Confinement V - The Flight Home

We said our goodbyes and headed to the airport form the con on Sunday.

Mr. B had the plane fueled up, and was properly chagrined that the Lebanon Airport charged a parking fee in addition to the fuel, when most airports waive that fee if you buy fuel there.

So we filed for a return trip to Pontiac, untied the plane, and did the run up.

We then had to get the clearance by phone and once received we then took off.

We climbed right up into the soup, which caused a little vertigo on Mr B's part, but he quickly shook it off and it was smooth after that.  We got out of the layer and it was a smooth and sunny ride above the clouds. I got to handle changing the frequencies on the radios as we moved through various sectors.

The layer then broke up as we went farther north cruising along at 9,000 feet. We had ground speeds in excess of 200 knits with a decent tailwind so the return trip would be quicker than the way to Tennessee.

We passed by Toledo, Ohio's airport:

Then at Ann Arbor, we passed by their airport:

 

We also hit a bit of light to moderate chop, and as we flew past the city the Big House was still quite a landmark.

We then headed to Pontiac and I got the ATIS so we could tell Detroit Approach we had it before they even asked (they appreciate that) and we setup for the RNAV approach for 9L.

This was Mr. B's first time landing on the 9 side at Pontiac, and I spotted the airport first, being more familiar with the area. Conditions were solid VFR at this point. 

 

But, while the visibility was VFR, The winds were whipping along with a gusting crosswind, but Mr. B. flew the approach right on, and did a fine landing even with the extra fun of the additional bumps caused by the lake on the approach path to the 9 side.

We then taxi'd to the terminal and as we waited for fuel, we saw a luxury Saudi PrivatAir 737-800 land.

To say that it's luxurious inside is an understatement.  

After the refueling was complete, I got my stuff together and headed home and Mr. B. flew back to his home.

It had been a memorable and very fun weekend and the flying with Mr. B. made it even more fantastic. We'll need to do more trips together soon.

Confinement V

The Con was pretty neat. Since it was my first time at such a con I didn't quite know what to expect. Confinement is a smaller convention and seems to draw a crowd of friendly and welcoming sci-fi/fantasy fans, and they're some pretty smart and erudite people, too.

There was a well-stocked hospitality room where there were plenty of snacks, beverages of all sorts, and lots of flowing conversation. This was where we also got to see some of Mad Mike's fun items he had brought along, which was much fun. The man has good taste in fun things.

The main conference room held a variety of speakers on multiple topics, everything from the Silurian hypothesis, to firearms in books, to advice to writers.

Then there was the vendor room, with authors aplenty cheerfully selling their books and interacting with their current fans, and those who might become fans.

Some of the best conversations however were unstructured and happened to take place in the lounge by the entrance to the hotel. 

This included a fun multi-topic wandering chat with an actual, no kidding, rocket scientist.

A propulsion engineer for NASA to be exact.

He also came to the Con with a working Tesla Coil gun for extra geekery.

You don't see that very often, or get to hear from a real rocket scientist either.

Daddybear of Daddybears Den, along with his son, was also present at the con and it was good to chat with him again and catch up after far too long. Good people.

I did purchase a book that had one of his stories in it (as well as many by other authors I know) and he kindly autographed it.

Saints of Malta

I then did kinda go on a bit of a book-buying spree.  After all, it's good to support authors of your tribe, and they're right there after all.  They cheerfully tell you about the story in the books, which piques your interest.  You then give them green pieces of paper and you then get books to read in the bargain. It's a good deal.

Pack Dynamics

   

Theft of Fire

Standing the Final Watch 

Salvage Title

A Reluctant Druid

Blood and Jade - I actually purchased this one in the hospitality room chatting with the author on completely unrelated subjects.  Very nice fellow.

In short if you like sci-fi, urban fantasy or fantasy there was an author there with a book for you and they're worth checking out the books above. 

All the authors were fun to meet and I look forward to getting through this new pile of books I have.

Mr. B's Plane was not quite out of weight and balance on our departure due to all the books, but it was a close-run thing (not really).

The Con was a very fun time, and we said our goodbyes and headed back to the airport on Sunday in the late morning.

To Confinement V

On Friday, I rose early, did some work that has to happen at the beginning of every month, loaded my bags in the car, and headed top Pontiac Airport.

Mr. B flew in from Indiana to pick me up and we were off to Confinement V.

Organized by Michael Z. Williamson, it was my first sci fi/fantasy con. I had heard about it from him when I met him up here in Michgian and he said I ought to come check it out, so I decided to do so and Mr. B. agreed to come along.

I parked and met Mr. B at the terminal on the south side of the airport (my hangar is on the north side but you're not supposed to leave your car out there long term) and headed out to the plane. I loaded my bags and we got some additional fuel for the trip.

Then, we got in his beautiful Cessna 340 and I got in the co-pilot's seat on the right, plugged in my headset, got out my IPad.  The flight plan was filed and we got our clearance, did the run up, and headed south. We climbed to 3,000, then 10,000 and finally to 14,000.

We were in and out of IMC during the way there.

We would go from above the layer, to in the layer, to getting a bit of ice, then be in a layer horizontally but with the sun right above us to melt the ice off.

It was a nice smooth flight almost the entire way down.

Then in Tennessee, the weather started deteriorating and our destination, M54 in Lebanon, TN started getting below minimums.  Their ASOS kept reporting lower and lower visibility.

So we decided to divert to Nashville but still kept the M54 ASOS available.

As were got on the ILS to fly into Nashville, it lifted just enough at M54 to try the approach.

So we gave it a try.

Mr. B. had the plane on the approach needles like it was on rails.  I mean perfect.

The runway came out right in front of the plane.

 Darn nice flying on Mr. B's part.

A great landing, and were were down, did a taxi to the FBO and shut the plane down.

We then got an Uber to the con hotel, well we thought it was the con hotel, but Uber app sent us to the wrong hotel initially, so I had to grab another.

This was sort of fortuitous as we then got to meet this Uber Dog.

I mean, due to the mix-up, we got to pet a very friendly good dog as part of the trip to the con.  Worth it.

Checked in at the Hotel, put our stuff in our room and we had arrived at my first con.