A Good Ruck With Eaton Rapids Joe

After the range I drove out to Kensington Metropark to meet up with Eaton Rapids Joe, who was coming from the other direction.

Met at the Nature Center, got our packs on, and headed out on the trail.

It was a beautiful fall day to get some rucking in.

 

We walked the trails, chatting and catching up as we did so. ERJ told me about how things are going on the farm, which is always interesting to learn about. Many more topics were discussed and much laughter was had as we moved down the trail.

Along the way, there were some Sandhill Cranes wandering about.

ERJ noted they are often called the Ribeye of the Sky. This sounds quite culinarily interesting. These ones, however, were not on any menu.

We rucked for an hour and 18 minutes, for a total distance of 2.98 miles.  So, we got some exercise in, which is a good thing. The trail was overall pretty moderate in grade and condition, so it wasn't bad. I only rolled my ankle on a hidden rock once, doing an impressive hop and skip performance to regain my footing and prevent from falling.

It was a darn good ruck, as rucking with a friend is better than rucking alone, and it was good to meet up with ERJ yet again.  He also got me some locally sourced organic wood for my smoker from his farm, which I highly appreciate.

We will need to meet up and do this again. 

Saturday Fly Day

So yesterday I had planned to depart Pontiac at 9:15, in order to meet Mr. B. and Eaton Rapids Joe at Jackson for a breakfast get together.

I arrived early at the airport, entered the hangar and the lights would not turn on.   Strange.

More importantly, the hangar door would not open either.  Not good.

It turns out that all the hangars on the north side of the field had no power and maintenance was coming by with a generator to open hangars in the order that calls were received.

So, I had plently of time to preflight the aircraft with the man door open for light, and to even wax the leading edges of the plane wings, cowling and stabilator using a wax suggested by Mr. B. to make bug removal easier on my return.   Turns out it's not just good stuff, but fantastic stuff, great for your car, too.

9:15 was clearly not going to happen, so I waited patiently, got everything ready to go, and finally at around 10:10 they came by and I was able to open the hangar door, pull the plane out, close the hangar door and get on my way. I already had the ATIS for Pontiac and got moving in very short order.

I was finally airborne at 10:20. Clearly not going to arrive at the planned 10 am time.

I got flight following from Detroit from a very helpful and friendly controller and who helped me and a jet keep separation routed around some glider activity which was helpful.

See the jet in the picture? We had been on a much closer and converging course before he carefully adjusted our flight paths.  This is why flight following pays off.

Running at 130 knots indicated and 146 knots ground speed,  or a lovely 168 miles per hour, I got to Jackson in good time, and arrived to hear Mr. B's callsign on the radio.

The airport was pretty busy and the controller was doing a great job of coordinating aircraft coming in from all sides.

I was setup to land on Runway 7 and Mr. B was slotted in right behind me.  He courteously let the tower know he'd do his best not to collide with me, being a friend and all that. This was comforting.

I landed, coming in with a bit too much speed trying to move along and keep separation, so it wasn't the best landing, but I got off the runway quickly and headed to the terminal parking area, and Mr. B followed right behind.

We met up with Eaton Rapids Joe and had a great breakfast and conversation.  Always good to see them both.

Then I and Mr. B. both took off, I back to Pontiac, and he to Mr. B. Land.  We took off after a cheerful departure from Jackson Tower - the controllers there are really great folks.

I then got flight following from Great Lakes Approach that lasted for some traffic advisories for just the immediate Jackson area, and they held me at 3,500 feet to avoid traffic for a bit, and then they dumped me as VFR with no further radar services.    No handoff to Detroit or anything.  Great Lakes must have been busy with IFR services and were dumping  their VFR traffic (VFR flight following is a as available service - and  a very useful one for everyone's safety but it is as controller workload permits) as they did it to a few other planes. 

I then came into Pontiac VFR, was given a downwind entry to 27L and did a darn nice landing.

Thankfully, power had been fully restored by my return and all was well.

The bugs came off a lot easier after the wax application and I saved a fair bit of time cleaning the plane. 

It was a  gorgeous day for flying, and a very good time having a great breakfast with two real great people.

That's 1.4 and 2 landings.

A Great Blogger Fly In

A great day today flying to meet a great bunch of people.

 I flew from Pontiac to KFPK, Charlotte airport, with Mr. B of In The Middle of The Right blog flying in as well.

I had Tosh as a passenger, his first time in a small plane.

Winds were pretty light at 6 knots out of 300 which wasn't bad. The cloud layer was low and MVFR earlier in the day and bu the time we left at 11 am it was scattered at around 3,500-4,000 feet.  It was spaced apart in solid lines of clouds followed by completely blue lines of clear sky like waves and you could climb above the cloud wave,  and then drop down behind it through a ton of clear sky and surf up again staying out of the clouds the whole time.  We did that for a bit and then stayed low so Tosh could sight see.  I could see the ground the whole time so it wasn't VFR on top, it was still VFR but with lines of clouds every now and then.

Besides there were some great fall colors to see.

At Charlotte, the clouds were lower at around 3,000 and the wind kept shifting.  Still about 6 knots, but one moment it favored Runway 21, the next Runway 3.   I decided to land on Runway 3 and the wind stayed there long enough to make it a nice easy landing.

Awaiting us on the tarmac was Scott of Providentia, Scott's dad the Sargent, and Joe of Eaton Rapids Joe.

Mr. B landed ion short order right behind us.

Then we headed off to lunch all together and talked for a few hours, catching up, and on the important matters of the day.  

An excellent time with a really great bunch of conversationalists.  A very smart and experienced bunch and the time just flew by.

Mr. B. generously picked up the tab, so we all chipped in the equivalent of our meals as tips for the waitress, hopefully making her day, as the restaurant was pretty quiet.  I'm getting the next one.

Then we headed back to the airport and preflighted and did our run-ups and got ready to head out.  The Clouds were still pretty low.

As I left the parking area, the AWOS report the wind was favoring Runway 21 as did the wind sock, so I started to taxi to 21.  Of course then wind shifted in completely the opposite direction, so I had to taxi back to Runway 3.  Not a big deal, but a good decision that didn't take too much time to carry out.

So with low clouds were flew back at around 2,500 feet.  There was a bit of light chop and bouncing around, but Tosh took it with aplomb and enjoyed himself flying, and at 118 knots we made good time back.

Pontiac tower first set me up for Runway 27L but then knowing I park on the north side, had me cross the departure corridor and then enter the right downwind for 27R. I did a normal downwind leg.

Then, we had to do a quick tight base due to traffic, so I came in a bit higher and faster speed than usual as it wasn't the usual downwind to start the descent so there was a bit of float and I landed a bit longer than usual,  but it was a sweet, soft touchdown.  I do like to keep my passengers happy with my landings.

Then taxi back to the hangar and put the plane away.

A great time was had with some absolutely great people.

1.8 and two excellent landings and another happy first time small airplane passenger.