Today was a perfect morning for the long dual cross country. The route: KPTK to KBAX to Y31 to KPTK. At each airport we would make a full stop landing.
Why complex? Well, N73455 was in the shop for its hundred hour inspection, so I got to log some complex time in the Cessna Cutlass C-172RG.
This time after the preflight and chipping all the ice off the wings, I got to adjust the constant speed propeller, raise and lower the gear and everything under Will's supervision.
Flying up to Bad Axe was beautiful. Wind calm and some nice clouds above and at 6,500 feet you had excellent visibility.
You know you're near Bad Axe when you can see the windmill farms.
We landed on Runway 17 at Bad Axe, taxied back and then took off.
From Bad Axe, we flew over Saginaw Bay at 6,500 feet to Y31, West Branch airport. The bay was nice and iced over.
We crossed the bay and then landed at West Branch with no problems, and again did a back taxi, this time on Runway 9.
Here's the view of West Branch Airport's hangers from the Alpha taxiway by runway 9. It's a small airport and was a nice spot to land.
On the way back from West Branch the overcast layer had lowered so instead of flying at 5,500 we flew at 3,500. We passed by Bay City.
Hey, What's that down there at the docks by Bay City?
It's the USS Edson, DD-946, a Forrest Sherman class destroyer. One of the ships of DESRON 23, the Famed Squadron first named "The Little Beavers" in World War 2. The ship has an honorable history with service in the Vietnam War. USS Edson was the last all-gun destroyer in the US Navy. Now a museum ship, I'm going to need to go visit her more closely someday soon. Neat the stuff you can see from above.
3.0 hours and 3 landings and a total of 261 nautical miles for a great long cross country flight.
Here's a recording of the flight route from Foreflight:
3 comments:
The RG flies like a while different plane, doesn't it? Nice shots of the Edison, but you're too high! Get down there and get some close-ups, darn it.
Yep, the RG is pretty sweet. A lot more back-pressure is needed on takeoff, then you have to quickly get the nose down but she moves a fair bit nicer than a stock 172 once she's up. The constant speed prop is quite neat to operate.
The pics are not bad for an iPhone hastily pulled out when I saw her. We didn't have time to loiter or get lower unfortunately, had to stick with the program. Once I'm certified and time is my own though, and I've got my quality camera with me....
The Edson might have been the last all gun destroyer in commission. But one of my ships, the USS Turner Joy, DD-951 was the last gunship built. The TJ was mostly assigned to DesRon 13.
It is a museum ship although it is in Bremerton Washington.
They were good ships with a 1200 psi steam plant that complicated everything.
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