Ferry Flight Return

We got a call that the work had been done. So again Eric and I volunteered to go to Flint and bring the planed back.

It was a beautiful day for a short ferry flight to bring the planes back to Pontiac after getting some avionic improvements in Flint.

All the work was done including protected avionic master switches to prevent pilots from inadvertently turning it off in rough air as the switch is close to the GPS screen and two pilots did manage to hit the switch so we wanted to prevent that from happening again.

Fall colors look great from the air.

Entered the downwind to 27R and then made a great crosswind landing.

A nice quick flight followed by a great landing.

Dawn Maintenance Flight

A quick flight this morning to take the planes to the Avionics shop in Flint to get some work done.

Got to the airport while it was still dark, did the preflight on the Archer and Eric came out and did his preflight on the Dakota.

 By the time the preflight was complete, dawn was breaking and it was a beautiful morning to fly.  Dawn was good as the landing light on the Archer is currently INOP pending a replacement, so it would have sucked to land without it. 

Winds were calm, with some light mist at ground level.

Took off and headed to Flint VFR.

Talked to Great Lakes Approach once out of Pontiac's airspace, got the squawk code and  was first told to enter a downwind for Runway 18.

This then got changed to enter a base turn Runway 27 - oh, and to watch out for the mower at the end of the runway.

There was still a good layer of mist at Flint so making out the airport from the sky was harder than it should have been,  as the runways and environs were all covered looked fuzzy and hard to see, but I found it and I got lined up on the runway nicely and did a nice approach. Yes there was indeed a mowing machine right at the runway arrival end.  I then did a well-nigh perfect landing.

Taxi'd to the avionics shop and shut down the plane, met up with Eric and the avionics guy and went over the issues to be addressed, and then we got a ride back to Pontiac from Eric's wife who had driven up in her truck.

As usual, driving is more dangerous than flying. We almost got sideswiped by an idiot in the left lane who decided to try and merge into the side of the truck. Then once warned off by the horn, the driver then proceeded to have his right tires over the line for a couple miles and still not get out of the left lane. 

With any luck, the avionics will be updated in a couple days and we will have to pick them up and return them to Pontiac.

That 0.5 and a truly excellent landing and a great way to start a day.

The Return From Toronto

As usual, you file a flight plan to depart Toronto Island Airport, it gets accepted, and then it gets changed when you ask for your clearance.

I had asked for a simple plan that had been approved before - Depart direct DERLO and from DERLO to Port Huron. 

Nope.  Instead I got the PERL4.08 Departure, to ANCOL, to DERLO, To MARGN and then Port Huron.  The controller first mistakenly said White plains airport and I asked that be clarified and she changed it to Port Huron so that was good at least.

MARGN is past Port Huron, but that was the required plan. 

Why Port Huron? Because Customs and Border Patrol is not open at Oakland County airport on the weekends, but Port Huron is Open 24/7 assuming you file the requisite paperwork and make the proper arrival intention call, which I had.

So I did the run up and got in line for departure and was soon off and on my way.

Again, very nice weather but windy with a good gusting crosswind on takeoff and very much during the initial climbout. 

Got put over the Lake Again, climbing to 3,000.  Got turned out farther into the lake and climbed up to 4,000 then 6,000 and finally 8,000 as I was then told to turn direct to ANCOL.

I then flew the route and got handed through the Toronto Control frequencies and then handed over  to Selfridge ANGB before the Border.

Selfridge then changed my plan to have me go direct to Port Huron which was great, and the controller was very much on the ball, and descended me perfectly, in plenty of time to be on track to get to pattern altitude at Port Huron. 

I had already picked up the automated weather, which was reporting a shifting and gusting crosswind that would wander near the heading for Runway, 4 so Runway 4 it was.

Selfridge had me descend to 2,500 and once I had the airport in sight, and then had me switch to the CTAF.  I listened for traffic, made my calls, crossed over the airport and then dropped down into the downwind for Runway 4 and made a darn nice pattern and  excellent landing. My first landing at Port Huron.

I then taxi'd over to the CBP building, cancelled my IFR flight plan with Selfridge,  got out and cleared customs. The officers were very friendly and made it a very easy experience with no issues.

