This past weekend I had a family trip to ND for my niece's graduation. A student of mine who has been unable to fly due to work schedules asked me to take his 172 to give it some exercise. It's a 2004 SP model and the only time I have in it is a few hours of dual with him before he got tied up with work.
I learned in a 172 Hawk XP 35 years ago, but haven't taken one on a cross-country flight in over 30 years. I have to admit, I'm impressed by this later iteration. Fit and finish is very good...just getting rid of the Royalite was a major step up in the look and feel category! It's a nice airplane.
A few highlights from a weekend of flying:
-Weather from KFCM to KJKJ looked potentially troublesome, but turned out to be nothing more than some light showers with good visibility all the way so we flew VFR down low. Strong winds gave us a good push, averaging around 135+ knots.
-After dropping my wife and dog off with the in-laws, I took off for D09 to pick up my son from the camp where he's working this summer on his college break. The weather started going to crap about half way, so made an unscheduled stop at KDVL to sort things out. Winds were out of the southeast at 19G29 so started to setup for Rwy 12 when I noticed a bright light on the runway. I thought someone was taxiing out, but as I got closer saw the big, lighted "X"!! Switched to Rwy 03 which provided a nice 90 deg. x-wind which pretty much consumed all of the 172's control inputs. Even after touchdown you could feel her wanting to weather-vane. I kept the engine running while I got an update on the weather, filed an IFR flight plan to D09 and picked up my clearance. On takeoff I held her on the runway til 65 or so then made a quick transition to flight and we were off and climbing back into the soup.
-In the soup from 500' upward, I proceeded NW. Minot approach cleared me direct VATTY on the RNAV (GPS) Rwy 13 approach into D09 which was right at minimums for the straight in...but after breaking out and seeing the winds hadn't abated I circled for 12 and landed in light rain and the same gusty conditions.
-Met my son, refueled, filed IFR to KFAR, then put him in the left seat to get some instrument time. We were solid IMC by 400' and for the next two hours we slogged our way through the rain against the wind. He did an admirable job flying, although admitted it was a bit scary for the first five minutes or so. We shot the ILS 18 into KFAR, breaking out about two miles from the runway. Visibility was good below the cloud deck so we cancelled IFR and scooted back over to KJKJ (where fuel is $1.41 less per gallon! I'm cheap!)
-Saturday I watched a system of thunderstorms building in central ND all day. After our event I called and spoke to a briefer who painted an extremely grim picture and said there was no way we'd be able to make this flight tonight, even IFR. We seriously debated doing a 10 hour round trip drive by car to get him back, but after watching the weather on my iPad for another hour it was obvious the heavy stuff was not pushing that far north, so we decided to head out. We flew 1.5 hrs. in excellent VFR conditions with more than ten miles visibility all the way. Go figure. I'm thankful for all the weather tools we have at our disposal these days.
-Filed IFR for the D09 to KFAR trip so I could go higher and get to lighter winds. Spent almost two hours IMC, then another ILS 18 approach, with the sidestep over to KJKJ after breaking out. Same gusty winds, but pretty much straight down the runway. Tied her down and called it a night.
-Sunday, filed IFR again so we could go higher for better winds on the way home. They weren't much better, so we spent another two hours in the soggy grey stuff, looking at ground speeds I haven't seen on a family trip in years! I think we averaged about 88 kts for the trip home! Such is life.
All in all, an enjoyable trip on a holiday weekend where travel by car would have been an agonizing nightmare with road construction delays everywhere. I got to introduce my son to the 172 for the first time, plus got him some IMC time. And it was fun for me to remember just how amazingly simple an aircraft the Cessna 172 is to fly....where a G.U.M.P.P.S. check really only needs to be an "S." check since all the others are non-existent or already taken care of for you! Despite its simplicity, it is a rock-solid IFR machine and can get you where you need to go pretty comfortably....not always quickly, but comfortably!
Next week we're doing a very similar trip (KFCM-KDVL-KBIS-KDVL-KFCM) for another graduation and wedding, but this time we'll take the Cherokee Six. I can report back on that one if anyone's interested.
