bigred177
Cleared for Takeoff
My friend and I were planning a trip down to Port Aransas this past weekend for the end of his spring break. We were originally going to drive but when I was telling him about the great deal I got on the Cherokee I'm flying now, it sparked a bit of interest in going by air. It would be me, him, his girlfriend, and on of her friends. I took a look at it that night and the numbers actually all came together. I started looking at the cost of it all and talking with him about it. It actually didn't take much convincing at all to get him to bump the plane trip up to plan A. So after relentlessly watching the weather and goign over calculations, we met up at Georgetown (GTU).
The first leg would be just us heading to Houston to pick up the girls. A nice .8 hr flight thanks to some nice tailwinds and we arrived at Sugarland (SGR). The city run FBO there is a great facility with friendly staff. While we were waiting for the girls to arrive, I had to go back out to the plane to grab some stuff. While the line guy was driving me back out to the plane I asked him if we could play a bit of a joke on the ladies and stop by a G4 sitting on the ramp acting like that's what we were going on. He liked the idea and said he would drive us there first.
Once the girls arrived and I checked the W&B and weather one more time, we were headed out to the ramp. The plan from before could not have gone more perfectly. The G4 we were going to was getting ready to depart as well and had the APU running and stairs down as we pulled up. The line man had talked to the pilot while we were waiting who also enjoyed the idea. I don't think i have ever seen so much of a look of sheer amazement. Before we could get fully stopped and out of the golf cart both girls were about halfway up the stairs bags in hand . After a bit of explaining we were able to talk them down and back on to the cart to head over to my equally comparable 1968 Cherokee 180 . Loaded everything/everybody up, gassed up, and took off for Ingleside (TFP).
While airborne I discovered that my wonderful 10 year old database in the GPS did not have my airport in it with the new or old identifier. So I plugged in Rockport (RKP) which is about 8 miles north of Ingleside and directly on my course. Looking back I realize I should have checked while on the ground but it all worked out. After a 1.4 hr flight we were about 4nm north of the airport and I couldn't get the lights to come on. After confirming the frequency with Corpus Approach and messing with them some more they finally come on. An uneventful trip in the pattern and decent landing and we had arrived. I later learned that this was the girlfriend's friend's first time in a light plane and she was amazed at the "wonderful" landing I made . Our friends met us there and we headed to the hotel.
Sunday it was time to head home so we went back to the airport and started the art of loading everyone's luggage/body again. After a quick trip up the beach we were on course back to Sugarland. I should have logged this leg as solo time since I was the only one awake after a weekend of fun. Had a decent crosswind on the approach but still got the plane down relatively smoothly and back to the FBO to get unloaded and take fuel.
The trip from Sugarland to Georgetown was pretty uneventful, just cruising along talkign with my friend about the amazing world of general aviation and answering any questions about the plane he had. Then, before we got back, we went over to one of the practice areas and did some stalls and steep turns since he wanted to see what they were like. He was amazed at how uneventful stalls were, he had the idea that there was a bit more falling out of the sky involved. We go back and secured the plane and he is now looking at every possible even we might be able to load the plane up and go to now.
So, while they probably won't pick up flying lessons, we have a few new folks welcomed into our world and they all loved it.
This was my first trip filling the plane up to gross weight and she sure handles differently than just me and half fuel. It turned out to be a great trip with great weather the whole way.
The first leg would be just us heading to Houston to pick up the girls. A nice .8 hr flight thanks to some nice tailwinds and we arrived at Sugarland (SGR). The city run FBO there is a great facility with friendly staff. While we were waiting for the girls to arrive, I had to go back out to the plane to grab some stuff. While the line guy was driving me back out to the plane I asked him if we could play a bit of a joke on the ladies and stop by a G4 sitting on the ramp acting like that's what we were going on. He liked the idea and said he would drive us there first.
Once the girls arrived and I checked the W&B and weather one more time, we were headed out to the ramp. The plan from before could not have gone more perfectly. The G4 we were going to was getting ready to depart as well and had the APU running and stairs down as we pulled up. The line man had talked to the pilot while we were waiting who also enjoyed the idea. I don't think i have ever seen so much of a look of sheer amazement. Before we could get fully stopped and out of the golf cart both girls were about halfway up the stairs bags in hand . After a bit of explaining we were able to talk them down and back on to the cart to head over to my equally comparable 1968 Cherokee 180 . Loaded everything/everybody up, gassed up, and took off for Ingleside (TFP).
While airborne I discovered that my wonderful 10 year old database in the GPS did not have my airport in it with the new or old identifier. So I plugged in Rockport (RKP) which is about 8 miles north of Ingleside and directly on my course. Looking back I realize I should have checked while on the ground but it all worked out. After a 1.4 hr flight we were about 4nm north of the airport and I couldn't get the lights to come on. After confirming the frequency with Corpus Approach and messing with them some more they finally come on. An uneventful trip in the pattern and decent landing and we had arrived. I later learned that this was the girlfriend's friend's first time in a light plane and she was amazed at the "wonderful" landing I made . Our friends met us there and we headed to the hotel.
Sunday it was time to head home so we went back to the airport and started the art of loading everyone's luggage/body again. After a quick trip up the beach we were on course back to Sugarland. I should have logged this leg as solo time since I was the only one awake after a weekend of fun. Had a decent crosswind on the approach but still got the plane down relatively smoothly and back to the FBO to get unloaded and take fuel.
The trip from Sugarland to Georgetown was pretty uneventful, just cruising along talkign with my friend about the amazing world of general aviation and answering any questions about the plane he had. Then, before we got back, we went over to one of the practice areas and did some stalls and steep turns since he wanted to see what they were like. He was amazed at how uneventful stalls were, he had the idea that there was a bit more falling out of the sky involved. We go back and secured the plane and he is now looking at every possible even we might be able to load the plane up and go to now.
So, while they probably won't pick up flying lessons, we have a few new folks welcomed into our world and they all loved it.
This was my first trip filling the plane up to gross weight and she sure handles differently than just me and half fuel. It turned out to be a great trip with great weather the whole way.