I then went back to the plane, taxi'd back to the runway, did the runup and departed heading for Pontiac. I contacted Selfridge and requested VFR flight following as the weather was nice and clear and they obliged, alerting me to a ton of traffic around Romeo.  I stayed above it at 4,500 feet.

I then got passed to Detroit Approach and requested the RNAV 27L approach as the setting sun was right in my eyes, making the approach almost IFR-light and making it hard to see the airport, much less the runway.

Using the RNAV approach guidance it5 was easy to be on a proper glidepath and I was able to make yet another very nice landing.

Then taxi'd back to the hangar and that was then end of a very nice weekend trip. Using Poet Huron makes a weekend trip to Toronto and back a lot more doable and convenient, which is great.

That's a 1.7 and a .6 flight, and 2 great landings.

The Toronto Weekend Trip

On Friday, I prepped the Archer and then left Pontiac and headed to Toronto.

After all the necessary filings, I got my clearance and took off. 

Flying IFR,  Detroit Approach had me fly north for awhile and climbed me up to 7,000 as filed, and then got me heading east to Toronto.

 Weather was nice and the air was very smooth. Had a 9-knot headwind .

Got passed over to Selfridge ANGB Approach, and crossed the Border right by the Blue Water Bridge as usual.

 Then I got passed off to Toronto Control and after various frequency changes got to Toronto Approach.

The new GPS was fantastic, making changing frequencies and entering the route and route changes en route very easy.

The approach for Toronto Island Airport  was all sorts of busy. 

I was number 5 in sequence and got held over the water for awhile, and was  being assigned a continuously declining altitude to stay under Toronto airport's traffic.

So at 3,000 feet, I was way out over Lake Ontario/Lake America:

After holding for awhile, that felt longer than it was,  I was then in sequence for the Runway 8 RNAV Zulu approach and was told to keep my speed all the way up and stay at 2,500 until the Final Approach Fix due to traffic.

This led to a chop and drop at the FAF, but I got it in and made a very nice landing, shedding speed and altitude as much as I could at the same time. After landing I was then told to keep my speed up on the runway, run it to the end and taxi off, while staying with Tower the while way.

That was fine and I got to the FBO, shut down, notified Canada Customs of my arrival and got my clearance number. I then could get out of the airplane and get things handled.

 On the way into the FBO there was an aircraft with a most suitable tail number:

 

 A little pilot humor there.

After checking in with the FBO and asking for the plane to be fueled up, I headed into town.

Then I met up with family, celebrated a relative's 90th birthday at a very nice party, and headed back yesterday evening with a different return procedure that I had not used before. 

That was 2.2 and 1 very nice landing. 

A Nice Day For An Instrument Currency Flight

Flying like shooting. It is a perishable skill. Instrument flying even more so.

Instrument currency can also be a pain to maintain as it is like herding cats to find a safety pilot sometimes, and you need a safety pilot for those practice approaches to count.

So I got up early this morning and headed to the airport to meet Scott who I had convinced to be my safety pilot.

It was a beautiful sunny day to fly, if a tad windy, with gusting winds at 10 knots from 100 degrees.

 After the preflight and adding some oil, we got ready to go.

I got flight following and let then tower know I would be doing practice approaches and they got me all setup.

A nice takeoff and tower had me initially turn on course for Flint and then changed their mind and had me go due north for traffic, and then handed me over to Detroit Approach, who almost immediately handed me over to Great Lakes Approach. 

This led to lots of good practice switching frequencies quickly with the new Garmin 650XI GPS unit.  We have just replaced the 23-year-old GPS 430Ws units that were in the planes with nice new 650XIs.

We went from this:

 to this:

 

 

Some serious improvements in 23 years, including a touchscreen, better integration with the autopilot, much easier entry of Arrival and Departure Procedures and T-Routes, and a much more intuitive process -- that does take some training and study to get used to and take advantage of to use it safely.

I had studied and used a simulator of 650XI, and had used it for a VFR flight, and this would be my first time using it for IFR approaches. 

So we headed to Flint and I put the foggles on, and we started doing approaches. Unfortunately Flint's main runway is closed so no ILS approaches were available, and it would be an RNAV day.

The first approach quite frankly sucked. 

