gkainz
Final Approach
For Father's Day ...
My wife and daughter left me ...
but just for the weekend.
My sons and I dropped them off at DIA on Saturday morning and we then skeedaddled to 48V (soon to become KEIK - something about a new AWOS and connecting to the weather service feeds requiring numeric field designators to change to alpha characters... but I digress). Skeedaddling from DIA to 48V turned into much longer of an ordeal than initially thought (by about double) so we're already an hour late. Oh well.
We pile our 3 small day packs (together smaller than the 1 bag my wife packed, but hey, at least she's down to one carry on bag now! You go, girl!), 2 rifles, a shotgun, 2 handguns, 40-some pounds of assorted ammunition and ourselves into 77R, "our" (since very few other folks rent it) Cessna 172 RG and off we go.
Announcing our departure proved interesting, as the push to talk button strapped to the yoke fell apart in my hands. Sorry, Erie traffic, but we're just gonna be zip-lip for a minute until I get enough runway underneath me to find and grab the hand held mic.
Since it was already in the mid 80's on the ground, we're climbing for cooler air. At 8,500 feet we settle down in cruise at 135 knots and a comfortable 60° OAT. Ah, life is good. About 15 minutes into the flight, my headset is filled with strange raspy noises... yep, my co-pilot and back-seater are both nodded off and snoring like lumberjacks!
Some wispy clouds way, way above us provide some visual distraction, but that's about it. Visibility from Denver to near Torrington, WY is a typical 50+ nm or so. Because of a grass fire near Guernsey, WY (and associated TFR), visibility gets a little hazy and drops down to a scant 25 nm... yikes! The haze subsides a bit as the winds push the smoke south and east, and at around 70 nm out, near Harrison Skyranch (9V3), the Black Hills looms dark and large on the horizon. As we cross over the NE/SD line near Ardmore, still better than 40 nm from Custer, Crazy Horse Monument appears as a white splotch on the second mountain west of Harney Peak. There's our visual target. We start downhill gently, easing down from 8,500 to pattern altitude of 6,400 feet. We announce to Custer traffic that we're 10 miles out and inbound for landing, and a C-152 pipes up that they were 10 miles south and inbound for landing as well. A couple of landmarks later, we determine that we were a mile or two ahead of them and 500' above them, not to mention a good 20 knots or so faster - maybe more?
Anyway, an uneventful landing - I get a "Nice job, Dad" from the younger son, who managed to wake up as the gear came down, we expedite off the runway (a hundred feet or so of back taxi required to clear RWY 26) and the 152 puts it down nicely and taxis in to the fuel pumps. We chat with the young couple and find out they just flew up from Boulder (8 nm west of our departure airport of 48V)...which really got me thinking as we tied down ... dang, I must have overtaken and passed them somewhere south of Custer and I never saw them! I assume that we were higher, but the fact that I never saw them bugs me still.
We spent 2 days with my dad, my boys, my brother-in-law and his dad - just the guys out on a fishing weekend. I'm so glad to still get to spend time with my dad, who is recovering from a severe illness at Christmas time, and I'm very glad to have my two boys, 19 and 13, still want to spend time with their dad.
Sunday afternoon is crystal clear in Custer, but flight watch tells me that there's a possibility of thunderstorm activity near Cheyenne. Big surprise, there's always afternoon thunderstorm activity across the plains in the summer. Since it's just a possibility, we launch for home at 6:45 pm. Not quite as warm as Saturday, but we climb for cooler air anyway, and settle down to cruise at 9,500 and another comfy 60° OAT. Visibility is another awesome "as far as the eye can see" day and we continue south. I'm monitoring Flight Watch and catch a Saratoga asking for some advice on circum-navigating the squall line that's formed up over Cheyenne. Flight Watch advises that he can run east to maybe as far as Sterling or Akron and possibly skirt around it, but it's moving east and getting stronger. A few others have reported to them that they've gone around the west at about 40 nm west of Cheyenne, from about Laramie, WY to Fort Collins, CO and home. So, we ponder our options and turn west. There are a few promising-looking corridors in the squall line about 10 nm west of Cheyenne and Cheyenne AWOS is reporting 10,000 scattered and light rain. However, it also reports lightning west, east and south. OK, I can see that, and it's quite a light show, so we are NOT going to try any of those avenues! About 25 nm north of Cheyenne we get a few solid bumps and thumps and some light rain, so we make a right turn and head to Laramie. By the time we hump up over the ridge to the Laramie Valley, it does look nice and clear to the south, but not where Fort Collins sits - more straight south, and that's high country. The sun's getting ready to head down over the horizon, so it's a no brainer at that point. "Boys, how about we spend the night in lovely Laramie, WY?" and another right turn and we're on a straight in approach to LAR RWY 30. As I call clear of RWY 30, Cowboy Aviation asks if we need service. Turns out that everything's closed, but Garth was staying late to check out the airport lights that night. He taxied us in, tied us down, gave us the loaner car and a map. Nice job, Garth! Thanks!
So, this morning we climb back into 77R and launch into a beautiful clear Colorado morning (ok, it was still technically Wyoming, but I could see Colorado from 8,500 feet) and fly a relaxing, uneventful, picture perfect 0.6 hour flight. To cap it off, Specialty Flight has a "frequent flyer" program for their complex and high performance planes that gets me a free hour for every 10 hours I rent, so I got 2 free hours on this trip. Whooohooo! Happy Father's Day!
