' about!

Very nice capture of the moment Pete!

Paul

 

[rvbuilder2002]

Thanks.

So your based at ANE?

I haven't heard that in a long time.
I learned to fly there as a teenager in the mid to late 70's.

 

[petehowell]

Hi Scott

Yep, based at KANE. I learned to fly over at KMIC, but that airport is slowly and sadly running down.

 

[LettersFromFlyoverCountry]

Pete, where was the baseball diamond west of STP? Wouldn't that put you in the Class B, which I think is at the high bridge?

Oh, wait, I'll bet the kids wer ein West St. Paul. Seems to me from my lug-the-kids-around-to-baseball days, there's tournaments there this time of year.

Hey, that reminds me. Do you ever do Young Eagles flights? If so, I gotta talk to you about a young man, I know, who'd love a flight in a small plane.

 

[petehowell]

Baseball at Hwy 36 and Dale

Hi Bob,

I was actually north and east of STP at all times. The 2 miles west was relative to the soccer field - that is only a waypoint on MY 396 .

We were on the ground in North St. Paul for a game tonight. Big win for Roseville!

Drop me an e-mail. I'm sure we can arrange a ride sometime soon.

 

[Yukon]

Pete,

Sounds like fun! What was your TAS at 3.8 GPH?

 

[petehowell]

Pretty low

Hi John,

At 3.8GPH TAS is ~120 mph, perfect for sightseeing. Still as fast as Cessna.