EdFred
Taxi to Parking
Two o'clock in the afternoon arrived upon me at the office. The phones had been pretty dead all day, just like they usually are on Fridays before a holiday Weekend, and my sister just arrived back from errands. So, I shut down the computer hopped in the truck, and motored on down to Hastings. Called Flight Service on the way down to get a weather briefing for the flight. Clouds were over the southern half of the lower peninsula, but north of Muskegon it was clear for the rest of the entire state. After getting off the phone with FSS, I called Adam to rub it in that we were going to have perfect weather all weekend, while he got to enjoy lots of rain.
I talked to Jim out at the airport about some local issues, which are really issues, just changes really, and then filled up both tanks in one-two-romeo, and climbed in. Sort of a busy day at niner delta niner as I was number three to depart on 12. The 430 was programmed, the laptop was plugged into the 340 panel, and I had some tunage already playing for takeoff.
I rolled out onto 12, pushed the throttle level forward (reason number 4,379 that Pipers with the Quadrant are better than any high wings) and watched the VSI show 1700 fpm on climbout. I love this cooler weather! Climbed up over the class C of Grand Rapids, tuned in 121.5 for monitoring purposes and headed direct to six yankee niner. The laptop was playing Bob Seger as I cruised over Ludington and saw the sand dunes give way to the blue of Lake Michigan. There was a littler chatter on guard, as it sounded like someone somewhere needed some help, but I could only hear the ATC half of the conversation, and after a short while Bob Seger was back in the headset.
After crossing the lake (oh, the horror!) I continued at eight thousand five hundred with my ten knot tailwind until I was over Perch Lake - my descent point into Prickett-Grooms. The throttle came out, and I slowly lost the six thousand feet I needed to for the pattern. I cirlcled the town once and decided to land on 10. Left turn to final, full flaps, and a touchdown just past the threshold. I didn't bother using any brakes, just for fun, and rolled out to just around idle speed before running out of runway. A slight tap on the brakes, and a bit of throttle to turn around, and the flight was done.
The family was already out four wheeling, so I grabbed my bottle of Cherry Coke and walked over to the cabin to grab a vehicle. Just as I walked into the yard, my family pulls in on the ATVs and we head back over to pick up my stuff. Once back at the field, I inspected what has been done since I was last up there. The usable takeoff area has been extended three hundred and fifty feet since the reopening, and an additional four hundred and fifty feet has since been prepped for further runway extension.
A little after we got the fire going and finished dinner that evening, I hear a Cessna call 15 miles southwest, and can see a landing light in the twilight. Jesse is on his way inbound, and touched down just about nine o clock. Sunset was 8:37, so he can give you the low down, on how easy, or uneasy, it is to land in there after the sun goes down. We hauled him and his gear back to the bunkhouse, tossed some hot dogs on the fire for him, and sat around the campfire shooting the breeze.
Saturday, Jesse and I grabbed some breakfast at Mom's Kitchen, hit the trails on the fourwheelers, and vegged out while waiting for Kent to arrive. Kent came in just after dinner again, and performed his now signature dear clearing approach in the 182, and made a much better landing this time, leaving himself a lot more runway. After feeding him, and settling in, I led the group out for a night trail ride on the ATVs. Watch out for the stumps! Being in the lead I didn't see a tree stump just off the trail, and hit it, spraining my thumb. When the hands leave the handlebars and the thumb does not, that's not a good thing. We got back, spent the night around the campfire and then called it a night.
Sunday, before Kent left we prepped and tested the flour bombs for the Michigan Air Tour next weekend, and then he was on his way. Jesse and I did some formation flying, (don't tell Ron!) and got a few good pictures of my plane from the air. The rest of the day was just a lazy day, and I spent a good chunk of it napping, and reading through the PTS and Oral Exam guide for the CFI ride.
Monday, I saw Jesse off in his Cessna, where he 'promoted GA' in Marquette, and I went back to the cabin and napped some more. I left about two-thirty or so and headed off to Iron Mountain for a weather check and fuel. The weather looked good back home, and I decided to climb up to 11,500 and take it easy on the way home, while cruising on top of the clouds. I pulled the power to idle just south of Grand Rapids, and dead sticked it (well, with idle power) perfect onto runway 30 without having to add any power, or make any pitch changes from 11,500. Made the first turn off with no effort, killed the radios, and shut down the plane.