The controller dumped us to join the approach right on top of the Final Approach Fix for the RNAV 36 at 3,500 feet and it was chop, drop, and try to get on glideslope and glidepath time.  The plan was to make it a missed approach even if it was good. This one truly was not and was blown from the start and was missed pretty much as soon as it began.

Went missed, climbed out, got a little bouncy at 2,500 feet in light chop from the wind shifting all around, and tried again and had a much better result.  The controller had us vectored in from a much more doable distance from the final approach fix rather than past it.

Then tried it with the 650 and Autopilot flying the vectors and then the approach to the final approach fix and that went well as I manually adjusted the altitude as we reached the waypoints.  Then hand flew it in the rest of the way. Then did it one more time.

After that it was back to Pontiac for two more approaches. 

The last approach I hand flew and was right on track on the glidepath and glideslope both, even with the crosswind. Landed it like butter and it was a great finish to some very focused practice, and I'm now instrument current again.

That's 1.9, 6 approaches, and 1 great landing. 

Birthday And Flight Review

Yep, made another full cycle around the sun today.

 For my birthday, I gifted myself a flight review, as that was now due (you need to have one every two years). Kind of a mandatory gift, that.

Got to the airport and had the preflight done when Brian the instructor pulled up. 

Wind was blowing from 190 around 11 knots so there would be some decent cross-wind technique practice during the review.

We went over stuff on the ground as a refresher and then got in the plane.

I took off and headed for Linden as it was a close by un-towered field.

Completely buggered up the initial approach, and decided to do a go-around, and then redid it and then did a decent landing. I was flying too high and fast on final, which is a bad habit of mine, so we decided to break that habit, 

Linden did have a surprise for us on that landing - Sandhill cranes - which are rather large birds, and they decided they wanted to hang around the runway. Since hitting a Sandhill on final or takeoff can really wreck your day, we decided to head back and finish at Ponitac after doing some air-work. Landed on Runway 27 and one just walked across as we landed much fun.

So we then trolled the runway revving the engine trying to get the Sandhills to move, and they at least got off the runway and stayed off it long enough for me to do a short field takeoff to get up before we passed the point where they were hanging out.

Did a good short field takeoff from Runway 9 and up we went.

Then we worked on slow flight and stalls, and I did two good power off stalls and recoveries. More importantly, I really really worked on slow flight, using pitch and power to climb and descend, while keeping the airspeed right locked on at 60 knots which does help your landings quite a bit.

Then we headed back to Pontiac, and got some pattern work in.

The slow flight practice certainly helped, and I did three good touch and goes and then a solid final landing. 

That's 1.5, 5 landings, and a flight review done.

Now off to a birthday celebratory dinner. 

4 Up. 4 Down.

Today the weather was VFR with a TFR coming in to shut down the airspace at noon.

So I got up early and headed to the airport.

 

 

Misty and scattered/broken above 2,000, but still VFR for pattern work.

So I did the preflight checks, including making sure I could access the runway from the taxiway as they have had the main drag torn up all summer.  

Thankfully the construction is now up-runway of our hangar row so it was easy to get to the run-up area and runway, and no need to taxi the plane on the service drive.

All checks were good, as was the run up, and soon I was up in the air again.

I did touch and goes, as if you landed long for a full stop, you got a very long taxi around to avoid the construction.

With two other aircraft wrapping up as I took off, I soon had 27R all to myself as business jets and King Airs took off and landed from 27L. A very light wind of 6 knots from 240 degrees made for a beautiful day to fly.

For the first one, I did a great takeoff, a solid pattern and then a good landing.  Having not flown since May, I was a little rusty.

Landing two was better, as was landing three.  Touch and goes were fun as always. Landing 4, a full stop was perfect and landed with plenty of room to get off the runway at my hangar row without having to take the construction detour route. The number of landings matched the number of takeoffs, so all was well.

Got the plane parked, washed the bugs off, played with the new Garmin GTN650 navigation system that was just installed on the aircraft for a bit, and done. Beat the TFR closure by plenty of hours and already at work.

That's 0.5 and 4 good to great landings.

Flying: Knocking Off The Winter Rust

This morning was a perfect day to get up and fly.  Winds calm, sun bright and sky totally clear below 7,000 with only a few clouds above that.

