Ok here is the report.
The flight down was pretty easy. Ames was 22BKN 26BKN 32OVC on departure with tops at 5000. We had planned to fly the trip IFR no matter what. Got our clearance and took off. Cruised down at 8000. Flight was totally standard, no surprises to speak of. The undercast faded off about mid-Kansas. Our groundspeeds were consistently around 160 knots. In a 182RG. Heard a very interesting exchange on Tulsa approach between the approach controller and a corporate jet pilot discussing the controllers recent flight in crosswinds, the weather, or whatever. I couldn't believe my ears. We were given an amendment to our clearance for the SASSIE 2 arrival into the DFW area. That cut off a big chunk of our trip. We had filed to the cedar creek VOR and then back NW to Arlington Muni. Traffic was light because of the presidential TFR centered on Love Field. We had gotten the NOTAM, thankfully Arlington was outside the 10 mile ring. We were vectored around the west side of DFW, flew right over the Texas Speedway. There was a scattered layer of cumulus clouds that we got under and called Arlington in sight. Cleared for the visual the controller told us to change to advisory and not change transponder due to the TFR. I stayed IFR until on the ground, then cancelled on the CD frequency there.
Hobbs time down was 4.3
The SSA convention was awesome. I met up with a ton of friends in gliding that I have from Texas and elsewhere. Learned a lot of new info about cross country soaring, and listened to some great speakers. Also had a good time visiting with a US pilot that is making amazing long distance flights in the sierra nevada wave. As well as a guy in florida who flies IFR in his glider.
We filed IFR for the trip home, even though the forecast was for clear skies over the route. We got vectors for a DP from Arlington, and once again were taken around the west side of the Class B at 4000 feet. Our highest groundspeed of the trip was seen here at 202 knots. A nice High pressure system in Louisana was giving us great tailwinds. We were given our filed altitude of 7000 and saw groundspeeds of 190 for quite a while. by central kansas we had hit calm winds and slowed to 150, our TAS. Here we also some some Wave formations in the cirrus clouds, a good indicator of lift and Clear Air Turbulence. As we got to Kansas City and north we slowed to about 130 knots. Once north of Des Moines we cancelled IFR and headed into Ames. Did three Touch and Goes once we got there and ended up with 4.2 on the hobbs for trip back.