Good times. See you all there next year! (the runway will be AT LEAST 2600 by then, possibly 2900.)
Edited for AdamZ.
I talked to Jim out at the airport about some local issues, which are really issues, just changes really, and then filled up both tanks in one-two-romeo, and climbed in. Sort of a busy day at niner delta niner as I was number three to depart on 12. The 430 was programmed, the laptop was plugged into the 340 panel, and I had some tunage already playing for takeoff.
I rolled out onto 12, pushed the throttle level forward (reason number 4,379 that Pipers with the Quadrant are better than any high wings) and watched the VSI show 1700 fpm on climbout. I love this cooler weather! Climbed up over the class C of Grand Rapids, tuned in 121.5 for monitoring purposes and headed direct to six yankee niner. The laptop was playing Bob Seger as I cruised over Ludington and saw the sand dunes give way to the blue of Lake Michigan. There was a littler chatter on guard, as it sounded like someone somewhere needed some help, but I could only hear the ATC half of the conversation, and after a short while Bob Seger was back in the headset.
After crossing the lake (oh, the horror!) I continued at eight thousand five hundred with my ten knot tailwind until I was over Perch Lake - my descent point into Prickett-Grooms. The throttle came out, and I slowly lost the six thousand feet I needed to for the pattern. I cirlcled the town once and decided to land on 10. Left turn to final, full flaps, and a touchdown just past the threshold. I didn't bother using any brakes, just for fun, and rolled out to just around idle speed before running out of runway. A slight tap on the brakes, and a bit of throttle to turn around, and the flight was done.
The family was already out four wheeling, so I grabbed my bottle of Cherry Coke and walked over to the cabin to grab a vehicle. Just as I walked into the yard, my family pulls in on the ATVs and we head back over to pick up my stuff. Once back at the field, I inspected what has been done since I was last up there. The usable takeoff area has been extended three hundred and fifty feet since the reopening, and an additional four hundred and fifty feet has since been prepped for further runway extension.
A little after we got the fire going and finished dinner that evening, I hear a Cessna call 15 miles southwest, and can see a landing light in the twilight. Jesse is on his way inbound, and touched down just about nine o clock. Sunset was 8:37, so he can give you the low down, on how easy, or uneasy, it is to land in there after the sun goes down. We hauled him and his gear back to the bunkhouse, tossed some hot dogs on the fire for him, and sat around the campfire shooting the breeze.
Saturday, Jesse and I grabbed some breakfast at Mom's Kitchen, hit the trails on the fourwheelers, and vegged out while waiting for Kent to arrive. Kent came in just after dinner again, and performed his now signature dear clearing approach in the 182, and made a much better landing this time, leaving himself a lot more runway. After feeding him, and settling in, I led the group out for a night trail ride on the ATVs. Watch out for the stumps! Being in the lead I didn't see a tree stump just off the trail, and hit it, spraining my thumb. When the hands leave the handlebars and the thumb does not, that's not a good thing. We got back, spent the night around the campfire and then called it a night.
Sunday, before Kent left we prepped and tested the flour bombs for the Michigan Air Tour next weekend, and then he was on his way. Jesse and I did some formation flying, (don't tell Ron!) and got a few good pictures of my plane from the air. The rest of the day was just a lazy day, and I spent a good chunk of it napping, and reading through the PTS and Oral Exam guide for the CFI ride.
Monday, I saw Jesse off in his Cessna, where he 'promoted GA' in Marquette, and I went back to the cabin and napped some more. I left about two-thirty or so and headed off to Iron Mountain for a weather check and fuel. The weather looked good back home, and I decided to climb up to 11,500 and take it easy on the way home, while cruising on top of the clouds. I pulled the power to idle just south of Grand Rapids, and dead sticked it (well, with idle power) perfect onto runway 30 without having to add any power, or make any pitch changes from 11,500. Made the first turn off with no effort, killed the radios, and shut down the plane.
Good times. See you all there next year! (the runway will be AT LEAST 2600 by then, possibly 2900.)
Edited for AdamZ.
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. Glad you had a good time! We got to sit and get doused by Ernesto.
And flying a really slow approach, while it makes for a kind of scary flare, really does work. 
