Flying - Thanksgiving Morning Flight To Jackson

So this morning the weather was finally favorable for a flight. Weather briefing indicated no problems.

So I checked out N8570F and did the preflight and started her up.

Winds were a bit of a crosswind from the left at 200 degrees at 6 knots but was not a problem and the clouds were finally high enough for safe VFR flight. For all that, it was still a rather overcast day but the overcast was up high enough.

Pontiac airport was pretty quiet so I got permission to takeoff and a west departure, a good takeoff and off I headed to the west.

Dawn over the lakes was nice, with still a bit of fall color in the trees.

The view of the sun off the right wing was rather pretty.

They're already making snow at Mt. Brighton.

Brighton airfield was surrounded by fall colors.

I arrived at Jackson just behind a Bonanza and the cheerful controller happily issued me a straight in approach to Runway 25 to land. Very nice guy and the landing was pretty decent.

I had planned to stop at the restaurant on the field for a bite of breakfast but as I landed the Bonanza let the tower know it was closed, so I decided to just do a taxi back and depart. No problems and it was a nice takeoff and I headed back.

No aerial visit to Jackson is complete without seeing the State Prison. Per NOTAM, I did not fly nor loiter directly over it.

On the way back from Jackson I practiced some slow flight, stalls, and steep turns as it had been awhile since I had done those.

I had a nice 17 knot tailwind on my return so I was making about 137 knots which was darn nice.

I passed by the GM proving grounds on the way back.

The cloud layer was at 5,000 and dropped to 4,500 so I remained at 3,500 all the way back to Pontiac.

12 miles out from Pontiac at 3,500 feet I had picked up the ATIS and was about to call the tower, and they were busy conversing with a Citation. Before I could get a word in Tower notified the Citation he had VFR traffic to his north at 3,500 - guess who?

He then asked if the traffic was on the frequency and I then immediately replied that I was and got to state my tail number, altitude, direction, and I had the ATIS.

Tower had me stay at 3,500 and line up for a left pattern to 27L and I saw the Citation overtake me to my low left. No issue and Tower then set me up for a right pattern to 27R and it was a nice smooth transition and nice landing.

A nice cross country flight of 1.5 hours and 2 landings.

Now I'm home and about to begin preparing for the feast and cookin' the bird.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!