I did the preflight and all was good.  First time flying the Archer since it got a new engine.

The Archer started up immediately and it climbed into the sky like a homesick angel.

For the first pattern I had to do a go around as the prior aircraft to me did a bomber pattern and then decided to take their sweet time departing the runway.

So I got a nice go round in to stay sharp.

 I then did 5 landings with three full stop and two touch-and -goes as most aircraft in the pattern were doing full stops, so Tower couldn't fit in my touch-and-goes in the traffic flow.

Lots of aircraft were flying this morning.

Landings were good and got better as I got more landings in. 

So, I'm now current for carrying passengers, now on to throwing a safety pilot in the right seat and getting my IFR rating back in currency.

That's 0.8 and 5 landings. 

Back From T.O.

So the visit concluded, I got ready to return homeward.

Weather forecast was good, all electronic border crossing stuff was done, and I went to the Island.

I checked out of the FBO, did the pre-flight and got ready to depart.

I had the more complicated departure procedure with transition and arrival procedure already filed as I figured they would give it to me anyways, so might as well. 

They did.

So I did the run up and took off from Runway 26 and began the departure procedure, turning south over the Lake as I did so climbing to 2,000 feet which isn;t a lot when you're over the Big Lake.

 

However, Toronto Center soon climbed me higher and I was first cleared to 3,000 then 4,000 and finally up to 6,000.

The problem was a cloud layer that decided to be right at my flight level.

 The problem is this batch of clouds had an attitude problem. In that they liked to try and change my aircraft's attitude.

Yep, I was soon in IMC.

 

I would then be in and out of IMC for most of the flight, getting some light precip in the clouds and experiencing everything from mostly light chop to moderate chop, on  to moderate turbulence and one episode of severe turbulence which was not fun as it put the nose up at a very high angle and my airspeed started rapidly dropping into stall territory until it let up.

Trying to cloimb out didn;t help, I climbed up to 8,000 and was free for a bit but then a set of clouds from 10,000-5,000 feet loomed ahead.  so it was in and out of IMC for most of the flight.

On top of that, beverage selection was quite limited.

 Today's lunch was either a protein shake or the protein shake, so I chose the protein shake.  It was extra shaken from the turbulence as well.

Finally by the border the clouds lifted enough so 6,000 was just under the worst of it.

 A nice easy handoff to Selfridge ANGB controllers and across the border I went.

Then I got the ATIS at Pontiac and was handed off to Detroit Approach.

 Detroit Approach then had to give me some delay vectors as everybody had chosen to arrive at Pontiac just as I was coming in qnd he needed to create spacing to handle all the planes coming in.

The controller at Detroit Approach did an impressive job perfectly sequencing all the traffic in for landing with excellent separation and I was soon doing a visual straight in approach to 27L, which I backed up with an RNAV approach for practice as well.

I landed with a great landing, very nice and smooth and where I wanted to land.  I went to Customs, got cleared, and then taxi'd to the north side of the airport and shut down and took care of the plane.

That's 2.6 hours with .5 bouncing around in IMC, and a great landing. 

Saturday Flyday

 It was a beautiful day Friday when I headed to the airport after filing my flight plan and other required electronic paperwork, placed the required and recommended calls, and got ready to go.

I would be flying the Archer for this trip as the Dakota was down for maintenance. 

Soon, I was holding short of Runway 27R awaiting takeoff clearance.

 

I soon took off IFR, flying runway heading and climbing to 3,000, then Detroit Approach directed me to climb to 4,000, then turn due north and climb to 5,000.

Then I was turned on course and instructed to climb to my filed altitude of 7,000.  A fair bit of haze but it was a smooth flight and a beautiful day.

Handed off to Selfridge Air National Guard's friendly controllers, I soon crossed the border by Port Huron, flying by the Blue Water Bridge, which had a fair amount of traffic, and began talking with Toronto Control.

 

 

I then flew by Sarnia's airport.

 Then over the city of London.

Toronto Center, as I got closer to my destination then amended my flight plan by having me go past it to an initial waypoint for the localizer approach for Runway 26, way over the lake rather then direct to Toronto Island Airport.  I was then told to expect the visual approach from there and they started descending me down to 3,000 feet.

