jmaynard
Cleared for Takeoff
- Joined
- Jun 7, 2008
- Messages
- 1,487
- Location
- Fairmont, Minnesota
- Display Name
Display name:
Jay Maynard
Gordon Baxter once referred to his Mooney as his own personal magic carpet. After yesterday, I understand what he means.
One of the other things I enjoy are Renaissance faires. I go to several each year. They're usually all-weekend affairs, simply because they're several hours' drive away, so driving there and back in one day leaves precious little time to enjoy the faire. For this year's Wisconsin Renaissance Faire, though, we decided to try flying.
The weather didn't cooperate last weekend. This weeekend promised to be better, so we went yesterday. We got to the airport about 7, preflighted, got a couple of funny looks about our garb while putting gas in the airplane, and departed. Nice smooth flight over, if a bit hazy; FRM-EAU took 1.6. We had a nice breakfast at the terminal cafe, picked up the rent car, and headed to the faire.
The return was a little more exciting. We were fighting a 20-knot headwind the whole way, and spent more time in the climb to get above the bumps. When we got back to Fairmont, we heard the airport manager returning in his Cherokee 180 report the same location we were at. I decided to halt my descent and turn a bit so I wouldn't hit him, and my passenger spotted him ahead of us. The winds were 180 at 18G24. The manager commented on the radio that it was really gusty down low as he landed. He was right, too. I made an attempt to land on 20, but ballooned in the flare and decided a go-around was in order. The second attempt was just as exciting. I did manage to land it that time, though.
We got home about 12 hours after we left, tired but happy. That was a trip we couldn't have even thought about in the car: Eau Claire is a 4 hour drive from Fairmont. My car gets 28 MPG on the highway; Google Maps calls it 226 miles each way by road, so that would have been about $70 in gas. I put $95 of gas in the airplane, and the rent car was $50 from Avis. The tradeoff is that we have the rest of the weekend to do other things with: by car, we'd have left Fairmont about 6, gotten to Eau Claire tired about 10, and had to leave in just a few hours to go home - or else make a weekend out of it, and get a hotel room for the night.
The airplane makes that possible. Bax was right: it is a magic carpet.
One of the other things I enjoy are Renaissance faires. I go to several each year. They're usually all-weekend affairs, simply because they're several hours' drive away, so driving there and back in one day leaves precious little time to enjoy the faire. For this year's Wisconsin Renaissance Faire, though, we decided to try flying.
The weather didn't cooperate last weekend. This weeekend promised to be better, so we went yesterday. We got to the airport about 7, preflighted, got a couple of funny looks about our garb while putting gas in the airplane, and departed. Nice smooth flight over, if a bit hazy; FRM-EAU took 1.6. We had a nice breakfast at the terminal cafe, picked up the rent car, and headed to the faire.
The return was a little more exciting. We were fighting a 20-knot headwind the whole way, and spent more time in the climb to get above the bumps. When we got back to Fairmont, we heard the airport manager returning in his Cherokee 180 report the same location we were at. I decided to halt my descent and turn a bit so I wouldn't hit him, and my passenger spotted him ahead of us. The winds were 180 at 18G24. The manager commented on the radio that it was really gusty down low as he landed. He was right, too. I made an attempt to land on 20, but ballooned in the flare and decided a go-around was in order. The second attempt was just as exciting. I did manage to land it that time, though.
We got home about 12 hours after we left, tired but happy. That was a trip we couldn't have even thought about in the car: Eau Claire is a 4 hour drive from Fairmont. My car gets 28 MPG on the highway; Google Maps calls it 226 miles each way by road, so that would have been about $70 in gas. I put $95 of gas in the airplane, and the rent car was $50 from Avis. The tradeoff is that we have the rest of the weekend to do other things with: by car, we'd have left Fairmont about 6, gotten to Eau Claire tired about 10, and had to leave in just a few hours to go home - or else make a weekend out of it, and get a hotel room for the night.
The airplane makes that possible. Bax was right: it is a magic carpet.
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