My wife and daughter left me ...
but just for the weekend.
My sons and I dropped them off at DIA on Saturday morning and we then skeedaddled to 48V (soon to become KEIK - something about a new AWOS and connecting to the weather service feeds requiring numeric field designators to change to alpha characters... but I digress). Skeedaddling from DIA to 48V turned into much longer of an ordeal than initially thought (by about double) so we're already an hour late. Oh well.
We pile our 3 small day packs (together smaller than the 1 bag my wife packed, but hey, at least she's down to one carry on bag now! You go, girl!), 2 rifles, a shotgun, 2 handguns, 40-some pounds of assorted ammunition and ourselves into 77R, "our" (since very few other folks rent it) Cessna 172 RG and off we go.
Announcing our departure proved interesting, as the push to talk button strapped to the yoke fell apart in my hands. Sorry, Erie traffic, but we're just gonna be zip-lip for a minute until I get enough runway underneath me to find and grab the hand held mic.
Since it was already in the mid 80's on the ground, we're climbing for cooler air. At 8,500 feet we settle down in cruise at 135 knots and a comfortable 60° OAT. Ah, life is good. About 15 minutes into the flight, my headset is filled with strange raspy noises... yep, my co-pilot and back-seater are both nodded off and snoring like lumberjacks!
Some wispy clouds way, way above us provide some visual distraction, but that's about it. Visibility from Denver to near Torrington, WY is a typical 50+ nm or so. Because of a grass fire near Guernsey, WY (and associated TFR), visibility gets a little hazy and drops down to a scant 25 nm... yikes! The haze subsides a bit as the winds push the smoke south and east, and at around 70 nm out, near Harrison Skyranch (9V3), the Black Hills looms dark and large on the horizon. As we cross over the NE/SD line near Ardmore, still better than 40 nm from Custer, Crazy Horse Monument appears as a white splotch on the second mountain west of Harney Peak. There's our visual target. We start downhill gently, easing down from 8,500 to pattern altitude of 6,400 feet. We announce to Custer traffic that we're 10 miles out and inbound for landing, and a C-152 pipes up that they were 10 miles south and inbound for landing as well. A couple of landmarks later, we determine that we were a mile or two ahead of them and 500' above them, not to mention a good 20 knots or so faster - maybe more?
Anyway, an uneventful landing - I get a "Nice job, Dad" from the younger son, who managed to wake up as the gear came down, we expedite off the runway (a hundred feet or so of back taxi required to clear RWY 26) and the 152 puts it down nicely and taxis in to the fuel pumps. We chat with the young couple and find out they just flew up from Boulder (8 nm west of our departure airport of 48V)...which really got me thinking as we tied down ... dang, I must have overtaken and passed them somewhere south of Custer and I never saw them! I assume that we were higher, but the fact that I never saw them bugs me still.
We spent 2 days with my dad, my boys, my brother-in-law and his dad - just the guys out on a fishing weekend. I'm so glad to still get to spend time with my dad, who is recovering from a severe illness at Christmas time, and I'm very glad to have my two boys, 19 and 13, still want to spend time with their dad.
Sunday afternoon is crystal clear in Custer, but flight watch tells me that there's a possibility of thunderstorm activity near Cheyenne. Big surprise, there's always afternoon thunderstorm activity across the plains in the summer. Since it's just a possibility, we launch for home at 6:45 pm. Not quite as warm as Saturday, but we climb for cooler air anyway, and settle down to cruise at 9,500 and another comfy 60° OAT. Visibility is another awesome "as far as the eye can see" day and we continue south. I'm monitoring Flight Watch and catch a Saratoga asking for some advice on circum-navigating the squall line that's formed up over Cheyenne. Flight Watch advises that he can run east to maybe as far as Sterling or Akron and possibly skirt around it, but it's moving east and getting stronger. A few others have reported to them that they've gone around the west at about 40 nm west of Cheyenne, from about Laramie, WY to Fort Collins, CO and home. So, we ponder our options and turn west. There are a few promising-looking corridors in the squall line about 10 nm west of Cheyenne and Cheyenne AWOS is reporting 10,000 scattered and light rain. However, it also reports lightning west, east and south. OK, I can see that, and it's quite a light show, so we are NOT going to try any of those avenues! About 25 nm north of Cheyenne we get a few solid bumps and thumps and some light rain, so we make a right turn and head to Laramie. By the time we hump up over the ridge to the Laramie Valley, it does look nice and clear to the south, but not where Fort Collins sits - more straight south, and that's high country. The sun's getting ready to head down over the horizon, so it's a no brainer at that point. "Boys, how about we spend the night in lovely Laramie, WY?" and another right turn and we're on a straight in approach to LAR RWY 30. As I call clear of RWY 30, Cowboy Aviation asks if we need service. Turns out that everything's closed, but Garth was staying late to check out the airport lights that night. He taxied us in, tied us down, gave us the loaner car and a map. Nice job, Garth! Thanks!
So, this morning we climb back into 77R and launch into a beautiful clear Colorado morning (ok, it was still technically Wyoming, but I could see Colorado from 8,500 feet) and fly a relaxing, uneventful, picture perfect 0.6 hour flight. To cap it off, Specialty Flight has a "frequent flyer" program for their complex and high performance planes that gets me a free hour for every 10 hours I rent, so I got 2 free hours on this trip. Whooohooo! Happy Father's Day!
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