They gradually moved me closer to the shoreline, which I appreciated.

Soon I had the airport in sight and was heading for the downwind to Runway 26, maintaining 3,000 feet as instructed until I was passed over to Toronto Island Tower and had to start descending rapidly to pattern altitude.

 

It was a great view.

Then onto the downwind and an even better view of the skyline 

Turned a tight base  and made a great final approach - with speed and altitude just right, I came in for a great smooth landing. I let it roll a bit and was then off on Foxtrot taxiway and went to Stolport FBO.  I then got to play dodgeplane as  planes were coming out of the ramp as I was coming in on the same line on the ramp.

The Airport was hopping with an event where they were doing airplane rides etc, wiht lots of people wandering around, which accounted for why they had routed me a bit far over the lake towards the localizer and then had me come down quick and tightly enter for the landing.   All good.  I then made my Canada Customs arrival call and got my entry number. Then I got the plane all checked in at Stolport and then headed to the city.

That's 2.0 and one fantastic and scenic landing. 

Flyday Sunday - Off To Marshall

Sunday morning I slept in until 8 am to recover from the night before,  I  then checked the weather and it was was rather good for flying.

 So I let Mr. B. know we were good to go for the fly to lunch plan.

We decided to go somewhere we had not met up before and chose KRMY, Marshall, Michigan.

So I did the preflight, got VFR flight following, and was up in the air just after 11 am.

 

On takeoff, Pontiac Tower had me turn directly south for traffic and once out of the airspace contact Detroit Approach. I did so and continued climbing up to 4,500 feet.

Beautiful clear skies and only a single scattered cloud layer. There was a headwind that got stronger the higher you went, so 4,500 was a decent altitude to pick heading out.

The same cloud layer kept getting thicker and lower.

 So, by the time it reached Marshall it was at 2,000 feet.

 I got handed off from Great Lakes Approach when I was 11 miles away from the airport.  It was surprisingly difficult to find the airport for some reason. It really blended in to the background scatter. I did eventually find it though, did my radio calls, and entered the downwind and then did a good pattern.

The landing was sublime, just buttering it in from flying to rolling, likely because there were no witnesses, which is when you make your best landings.

I then taxi'd in to the ramp.

 

The terminal has a numerical keypad entry and a rather clever entry code:

 

 

Unfortunately, with zee Google, anyone can figure out what Squawk VFR means and thus determine the entry code, but it is rather convenient.

 So, I wandered around as I waited for Mr. B. to arrive.

The terminal building is nice and clean and rather comfy with some nice couches and table where a pilot and his instruction were doing a ground session for an instrument rating.

Very nice and clean washrooms as well.  

There was also a nice library full of aviation books so you could pass the time rather enjoyably if you so wished to do so.

 

 

Wandering around outside the terminal there was a fair bit to see.

The historic hangar building is indeed still being used as a hangar.

 

 There was quite a derelict-looking C-45 Expeditor at the ramp.

 It did not look like it had been flown in quite some time.

To say she looks rough is an understatement. 

Tires are a tad flat.

 Mr. B. soon arrived.

 

We then called for a shuttle and headed off to lunch at Schuler's.

We then had a fantastic lunch.

 

The Prime Rib at Schuler's is highly recommended.

Fantastic food and service in just a lovely historic restaurant that has been open there since 1934, located on a very nice small town main street.

 Full and happy and after having a great conversation, we headed back to the airport.

The AWOS, which is the automated weather observation system at Marshall airport was reporting the sky was clear.

Not so much.

I think the AWOS was pointed up at a hole in the cloud layer and thus kept reporting it as skies clear. 

Yep, more dodge cloud on the way back in the heavily scattered layer. 

 I got flight following back and got some helpful traffic advisories along the way.

With a tailwind I was doing pretty good,

 132 knots ground speed and 118 knots indicated is not bad for a Piper Archer.

I was soon cruising at 3,500 feet below the cloud layer, along with a bit of light chop to bounce me around a bit.

Passing by Howell, I saw a plane takeoff from the airport there and fly the pattern.

Kinda neat to see the huge shadows the clouds were casting on the ground.

 Soon Pontiac was in sight.

As usual they had me setup for Runway 27L and then had me cut north to switch over to the right downwind for 27R. 

