8/1/07 Leg 1 of the Sky Arrow's Return to Atlanta - The guys at Hansen Air Group surprised me by asking if I could ferry the Sky Arrow back to Atlanta. I hadn't planned on this because I thought they had someone else in mind. But I said yes, and today was the first leg of the trip. I decided to bring my 17-year-old student Chris along. He is very close to finishing his private pilot training and is looking for a career in aviation, and I knew he would benefit from this long cross-country experience. Today I wanted to depart in the afternoon and make it to Bloomington, IN for the night. But the strong westerly wind kept us grounded until evening, and we only made it to Kankakee, IL. It was almost a three-hour nonstop flight around the west side of Chicago's airspace and then on to Kankakee. I had Chris fly the entire time from the front seat. It was getting dark when we landed and we saw the lights of the county fair near the airport.

8/2/07 Leg 2 and a Crazy Coincidence - The weather across the midwest and south this week was shaping up to be nothing but hazy, hot, and humid. This morning we couldn't leave Kankakee when we wanted because we had to wait for the visibility to improve from IFR. Once it went VFR, even though it was only four miles at the time, we were outta there. We used a different runway than we wanted because a crop duster was spraying another area of the airport. The air was smooth as silk and we stayed low as we flew across the farm country of Indiana. Visibility improved to maybe 10 or 15 miles for a while, then deteriorated again. As we got closer to Bloomington it was only five miles. Still, Chris did an excellent job navigating using a sectional chart. Occasionally I helped out with some information from my GPS, which I had in the back seat with me. Chris flew while I listened to my iPod and enjoyed the scenery.

We were about 15 minutes away from landing in Bloomington when I though I heard a familiar N-number over the radio. It was a Navion with a callsign ending with "Kilo." Gee, I swore I had heard that before... was that Charles Stites' plane that he showed me in Oshkosh? The voice seemed to fit, and I knew Charles liked stopping at this place. Still, I thought he must have gone home to North Carolina days ago. After we landed and taxied to the ramp, I saw that it was indeed Charles' plane! The line worker told me that Charles and his wife were over in the on-airport house and planned to spend the night. Soon those two were back out on the ramp giving me a hug and laughing about what a coincidence this was. I hadn't talked to them in at least five days and here we landed within 15 minutes of each other.

This turned out to be a very good thing. We knew that storms would brew up to our south in the afternoon. If Chris and I would have pressed on, we would have inevitably gotten stuck somewhere short of our destination and would have had to spend a bunch of money on a hotel again. Rather than risk it, I chose to stay with Charles and Sue overnight in Bloomington. I can't overemphasize how nice and convenient this airport house is... If you ever need to stop somewhere, BMG Aviation in Bloomington is the place to be. The price they charge for the house is more than reasonable... downright cheap. I was very happy to be stuck somewhere with people I knew, with access to a courtesy car and food etc. rather than somewhere unfamiliar. Chris and I went to lunch together then all four of us went to dinner together later.

The Navion and Sky Arrow

The Sky Arrow tied down in front of a hazy sunset

In the evening after everyone else was either in bed or on their way to it, I was sitting outside on the deck talking on the phone, and got treated to quite the airshow. A military C-130 did something like five or ten approaches and touch-and-goes on the airport. It was hazy and foggy, so the plane's landing lights made eerie beams of light.

We made it about halfway to where we need to go. Just 323 nautical miles and some small mountains to cross. We've flown 4 1/2 hours total so far.

8/3/07 Leg 3, Atlanta or Bust - Since it's Friday and Chris and I both wanted to be home for the weekend, today it was go-go-go and push hard to get to our destination of Kennesaw, GA in the northern suburbs of Atlanta, where I trained and picked up the plane in June. We woke up to a frustrating foggy morning. It was already oppressively warm and humid even at 7 or 8 o'clock. Forecasts for the south had high temperatures in the mid 90's with heat indices in the 100's. I wanted to get going early, but we just couldn't... it was IFR.

