Wow! What a beautiful day to fly!
My son has been after me for the last two months to take him flying, but between training and bad weather, we haven't gotten to go. This weekend was looking like another bust. Earlier in the week the weather guessers have been calling for rain all weekend. But as the weekend approached, the forecast for Sunday kept improving. It turned out to be one of the best days in the air that I can remember.
I had scheduled the Arrow for 8:30 - 11:00, because it was booked the rest of the day. Since last night was the time change for Daylight Saving Time, we lost an hour this morning, so it was like getting up at 6:00 to make it to the airport by 8:15 (7:15) so we could get rolling by 8:30. We'll, neither the boy or I managed to move very quickly, so we didn't get to the airport until 8:30. But that was about the only negative to the day.
The plane was in the hangar which is a five minute walk from the FBO, so by the time we finished preflighting and doing our run-up, it was already 9:00. That made things a little tight to make the 45 minute flight to Urbana (I74) (we had a headwind), eat breakfast, and get back by 11:00, but I wasn't too worried about it: worst case is that we skip breakfast.
Take-off and climb out was smooth as glass. Visibility was better than 10 miles (probably better than 15). I dialed in the Hook Field NDB (HKF) and got nothing. Uh oh. I tried several other nearby beacons and nothing. Hmmm... Guess we're flying by pilotage. Even the LORAN didn't want to give us anything. Not the end of the world. With crystal clear skies and not even the tiniest little bump, I didn't care.
So I pulled out the map and picked out some landmarks to get me around Dayton's Class C and turned the plane northeast. After passing Middletown (MWO) I could pick out Dayton Wright Brothers (MGY) almost immediately. Once we passed MGY, we picked up Greene County (I19) and then Springfield (SGH). We picked up Springfield about the time we were flying over Xenia, which was when the LORAN and ADF started working. Maybe the aviation gods were testing me to see if I could still navigate on the fly with just the map.
From Springfield, it's almost a straight shot north to Urbana and Sunday morning brunch. Checking my watch, I saw it was already 9:30. We had an hour and a half to finish the flight to Urbana, eat breakfast, and fly back. It was still tight, but it was too nice of a morning to worry about that.
About 15 miles out I dialed in to Urbana's AWOS. Wind calm. OK, I dialed up Unicom and before I could ask for an airport advisory to get the active, I heard two other planes in the pattern for runway 20. OK, they're using 20 and it's busy.
I like it when Urbana is using 20. From the south, it's a quick 45 to the downwind and when leaving, you just have to make a small turn after departure to head home. Their old runway (now the main taxiway) didn't seem to work out as nicely for whatever reason.
Anyway, we landed and shutdown at 9:50. Now we're cutting it *really* tight. Michael wanted to put the chocks in, so he grabbed them from the baggage compartment and proceed to run around the wing and smash the side of his head into the wing tip. Obviously he didn't believe me when I told him not to run around the plane because he might get hurt. There was no serious injury, just some tears, but maybe next time he'll listen to me. Yeah, right.
It didn't hurt his appetite any, however. He had two big pancakes and finished them before I could finish my eggs and sausage. He even read the menu and ordered on his own. He's growing up way too fast.
We managed to get through breakfast quickly enough to get airborne by 10:30. There was still no wind, but the active runway was now 02. That adds a few minutes to our trip back, but the bigger problem was all the traffic. As we taxied out there was one plane on final, another on downwind, another called in from two miles north and another from 8 miles north. We got out after the second plane landed, but now there was another plane that looked like it was going into the downwind, but at the last second turned left (across the departure end of 02). Then I realized that he was avoiding a plane that just entered downwind. So as we're rolling, we have one plane just entering downwind on our left and another doing a 180 turn to crosswind on our right. The joys of the first perfect flying day of the spring.
As soon as I hit 500 feet, I turned west to get clear of the traffic pattern and leave the madness behind. Turning south we settled in to enjoy the perfectly smooth flight. Since we were running late, I bumped it up a little bit. With the tailwind, we reached a ground speed of 150kts. We were going to be late, but only by a few minutes.
For the flight back we took a more direct route, since the LORAN was working. That helped make up some time, but not enough. About 11:00 we were just passing Warren County (I68), but it's only about five minutes from there to Butler County. I had tuned in the ASOS when we were over Caesar Creek, but the winds were still calm. While we were gone, they started using runway 11, which cut out a few minutes since we could fly directly into the downwind on a 45 degree approach instead of having to fly past the airport and turn around.
In the downwind we felt our first bumps of the day. Just a couple of little tiny bumps that on any other day we wouldn't have even noticed. An easy approach and landing, taxi to the ramp and shutdown. We were 10 minutes late. I felt bad because I know what it's like to have the plane you are flying come back late and cut into your time, but then I found out the guy flying it next was still waiting on his instructor to finish up with his previous student, so no harm done.
Incidentally, that was my first flight in the Arrow without an instructor... Actually, it was my first flight all year that wasn't a training flight. I guess that's what happens when you try to get three certificates and ratings in three months.