A bit of a crosswind from 310 degrees but I did a very nice landing again.

 Cleaned the bugs off the plan, got it refueled and it was the end of a great lunch trip.

That's 1.0 there, 0.9 back, 2 great landings and a great lunch catching up with Mr. B.

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.

Birthday Flight And Activities

So, having turned 53, I decided to go for a flight to somewhere I had not been before.

So I went with a friend and picked up Leah and the three of us headed to the airport. Abby was unavailable as she was heading back from an academic conference out of town as she was presenting there after she had just published a scientific paper as a co-author- as a junior no less - not too shabby at all.

So the three of us went to the airport, and I did the preflight, got a weather brief which looked good and METARS and TAFs all were in favorable territory, and then we headed out.

Overall everything looked favorable for a flight to Traverse City, a decent crosswind ws expected but well within my personal limits.

Departed VFR with flight following to the northwest on a sunny day with a bit of wind.

 Very smooth in the air though.  Detroit Approach had me hold my climb at 4,000 and then divert 20 degrees left to avoid traffic that apparently was coming right for us, which is one of the reasons I like flight following - its a great extra safety measure. Soon got cleared to head back on course and to my desired altitude of 6,500 feet.

Got switched to Great Lakes Approach and mosied through their airspace at 154 knots ground speed, which was nice. Both passengers were nice and relaxed and both fell asleep on the way.

Getting closer to Traverse City, I got switched to Minneapolis Center and got the weather at  Traverse City.

ATIS was now reporting a direct crosswind gusting between 18-28 knots; a low level wind shear warning; and of pilot reports from landing aircraft of moderate turbulence on final on top of that.

Those conditions are outside my comfort zone, especially when carrying passengers who depend on me to make good decisions. 

I let the passengers know that going to Traverse City would have to wait, and suggested we go to Mt. Pleasant instead as it was close by and we could hit the Casino for lunch and activities.

I let Minneapolis Center know that we were going to divert to KMOP due to the current conditions at TVC and they updated my fight following and I was soon talking to Great Lakes Approach and heading to KMOP.

Arrived there in almost no time and the wind conditions there were also gusty with a crosswind of up to 17 knots.

On the first approach, I did a go around due to a late gust, and then on the second attempt I did a darn nice landing that both passengers liked.  They didn't quite get how much I was working to do it with the gusts on final on that one. 

But, I got it down landing long having added a bit more power to deal with the gusts, but on center-line, and apparently made it look easy to the non-pilot set.

We got the shuttle to the Casino and had lunch. We had chicken from the Chicken Guy for lunch and it was quite good.

We then hit the casino floor and tried our luck.  I hadn't brought my gambling fund with me as I hadn't planned on the casino, but had an emergency hundred tucked in my wallet and played with that.

Played craps for awhile and I had a good roll, but was then up and down with other players, and after an hour plus of playing I walked away having broken even, which was not bad for the entertainment value.

Leah, having not been at the casino before decided to try slots for the first time.

I gave her $10 to play with for her first try with the machine.

She then made $13.50 on the penny slot machine.

 

Not bad.  My friend also made $43 playing slots as well on the neighboring machine so it was a great time.

We then headed back to the airport.  I got a weather brief and all looked good, as did the preflight.

Took off and contacted Great Lakes Approach in the air and got flight following.

It was a fair bit bumpier on the return trip but not a big deal, and both passengers soon fell asleep again.

Soon we passed by Flint airport on the way back.

 Pontiac was soon seen in the distance and I got in touch with Pontiac Tower and was cleared into the downwind for Runway 27R.  I did have an oncoming aircraft as I was heading for the downwind, but Pontiac Tower maintained a good separation keeping me higher and he passed off my wing and below me.

I then descended to pattern altitude and flew a good pattern.  Winds had calmed down to a pretty steady 9 knots from 200, and I made a nice crosswind landing that I was very happy with and my passengers complimented me on yet again. That one was so much easier than the landing at KMOP.

After that, we refueled, cleaned, and put the plane away, dropped Leah off, and my friend took me out for sushi for dinner which was excellent.

Then we went for a swim and had a good time and headed home after that.

Thar was a great birthday day. 

That's 2.3 and 2 great landings.