We left Bloomington sometime around 10:00, I think, at the same time as Charles and Sue with their Navion. Visibility was again a skimpy five or so miles. At least the air was still very smooth even at this hour. The terrain from Bloomington south is drastically different than it is to the north. It becomes much more hilly and forested with fewer landmarks to navigate by. I can say for sure that if I would not have had a GPS or some other form of radio navigation, I would not have wanted to make this flight. We flew a little over two hours "through the soup," flying across Kentucky and then into Tennessee. The day's thermals finally started kicking in when we were almost to Upper Cumberland airport near Sparta, TN. The last few minutes of the flight were pretty bumpy. Small cumulus clouds were starting to form in the haze. They were a little thicker to the south. I practically melted as I fueled the plane with the self-serve pump. There were heat waves rising off the black pavement. It was 90 degrees with a heat index probably around 100. Flying was fine... our air vents kept us comfortable, but when we had to stop and walk around, it was pretty unbearable. Welcome to the south!

Now that it was the early afternoon and cumulus clouds were forming, I worried that storms would pop up again. The forecast wasn't like yesterday's though. Rather than a lot of storms everywhere, it seemed that today would bring just a few isolated storms. I hoped to climb above the cumulus clouds on the next leg of the flight and hopefully be able to see better in clearer air. That would keep us away from any storms.

Well that proved to be an idea that would work much better in Wisconsin than Tennessee. Chris and I took off and climbed up through the cloud layer. We were on top at 5,500 feet. Visibility was slightly better up there -- enough for me to see that there were higher clouds ahead. So we climbed up to 7,500 to get over the next ridge of clouds. After that, there were MUCH higher ones still, and I knew we wouldn't be able to get over those. They also looked somewhat nasty like something that would produce a downpour or a thunderstorm. It was hard to tell. So we decided to descend back down through the clouds and divert to a different airport along the route, Dayton, TN. Half an hour into our flight, we crossed over a big ridge and down into the river valley to land. The heat on the ground was sweltering.

Now I wasn't sure what to do. We couldn't go above the clouds, and it was turbulent under them. Would it start to storm? Storms were in the afternoon forecast for Chattanooga, to our southwest. The radar didn't show anything and local weather reports had the cloud celings up at least 3,000 feet above ground. I really didn't want to sit around here. So Chris and I took off again and decided we would follow a highway south toward Atlanta. There were a few other airports along the way where we could stop in case the weather got bad. It would only be about an hour to Kennesaw.

We put up with the thermal turbulence and pressed on, passing a 4,200-foot mountain off to our left as we crossed into Georgia. I was glad that in my 50-ish hours of flying the Sky Arrow, I had gotten pretty used to how it behaves in turbulence and don't feel sick so easily. Chris was not faring as well. We ended up having to take a last-minute diversion to Cartersville, GA even though it was only a few more miles to Kennesaw. I took over for the landing. Chris made it without getting sick but needed to take a break for a while in their air conditioned FBO. We had sodas and some popcorn before taking off again.

For the last hop, which I knew would be my last flight in the Sky Arrow for the indefinite future, we switched seats. I sat in front and flew the plane. Until now, Chris had done all the flying except our last landing. I made the final 14-mile flight into Kennesaw, which was comfortably familiar to me as if I had just seen it a few days ago. Our 9.1-hour trip came to a close in the late afternoon.

Jon Hansen of Hansen Air Group drove us to the Atlanta airport. Our van broke down on the way, and it took a while to get picked up. Then it took at least an hour to get our tickets and go through security. We almost ran to our gate, but upon reaching it we realized our flight was delayed (thankfully). This gave us time for dinner. We made it to Appleton at around 10:30 at night. It felt good to be home after a challenging cross-country! I learned about weather in the south, including how a dark shadow of a cloud in the haze can look like rain and how you're not going to make it over those cumulus clouds! Chris and I made a great team and overall it was a fun experience.

8/5/07 Wisconsin Northwoods Flight - Kent flew up to Minocqua yesterday to join my family and I on vacation. Today before he left, I gave him an instrument proficiency check in the Cessna 182. For a while the weather was actual IFR around the area so we went into some clouds. My uncle's girlfriend rode along and enjoyed the scenery with the clouds and sunset.

Above the clouds over northwoods lakes

Verna Lake, near the Lakeland Airport (ARV) where we were staying

8/19/07 A Guest "Appearance" on the CFIcast - Rick Durden, host of the CFIcast podcast, invited me to be part of the show's recording tonight. This episode's topic is training students with disabilities and other learning challenges. I talked about my experience with Able Flight. The CFIcast is a spinoff of the Pilotcast. Look for the episode to become available on their web site, www.pilotcast.com.

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