Re: The LAST PLANE is Home Safe!
Just as at Oshkosh the year we flew in, we were the LAST PLANE out of Gastons!
I had my usual delays, but really I went with the idea that the longer I waited the better the overcast would be. FSS said stations were variously reporting 1200 feet to 3000 feet overcast. He hinted that I needed to remember there were hills on my route.
My soon-to-be-ex-wife-#2 accused me me of lollygagging. This - as I was packing. She also later went through her memory of the phonetic alphabet and asked me what "M" was.
After talking to the guy who owned the Skyhawk, who showed sympathy as I yanked and twisted on the FlyTie pins, I studied the chart carefully to look at those safe altitudes in the grid and to note the ASOS and ATIS frequencies at airports along the way.
Oh! He pointed out that there was a
claw hammer left behind. It was at the tie down to the left of the tail of my plane. There was somebody's Skyhawk there. I have the hammer. I'll bring it next year to return it to the rightful owner.
After shooing some friendly onlookers from standing in my prop blast, we got airborne at 1:15PM.
I remembered to use the flaps eventually. Now I know what you all mean about that plane eating ridge. With the flaps out I was well clear of it.
I flew at 2700 and 3300 feet as appropriate while watching the tattered bottom of the overcast and encountered visibility of 7 miles to over 10. It was bimpy. Just as FSS said it cleared up in St. Louis. It was CAVU from there except I had to go to 7500 vs. 5500 to get smooth air.
I didn't call St. Louis for flight following this time. I ducked under the Class B to land at KSET. I called FSS to close my flight plan as soon as I could and they said I was overdue. Those headwinds really slowed me down. Lesson learned. I should have updated my ETA from the air.
Kilroy's was great. Had a good homemade pork tenderloin and Jann had an omelet which had fresh stuff in and was almost as good as mine. The CAF self fuel pump was broken so I went to Skylink where gas was $3.85 + 3% for a credit card. No matter. It was $4.02 by the sign at the CAF pump. Funny thing: After I paid the guy ran out and explained that he undercharged me by $100. I thought it was pretty cheap but I wasn't paying attention. I almost saved over $2 a gallon!
Springfield Approach was very nice. The controller even got my call right the first time. Maybe he remembered me from the trip out on Friday. I guess he tried to put me into the system for whole route because he asked my final destination. I suppose Peoria didn't want any part of me. He told me to contact them directly. I didn't.
Once we were out of the bumps we did enjoy that beautiful high pressure. I could only get 120 knots or so ground speed with the headwind from the north.
I didn't judge getting down from 7500 early enough so I steered west of Chicago as I continued my descent over Aurora and came in more directly east from north of there.
We landed at around 6:20PM and had a nice dinner in Libertyville.
See ya next year!
(Ignore that Skyhawk in the background. We talked to that guy. Nice and funny fellow. He flew in at 1000 feet a with 5 kids, including a baby, and the wife in that puppy for their anniversary. He depended on the terrain warnings in his GPS. He asked me if I knew anybody with a Cherokee 6 for sale. I told him that Ron has a letter from a FSDO that says sharing a seat belt is OK. )
