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.

Sunday Flyday

Sunday was yet another great day for flying, no one had checked 914P out so I decided it needed some exercise.  I decided to take a friend to Mt. Pleasant.

Got to the airport and the pre-flight went as expected.

Our neighbor beside our hangar had just taken his Cessna 170 out:

 Very pretty aircraft.

I pulled the plane out as he left and the start up was nice and normal as was the run-up.

I had decided to go VFR and got flight following arranged and took off from Runway 27R heading to the northwest. 

I initially got to climb to 5,550, poking through the blue in between a very scattered layer of clouds.

 I overflew Flint airport, talking with Great Lakes Approach.

  

As I got closer to Mt. Pleasant, a more solid overcast layer started appearing, so I called Great Lakes Approach and let them know I needed to descend to avoid clouds.  Since I was VFR, going into clouds was a no-no.  They stated altitude was at my discretion and they appreciated my calling them before I started descending.

Soon, I arrived about 10 miles out at Mt. Pleasant with the runway in sight.  Two other planes were in the pattern to land with a third stating they were maneuvering above the airport at 3,500 feet. Since I was  at 3,500, I descended for separation and let everyone know I would overfly the airfield and do a midfield downwind entry for Runway 27.  I would have used 9 as the winds were calm and it would have been convenient, but the two other aircraft had stated they were going to 27 so I joined in accordingly.

I did a nice overflight and then dropped into a midfield downwind entry, by which time one plane had landed, and the other plane was already on base and separation was good. 

I did a really nice landing, parked, and headed into the terminal and called for a shuttle to the casino.

Had a nice lunch at Johnny Rockets,  hit the craps table and got slaughtered.

That's why it's called gambling and not a sure thing. Still, it was an enjoyable experience, nice dealers and nice folks around the table and I learned some things. Didn't bet the rent, so no serious loss other than play money, and  that I'll win back the next time, maybe.

Got the shuttle back to the airport, did the preflight and then took off from Runway 9 as winds were again calm and no traffic was about, and headed to the southeast back to Pontiac.

 It was a pleasant flight back, with a few bumps from the heat of the day.

 I got yet another nice view of Flint.

 

Nice to get a higher aerial view.  I'm typically under the hood when flying at Flint and tend to just see the runway on final.

Great Lakes Approach at the end of their airspace decided not to hand me off to Detroit and instead had me squawk VFR and contact Pontiac Tower, which was fine.

I already had the ATIS for Pontiac and after contacting them was told to enter the right downwind for 27R and was #2 to land, behind another aircraft.

Said aircraft decided to fly a bomber-sized  pattern, so Tower finally told them to turn base, I then extended my downwind for spacing and turned base outside of them, and then landed with a decent landing. I had too much speed so had to bleed some off - which I seem to do often with N914P, and I need to work on that.  So I had a lot more float than I wanted.  But, I still landed on 27R to complete the trip.

It was a very nice, if quite hot, day to fly.

That's 1.9 and 2 landings. 

Flying - A Pleasant Ride To Mt. Pleasant And Back

Today was a great day to fly.

Absolutely gorgeous weather.

Got the Dakota pre-flighted and was soon on my way to Mt. Pleasant to meet up with Mr. B.

 

 The weather was nice and I was soon doing 140 knots groundspeed at 6,500 feet.

After a very pleasant 45 minute flight I landed at Mt. Pleasant on Runway 9. Bit of a crosswind, but a nice, easy landing.

Soon afterwards, a very nice Scottish Aviation British Bulldog aircraft landed.

 Had a chat with the owner. Very nice guy. Not a lot of Bulldogs are in the USA apparently only 35, and his is now out of a fresh annual and ready for flying.  It does look absolutely amazing.  He soon took off and went on his way.

 

Mr. B. arrived soon after that with his friend.

We then took the shuttle to the casino and played craps there for a couple hours.

I managed to come out a little bit ahead which was nice and bought dinner with the winnings.

Then we headed back to the airport, got our preflights done, and headed on our ways home. 

The flight home was as smooth as the way there, flying at 5,500 feet.  I had flight following and did a practice RNAV approach to 27L.

 

 

Soon I overflew Flint Airport.

Then I got handed off to Detroit Approach and had Pontiac airport in sight.

 For practice I did the RNAV 27L approach and did a very nice landing on 27L. Will need to do some simulated instrument approaches soon to maintain proficiency, so this practice one was not a bad way to get back into the procedures.

 Then I crossed 27R, and headed back to the hangar.