I've attached a few pics.
I learned in a 172 Hawk XP 35 years ago, but haven't taken one on a cross-country flight in over 30 years. I have to admit, I'm impressed by this later iteration. Fit and finish is very good...just getting rid of the Royalite was a major step up in the look and feel category! It's a nice airplane.
A few highlights from a weekend of flying:
-Weather from KFCM to KJKJ looked potentially troublesome, but turned out to be nothing more than some light showers with good visibility all the way so we flew VFR down low. Strong winds gave us a good push, averaging around 135+ knots.
-After dropping my wife and dog off with the in-laws, I took off for D09 to pick up my son from the camp where he's working this summer on his college break. The weather started going to crap about half way, so made an unscheduled stop at KDVL to sort things out. Winds were out of the southeast at 19G29 so started to setup for Rwy 12 when I noticed a bright light on the runway. I thought someone was taxiing out, but as I got closer saw the big, lighted "X"!! Switched to Rwy 03 which provided a nice 90 deg. x-wind which pretty much consumed all of the 172's control inputs. Even after touchdown you could feel her wanting to weather-vane. I kept the engine running while I got an update on the weather, filed an IFR flight plan to D09 and picked up my clearance. On takeoff I held her on the runway til 65 or so then made a quick transition to flight and we were off and climbing back into the soup.
-In the soup from 500' upward, I proceeded NW. Minot approach cleared me direct VATTY on the RNAV (GPS) Rwy 13 approach into D09 which was right at minimums for the straight in...but after breaking out and seeing the winds hadn't abated I circled for 12 and landed in light rain and the same gusty conditions.
-Met my son, refueled, filed IFR to KFAR, then put him in the left seat to get some instrument time. We were solid IMC by 400' and for the next two hours we slogged our way through the rain against the wind. He did an admirable job flying, although admitted it was a bit scary for the first five minutes or so. We shot the ILS 18 into KFAR, breaking out about two miles from the runway. Visibility was good below the cloud deck so we cancelled IFR and scooted back over to KJKJ (where fuel is $1.41 less per gallon! I'm cheap!)
-Saturday I watched a system of thunderstorms building in central ND all day. After our event I called and spoke to a briefer who painted an extremely grim picture and said there was no way we'd be able to make this flight tonight, even IFR. We seriously debated doing a 10 hour round trip drive by car to get him back, but after watching the weather on my iPad for another hour it was obvious the heavy stuff was not pushing that far north, so we decided to head out. We flew 1.5 hrs. in excellent VFR conditions with more than ten miles visibility all the way. Go figure. I'm thankful for all the weather tools we have at our disposal these days.
-Filed IFR for the D09 to KFAR trip so I could go higher and get to lighter winds. Spent almost two hours IMC, then another ILS 18 approach, with the sidestep over to KJKJ after breaking out. Same gusty winds, but pretty much straight down the runway. Tied her down and called it a night.
-Sunday, filed IFR again so we could go higher for better winds on the way home. They weren't much better, so we spent another two hours in the soggy grey stuff, looking at ground speeds I haven't seen on a family trip in years! I think we averaged about 88 kts for the trip home! Such is life.
All in all, an enjoyable trip on a holiday weekend where travel by car would have been an agonizing nightmare with road construction delays everywhere. I got to introduce my son to the 172 for the first time, plus got him some IMC time. And it was fun for me to remember just how amazingly simple an aircraft the Cessna 172 is to fly....where a G.U.M.P.P.S. check really only needs to be an "S." check since all the others are non-existent or already taken care of for you! Despite its simplicity, it is a rock-solid IFR machine and can get you where you need to go pretty comfortably....not always quickly, but comfortably!
Next week we're doing a very similar trip (KFCM-KDVL-KBIS-KDVL-KFCM) for another graduation and wedding, but this time we'll take the Cherokee Six. I can report back on that one if anyone's interested.
I've attached a few pics.
