What's the craziest "after work and back" trip you do?

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mvgossman

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mvgossman
I routinely fly from STC to MDW (2.5 hours and 201nm each way) after work just for fun, dinner, museums etc. which means a return home by 2am. So I'm crazy but just wondering what RT flights others are doing "after work in time to be home same day" (or wee hours next day)

Mitch
 
Myrtle Beach, RDU, Wilmington, Charlotte International...
 
Interesting. I live about 15 minutes flight time from STC but I've never flown into MDW. Which FBO do you use at MDW and how do you get from the airport to say...the Shedd Aquarium or other museums, restaurants, and attractions?
 
3U7 Benchmark MT. have to get out around dusk, the departure is not something I want to do VFR at night.
 
Once or twice a week I commute by air. With pre-flights, tie-downs, and getting a ride to the office on the other end, time-wise it's about a wash, but it sure beats sitting in traffic for two hours on I-880.
 
MSPAviator said:
Interesting. I live about 15 minutes flight time from STC but I've never flown into MDW. Which FBO do you use at MDW and how do you get from the airport to say...the Shedd Aquarium or other museums, restaurants, and attractions?
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I use Signature, they're very nice. Yes fuel is high but top off at your airport, get a topoff there or whatever minimum is (I top off just to be courteous) and they will waive all fees and hand you the keys to one of their Lincolns which is what I generally do. I took the Chicago "L" train one time, and they will drive you to the station, but slow, crowded, and much DNA transferring and limited by schedules. Take the car!

Would like to land at Meigs but that's a discussion for another lynching/thread.
 
mvgossman said:
Oops, MDW is 201 from where I sit... Read it wrong, 350 about right.
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By the way, a trip from Chicago to STP or SGS for a visit to the Mall of America sounds like a good evening trip for Chicagoans. Or even MSP, you could quite literally walk from there albeit $xx lighter with the fees. STP prob best, short drive in their Jaguar crew car.

Mitch
 
I've been known to fly to Chibougamau and back after work.

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I've been tempted to do Wichita just to see Tony and Leah again (and have 'em meet the Mrs. who is the nice half of our little family... Ha!) and maybe get a peek at those gliders.

But haven't done it.

There just aren't a whole heck of a lot of places worth going within a reasonable time range of Denver in one evening.

Wichita is pushing it. Mountains west at night? Not smart. Santa Fe? Maybe if WX isn't squirrelly. Wyoming? Nothing. Western Kansas? Nada. Western Nebraska? Empty.

Ideas welcome. I'd do an evening fly-out. Not much going on in Goodland, KS at 7PM. ;)
 
denverpilot said:
I've been tempted to do Wichita just to see Tony and Leah again (and have 'em meet the Mrs. who is the nice half of our little family... Ha!) and maybe get a peek at those gliders.

But haven't done it.

There just aren't a whole heck of a lot of places worth going within a reasonable time range of Denver in one evening.

Wichita is pushing it. Mountains west at night? Not smart. Santa Fe? Maybe if WX isn't squirrelly. Wyoming? Nothing. Western Kansas? Nada. Western Nebraska? Empty.

Ideas welcome. I'd do an evening fly-out. Not much going on in Goodland, KS at 7PM. ;)
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How about northwest Wyoming? Looking at the sectional, there are some MEFs out there that are scary to a Plains flyer but if it is flyable that might be a round trip worth doing?
 
If I'm getting home at 2am, I ain't making it into work the next morning. Out and backs during the work week, an hour each way max.
 
Well about the only thing that comes to mind is LuLu's in Gulf Shores, but at 13 minutes each way it's not much of a flight.

I would love to head over to KNEW for dinner in New Orleans one evening though.
 
mvgossman said:
How about northwest Wyoming? Looking at the sectional, there are some MEFs out there that are scary to a Plains flyer but if it is flyable that might be a round trip worth doing?
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After work? At night? Nope. Not just nope, but **** nope. No reason to go there...
 
Clark1961 said:
After work? At night? Nope. Not just nope, but **** nope. No reason to go there...
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Agreed. No reason to go there in daylight most of the time either.

There's just crazy petroleum engineers working up there sometimes is all. Ha. ;) (Pointing at Clark... while he's not looking...)

