EdFred
Taxi to Parking
I had one of those wekeends that reminded how wicked awesome GA is. Over the past couple years, everything I have done has been planned well in advance when it came to flying. I planned the big trip out west for nearly 6 months two years ago. I planned the trip to the northeast and southeast for months last year. Gaston's this year was planned since, well, last year, and the same went for Wings Fly-B-Q. And frankly, the flying became more about the destination or the mission, than it did about realizing the utility of it. It had become mundane, and was starting to feel more like a means to an end as opposed to what it used to be when I started. Sure there were moments on each of the trips that were moments of "yeah, this is cool" but for the most part it became just an arduous task.
Saturday, I'm going through my lazy-weekend-with-nothing-planned-unroutine, which basically involves me putting only enough on to answer the door without being embarrassed if someone were to stop by, and deciding whether or not to have Frosted Mini Wheats or scrambled eggs for my "breakfast" at 12:30. I'm just finished up eating the eggs when I get a knock at the door and see it's my brother who wants to borrow my internet connection so he can download roster updates to his XBox360. But he also brings over Guitar Hero, which I've never played so I'm messing around with that and then I see I have a voice mail on my cell phone from my grandmother from the other side of the state: "Hi, we're up here at the cottage (in East Tawas, MI) and saw a bunch of planes flying over the lake, and wondered if it was you, or if you are even in the state this weekend." 8/26 at Iosco County (6D9) lines right up with Tawas Lake and all the departing (or arriving traffic) will go right over the lake if they fly a 2 mile or longer final/departure leg. I call her back and say, "No, it wasn't me, and I'm in the state, but I could be up there in about an hour." It's a solid three-hour-and-forty-five minute drive up there, versus an hour-and-five-minute no-wind flight, and also up there were cousins and aunts and uncles I hadn't seen in 7 years or more.
I check the weather, see I have a two-minute tailwind and the concective sigmet to the northwest of Iosco County is not moving at all. Perfect, so I throw in a shirt, drawers (as Nick likes to call em), socks, deodorant, toothbrush and paste into my Eddie Bauer backpack, which is getting so old it's looking more like an Eddie Vedder backpack, and head off to the airport. My brother had a date with someone that night so he declined taking the trip with me. Oh, well, so I hopped in the truck, got in the plane and launched. Had the tunes playing on the mp3 player, and had a silky smooth flight all the way over. Grandma and her boyfriend were there to pick me up and we got something to eat, and then back to the cottages. Our family has three cottages in a row on the lake, and each was being occupied by various branches of the family tree.
Now, I hadn't seen any of them in seven years, and I hadn't shaved since Friday at Gaston's so I was looking a bit different than the last time, and was quite a surprise to them, because they had no clue I was going to be there. So, it was catch-up, cards, and reminisce until 2am on Saturday, and more of the same on Sunday morning. We talked a lot about the happenings up north, and how a lot of my flying involved this group, and the various fly-ins and trips, and hospitatlity put forth by all of you guys on here when I've been in your areas, and the conversation lead it's way to me offering to take the 4 kids (all under the age of 7) for a plane ride.
Well, you didn't have to ask any of them twice, so we headed to the airport and gave two airplane rides to the dads and the kids. They loved it. Although I think for the oldest girl, the biggest thrill was getting to wear the headset and being able to hear the pilot talk, and even better, being able to talk back to the pilot. So I gave them a tour of the area, and pointed out all the places they had just been to the day before on the ground, and of course a flyby of the cottages (while maintaining part 91 altitudes) on both of the plane rides while those that didn't go to the airport stood out on the shore and waved. Then back to the cabin for a mid afternoon nap before getting some dinner and then giving my grandmother only her second GA ride. Her first one she had been on was after a heart attack she had years back, and the post incident medication caused her some serious anxiety while on the ride, so this was to make sure she was ok with it, which she was.
Tt was back to the cottages for another game of cards with the cousins and uncle and then time to call it a weekend. Back to the plane, and it was an hour and twenty minutes from startup until shutdown, and less than 2 hours door-to-airport-to-door. And it was good.
Saturday, I'm going through my lazy-weekend-with-nothing-planned-unroutine, which basically involves me putting only enough on to answer the door without being embarrassed if someone were to stop by, and deciding whether or not to have Frosted Mini Wheats or scrambled eggs for my "breakfast" at 12:30. I'm just finished up eating the eggs when I get a knock at the door and see it's my brother who wants to borrow my internet connection so he can download roster updates to his XBox360. But he also brings over Guitar Hero, which I've never played so I'm messing around with that and then I see I have a voice mail on my cell phone from my grandmother from the other side of the state: "Hi, we're up here at the cottage (in East Tawas, MI) and saw a bunch of planes flying over the lake, and wondered if it was you, or if you are even in the state this weekend." 8/26 at Iosco County (6D9) lines right up with Tawas Lake and all the departing (or arriving traffic) will go right over the lake if they fly a 2 mile or longer final/departure leg. I call her back and say, "No, it wasn't me, and I'm in the state, but I could be up there in about an hour." It's a solid three-hour-and-forty-five minute drive up there, versus an hour-and-five-minute no-wind flight, and also up there were cousins and aunts and uncles I hadn't seen in 7 years or more.
I check the weather, see I have a two-minute tailwind and the concective sigmet to the northwest of Iosco County is not moving at all. Perfect, so I throw in a shirt, drawers (as Nick likes to call em), socks, deodorant, toothbrush and paste into my Eddie Bauer backpack, which is getting so old it's looking more like an Eddie Vedder backpack, and head off to the airport. My brother had a date with someone that night so he declined taking the trip with me. Oh, well, so I hopped in the truck, got in the plane and launched. Had the tunes playing on the mp3 player, and had a silky smooth flight all the way over. Grandma and her boyfriend were there to pick me up and we got something to eat, and then back to the cottages. Our family has three cottages in a row on the lake, and each was being occupied by various branches of the family tree.
Now, I hadn't seen any of them in seven years, and I hadn't shaved since Friday at Gaston's so I was looking a bit different than the last time, and was quite a surprise to them, because they had no clue I was going to be there. So, it was catch-up, cards, and reminisce until 2am on Saturday, and more of the same on Sunday morning. We talked a lot about the happenings up north, and how a lot of my flying involved this group, and the various fly-ins and trips, and hospitatlity put forth by all of you guys on here when I've been in your areas, and the conversation lead it's way to me offering to take the 4 kids (all under the age of 7) for a plane ride.
Well, you didn't have to ask any of them twice, so we headed to the airport and gave two airplane rides to the dads and the kids. They loved it. Although I think for the oldest girl, the biggest thrill was getting to wear the headset and being able to hear the pilot talk, and even better, being able to talk back to the pilot. So I gave them a tour of the area, and pointed out all the places they had just been to the day before on the ground, and of course a flyby of the cottages (while maintaining part 91 altitudes) on both of the plane rides while those that didn't go to the airport stood out on the shore and waved. Then back to the cabin for a mid afternoon nap before getting some dinner and then giving my grandmother only her second GA ride. Her first one she had been on was after a heart attack she had years back, and the post incident medication caused her some serious anxiety while on the ride, so this was to make sure she was ok with it, which she was.
Tt was back to the cottages for another game of cards with the cousins and uncle and then time to call it a weekend. Back to the plane, and it was an hour and twenty minutes from startup until shutdown, and less than 2 hours door-to-airport-to-door. And it was good.