Got the plane refueled, cleaned off the bugs, and put it to bed in the hangar for the night.

That's 2.1 with 2 good landings and a great pleasant time with Mr. B. in Mt. Pleasant. Flying is better when you can do it to meet your friends.

A Pleasant Flight To Mt. Pleasant

The weather was favorable for a flight today, so I did a weather brief, headed to the airport and got the plane ready to go.

Had a nice chat with another pilot who was upgrading the avionics on his Cirrus SR-20 and he let me poke around it a bit.  Very nice plane indeed.

Poking around done I did my walk-around and got the trust Piper Archer ready to go.

Winds were out of the east, so I took off from Runway 9L and headed northwest to Mt. Pleasant.

Picked up flight following along the way, and Great Lakes Approach was nice and helpful as usual. Flew at 6,500 feet and it was pretty smooth flying.

On the way to Mt. Pleasant, I overflew the Flint Airport:

Then on to Mt. Pleasant, and a very nice landing on Runway 9, after doing a practice RNAV approach.

There's a VOR located on the field:

 Interestingly enough, even with a VOR right on the field, KMOP only has RNAV GPS approaches and no VOR approaches anymore.

Parked the plane, and then I took a complimentary shuttle to the Soaring Eagle Casino.

I played some craps, had some good rolls, and a lot of fun.  I was up, then down, then up, and finally down enough to lose $100 and then I called it quits. Would have been nice to walk away with some winnings, but it was worth the 3 hours of entertainment.   Fun watching people play with serious money - some were making single roll bets with $500 in chips - losing, and sometimes winning big.

I then caught the shuttle back to the airport.

Winds had picked up quite a bit but were still pretty much down the runway. After takeoff I picked up flight following again.

Clouds had also dropped a bit, so at times I couldn't stay clear of them at 5,500 and had to play dodge cloud as I was VFR.

Still, it was pretty smooth with only a little light chop, and the return flight was a bit quicker. Clouds got higher south of Flint and I could travel unimpeded at 5,500 again.

Got handed off to Detroit Approach and the controller actually seemed surprised that I not only checked in properly ,but had also already picked up the ATIS for Pontiac. He gave me a VFR descent at my discretion when I was 12 miles out from Pontiac so I started a gentle descent from 5,500.

Then got passed on to Pontiac Tower and got sequenced for a 5 mile final approach. Another excellent landing and that was the trip.

Then to clean off the lots and lots of bugs smashed by the plane, For some reason there were a lot of them out there today, so it took longer than usual to get the plane all nice and clean.

I certainly haven't been flying nearly enough, so we'll try and fix that. 

That's a total of 2.4, and 2 rather nice landings.

Memorial Day Flight To KMOP

Today I decided to do a nice VFR cross-country flight.  I want to make sure I have more than enough cross-country time for my instrument rating, not to mention I wanted more flying time.

The weather was most promising and turned out nicely as forecast.

So I downloaded a weather brief and headed to the airport and got N8428S ready to go.

I wanted to fly rather precisely and try to interact with ATC as much as possible. I also figured it might be a busy flying day so having flight following helping with traffic wasn't a bad thing.

So, I took off from Pontiac and set course on the GPS for Mt.Pleasant, got on course and then contacted Great Lakes Approach for flight following. I got a squawk code, was told to maintain VFR and set to go on course at 5,500 feet.

The air was nice and smooth.

T

 

Then, after a bit I set the autopilot to NAV mode and let George do some of the flying as I need to be comfortable using the autopilot. No hands needed. Ok, I actually hand my hands near or on the controls at all times as one should never completely trust an autopilot.  It take take some of the load off while flying though.

Once I had Mt. Pleasant in sight, flight following was terminated and I then made a nice smooth landing on Runway 27.  No one else was around, but there were a few planes on the tarmac.

A nice Mooney.

An experimental

 The Mt. Pleasant VOR is located on the field and its due to be shut down soon as part of the move towards GPS.

The terminal building at Mt. Pleasant is rather nice.  It has a conference room, a flight planing  room with computers to look up the weather, nice clean washrooms and a comfy lounge.

Sadly the Mt. Pleasant Casino is only opening tomorrow, so it would wait.

After a brief stop, I got in the plane and headed homeward.

After takeoff I called up Great Lakes Approach and got flight following back to Pontiac, including entering Flint's airspace.  I was requested to remain at 3,500 while transiting through, which I did.  Then to Pontiac where I entered the right downwind for Runway 27R and did another very nice landing.

That's 2.2  cross country time and 2 landings.