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9/3/06 Long Solo IFR XC and a Citation Ride - I took off from my home airport at 6:50 a.m. just as the sun was rising. I ferried a Cessna 172 to its owner in Springfield, Illinois on a long solo trip. The plane had autopilot and a Garmin GNS530, which made the flight easy. The weather wasn't totally cooperative, though, so I veered to the west near the Quad Cities before heading back east toward Springfield. It was an IFR trip and I had to do an instrument approach through solid clouds into Springfield. If the clouds would have been much lower I wouldn't have been able to go. When I got there, there was a seat reserved for me in a Cessna Citation III business jet with only one other passenger on board. The pilots let me kneel behind their seats most of the time and watch what was going on. That was awesome! I had never flown in a business jet before. We cruised at 33,000 feet and about 460 knots. It took us only 50 minutes to get to Green Bay with a headwind. It had taken me 2.9 hours to get down there.
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9/6/06 "New Airplane Today?" - Ahhh... finally I flew something with retractable gear again. I flew the Piper Arrow for the first time today on a quick flight to go pick up a 172. Greg, one of the CAVU instructors, showed me the ropes. We filed IFR and went through some clouds on the way to Oshkosh from Green Bay. When I checked in with Chicago Center on the radio, I said, "Cess-- I mean Arrow 2293M, level at 3,000." The controller said, "Arrow 2293M, new airplane today?" I laughed back and said, "Yep!" I did a good landing in Oshkosh and am looking forward to finishing a checkout in this model. I liked it. When Greg passed me on the way back to Green Bay going 20 knots faster than me, then I decided I really liked it!
9/15/06 Forget the $100 Hamburger. How about Prime Rib? - I made it to Central County Airport for their usual Friday lunch, only this time the meal was special: prime rib was on the menu. Airplanes flocked in from all over the place. I arrived from Green Bay. It was the busiest Friday fly-in/drive-in lunch I have seen at Iola. The line was long but the juicy slab of beef was worth the wait and the extra two dollars tacked onto the regular weekly price. Mmm mmm. I flew in solo but carried a passenger to Brennand Airport where I left the airplane. |
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