Labor Day Flight To Jackson

Got up this morning and headed out to the airport.

First of the month, so as the Flying Club Secretary, I did the first of the month tasks at the hangars such as retrieving all the fuel receipts, getting the log pages from August form each aircraft and transferring the Hobbs time, Tach time, and the Time before Next Oil Change to the September pages so all was in order for the month.

The I had to wait for fuel as one of our more special members hadn't refueled the plane last night after flying it and had been late this morning to call for fuel.

Then I had to reprogram the radios as the same special member had decided to use COM 2 instead of COM 1 and of course flip flopped all the frequencies.

 Then with the preflight complete, I got my taxi clearance, did the run up, and was on my way to the southwest.

 Beautiful day to fly.

Not a cloud in the sky, and the tiniest of crosswinds.

Keeping the power in I was soon cruise climbing at 114 knots and 121 knots ground speed.

 

Leveled off at 6,500 feet, and was heading to Jackson at 130 knots ground speed which isn't bad for an Archer at all.

Arrived at Jackson rather quickly, and entered the downwind for Runway 7.

I had a nice pattern going and then the tower wanted me to make a tighter base turn for traffic and keep it going into a final, which I did. But this meant I was a tad high on final and had a lot of speed to burn up as a result.  A very nice if both a high descent angle and high speed long landing. 

There in .7 from engine start at Pontiac to shut down on the ramp by the restaurant in Jackson. Not too shabby.

I then met Mr. B., who had arrived before me and saw my high angle of approach and my long landing. There's always an audience when it is less than perfect.

We had a good breakfast and even better conversation.  

The restaurant at Jackson is under new ownership and instead of The Apron is now known at Taildraggers - but the same favorites such as the Pilot's Omelette are still on the menu, the staff is much the same and it is still a great place to go.

After breakfast, we walked around a bit and then headed back to our respective aircraft to get them ready to depart. 

We started up and headed out at the same time and I followed Mr. B. on the  taxi to the runway and we both did our run-ups and took off in sequence.  He departed to the West, and I flew to the East.  

Again I made good time back to Pontiac.  A few clouds and some minor bumps but nothing serious and just another lovely flying day. 

The GM Proving Ground in Milford makes for both a great landmark and a great potential emergency landing location.

I soon had Pontiac Airport in sight and they had me cross over the departure end to the north and then enter the downwind for Runway 27R.

 

 I then entered the right downwind and got landing clearance and did a good landing with 0.8 from startup at Jackson to shutdown at the hangar.

It was a great time to get out and meet up with Mr. B.

That's 1.5 and 2 very nice landings.

Tuesday Fly Day - Ferry Flight To Adrian

Today after some work I left the office and headed to the airport. 

The club needed the Archer ferried to Adrian as the avionics shop had stated they were finally ready for us and had booked us to arrive today. I was originally going to fly with James, but he had a last-minute issue so I had to herd cats and find another pilot in the club to do the ferry flight. Scott was available in the afternoon, but not the early morning before work as I would have preferred,  but beggar ferry pilots can;t be choosers, so we made it happen. this afternoon.

So I flew the Dakota down, and Scott flew the Archer. We both got flight following and headed off to the southwest.

A beautiful day, but since it was the afternoon, it was rather bumpy.

Cruising in the Dakota at about 140 knots ground speed was pretty nice.

 Overflew Ann Arbor and kept clear of Detroit's Bravo airspace.

I then did a practice RNAV 23 approach visually using the autopilot in to Adrian and went to the avionics shop.

Scott in the slower Archer soon arrived and we dropped the Archer off at the shop.

We then piled back in the Dakota, and I flew us back, again getting flight following and requesting an approach in at Pontiac.

While remaining outside the Bravo, we could see Detroit Metro Airport:

As we got closer to DTW, they had me descend from 5,500 to 4,500 to be under their corridor.

I then put the foggles on and flew on instruments.  Since I had a safety pilot, might as well get in an approach that counts for currency.

We did the RNAV 27L starting at KUHNA, and it worked quite nicely, and I flew a good approach.  Scott didn't even scream once. A very nice landing which he appreciated, and that was our ferry flight. Cleaned off the bugs and we were all set.

So, we will see if Lucy will again yank away the football or if we actually get the autopilot installed this time.

That's 1.6 for free as it was a club flight, which is always the best kind of flying time. 2 nice landings, and 1 instrument approach.

Archer Ferry Flight Accomplished!

So this morning we decided to try and get the Archer to Adrian.

Conditions were better than yesterday with Marginal VFR conditions and ceilings around 3,000 or so.

So we preflighted the planes and decided to launch.  This would be a flight of both the Archer and the Dakota.

We arranged for flight following, as our course would take us through Ann Arbor airspace and rather close to Detroit's Bravo airspace. So, it's always good to be talking with Detroit Approach where you're that close to their Bravo.

E. flying the Dakota, as it is a faster airplane, took off first and would scout the route.

Takeoff was good with gusty winds from 250.

The overcast layer got a tad lower as we headed southwest, and I was soon at 2,500 feet.

E.  reported light to moderate turbulence as he approached Ann Arbor, and indeed I soon hit the turbulence which made it a bit of a bouncy flight.

Detroit Approach cleared us through Ann Arbor's Delta airspace and I got some nice shots of The Big House as I flew on by.

 

 

  Yes, the Big House is Big!

The turbulence subsided as we got south of Ann Arbor and Detroit Approach  noted no other aircraft in the area, ended flight following, and had us squawk VFR.

At Adrian, winds were gusting 10-21 out of 250, so not bad for a landing on Runway 23.

Eric checked out the field at Adrian and radioed to me that it was nice and clean and no one else in the pattern.  So I did a practice RNAV approach to Runway 23 and did a very nice and smooth landing.  I then taxi'd off the runway and headed to the avionics shop to meet up with him.

1.1 on the way there with some strong headwinds, turbulence, and a great landing.

We dropped off the Archer, and then took off in the Dakota and I flew us back. We picked up flight following again, and again were cleared through Ann Arbor's class D.

I got to play with the autopilot and let it do most of the flying back. Again there was quite a bit of turbulence and we got bounced around quite a bit and had to stay around 2,500 to remain out of the clouds.

We then got back to Pontiac and landed in gusting 10-22 knots from 240, which again was not too bad.  First we were cleared for a left downwind to 27L, but this was soon amended to a left downwind for 27R.

0.6 on the way back, and another nice landing.

Best part of all, since these were ferry flights to get the avionics installed, the Flying Club covered the cost of the flights.  No flying is better than free flying.

Clean-The-Planes Day

This morning was the twice-yearly aircraft Wash-n-Wax.

The weather was absolutely perfect for it.

Scrubbed the planes down, took them to the wash stand and covered them in soap.

Then we brought them back to the hangar, dried them off and waxed them, and  buffed them to a shine.
 

Probably picked up a few knots in speed and dropped a few pounds worth of grime each.

Given the nice weather, both planes were reserved and took off shortly after being cleaned.

Great turnout of club members, so we were done by 11 a.m.