Flying - To The Air Zoo!

I had the day all to myself so I decided after taking car of the dogs to take flight.

I had never gone to the Kalmazoo Air Zoo at KAZO, so I decided to fly there today.

Wind was kinda gusty and strong from 040 so I took off in the Archer (Dakota was booked by someone else for the weekend) from Runway 9L and headed on my way.

I got flight following which was helpful as there was parachute jumping activity and glider activity that I was routed around, which was rather nice.

Climbed to 6,500, and with a nice tailwind was doing 123 knots ground speed.

Overflew Battle Creek on the way.  Need to stop there soon as the food at the restaurant there is supposed to be amazing, and the WACO aircraft factory is there.

Then coming in to Kalamazoo, I got to choose if I wanted Rwy 5, the shorter Runway or Runway 35, the longer one with a major crosswind.  Since the wind was blowing 040-050, Runway 5 was the right choice for me.

So, I entered the right downwind for it and then made a very nice landing. The wind remained gusty but kindly settled on 050 right during my landing which made it rather nice indeed.

Then Kalamazoo Ground most helpfully gave me progressive taxi to the museum airplane parking area.

You can see the flag whipping in the wind.

I then parked in the visitor area.

One other plane, another Piper Archer, was there when I got there so I parked nicely beside it.

And then I headed into the Museum.

Pilots and their passengers get their own entrance into the museum, at the restoration area, and then I get a shuttle to the main museum.  We also get to sign in with our plane info as well and get a sticker badge with our N-number on it to wear to show we flew in (and probably to find us if they need us to move the planes around I suppose).   I had a great chat with one of the docents on the way to the main museum, and then paid my entrance fee and went in then off to explore.

That's 1.3, 1.3 cross-country, and 1 rather nice landing.