Out and back in an hour? Heck. You can't even go to Pueblo and back in that amount of time around here. I don't think the restaraunt stays open that late.

We still roll up the sidewalks around midnight in this big cow town on weeknights.

The Wichita thing... that'd be a "leave work early and still get home really really late trip" in the Skylane. Almost 3 hours one-way.

A good trip for "let's play hookey at noon" perhaps.

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mvgossman said:
I routinely fly from STC to MDW (2.5 hours and 201nm each way) after work just for fun, dinner, museums etc. which means a return home by 2am. So I'm crazy but just wondering what RT flights others are doing "after work in time to be home same day" (or wee hours next day)

Mitch
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I used to fly dates from SoCal to SF to have dinner at Masa's where a buddy was one of the chefs.:D
 
I used to leave in the house at 4:00 a.m. and come back around 2:00 a.m. for one of my trips. I could have gotten back home earlier, but I'm not a big sleeper and it never bothered me for the few times a year I did it.
 
Every now and then I have had a pressing reason to fly several hundred miles, returning at 2:00-4:00am. I have also been known to fly around the area at that hour just for fun but that was decades ago.
Right now I recall flying kmrf-kfmn return (sw texas to four corners, NM - 450nm) for someone who had a death in family return through mountains in showers (St Elmos!) at an ungodly hour. Then returning from houston to drop off patient at 2am. Occasionally like that is fun but I don't think I could be a freightdog.
 
I used to fly KSTP to Voyager Village for dinner on spur of the moment times, but that's about it on school (work) nights. That is also the very trip I made when I had my first breakdown.

Now I fly X35 to KFXE for work, which is 2 hrs flying vs. 5 hours driving.
 
CMTowner said:
I used to fly KSTP to Voyager Village for dinner on spur of the moment times, but that's about it on school (work) nights. That is also the very trip I made when I had my first breakdown.

Now I fly X35 to KFXE for work, which is 2 hrs flying vs. 5 hours driving.
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Never heard of it til now. Runway right there, golf, dining... Thanks for the tip!
 
:(I left work and stopped for a bite to eat. This well built 25y/o waitress noticed my AOPA sticker on the back of my new BMW. She asked what that was? I lowered my $500 Rayban Aviator glasses and said am a pilot. I just finished my Shift at the hospital. I had done 11 heart surgeries today and came here to unwind. She brought me my food and made small talk while I ate. She brought me my bill and a paid with my platinum Amex. She winked and asked if I wanted any desert and said she had always wanted to fly in a real airplane and was about to get off work in 10 min. We drove to the airport and I called ahead and told the line boy to pull out prep and preflight my Cirrus. We took off and I told the tower we were headed to the north practice area to do maneuvers when she objected that she would prefer I went south.:hairraise: I could bearly get the plane level at 5280ft when I felt a shudder in the airframe and all went quiet. We landed shortly there after and she caught a cab home. I knew I should have asked her name.
The next morning I woke up fresh as a daisy. Feeling fine. I got in my 74 pinto drove to work. After I punched out at autozone I went to the airport to take my 2nd lesson in an old beat up 150. :yikes:
That,s my story and I am sticking to it........:goofy:
 
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I was doing a ride along with another pilot getting an IPC. We went from Dulles up to Wilmington DE, had dinner at ATC, then went to TEB for an approach and back. We got back around 2AM.

A similar ride was IAD to DMW (for dinner) and then around to GAI for some approaches when we lots the electrics and I had to negotiate back into IAD with a dying handheld
 
Clark1961 said:
After work? At night? Nope. Not just nope, but **** nope. No reason to go there...
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A bit of explanation: I left Wyoming very early one morning. I immediately noticed the sky was black and the mountains were a slightly darker shade of black. It definitely keeps you focused when ya can't see what you might bump into.
 
Just getting to work is about seven thousand miles, so the only not-going-to-work traveling I want to do when I'm home is a drive to in-and-out burger.
 
Clark1961 said:
A bit of explanation: I left Wyoming very early one morning. I immediately noticed the sky was black and the mountains were a slightly darker shade of black. It definitely keeps you focused when ya can't see what you might bump into.
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Yep, SVT is a wonderful thing at night.;)
 
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