Landings: 314
Total Time: 99.9
I have been trying to take a longer flight for awhile now, but the weather hasn't cooperated. Last weekend the weather stayed nice long enough to allow me to start earning more of the cross country time I will need in preparation for the instrument rating. I wanted ATC communications, so I picked a flight path that angled right between Flint and Lansing's airspace. My destination was Mount Pleasant (KMOP) which sits west of Saginaw, MI.
The flight up and back was scenic, fun, and for the most part, uneventful. Except for a few clouds hanging around between Flint and Lansing, I cruised along at my VFR altitudes the whole way. Flint and Saginaw Approach both gave fine service as I motored along, and by the congestion on the radio for a good bit of the trip, it was evident many other pilots were taking advantage of the early "Spring" flying weather.
Mount Pleasant's AWOS weather is transmitted over the MOP VOR, and winds at the time favored landing to the east (runway 9). Since I was approaching from the southeast, I reported on the CTAF that I would be overflying the field above traffic pattern altitude (TPA). I then performed the recommended entry, by turning to the NE, flying for 2+ miles descending to TPA and turning back inbound.. then I made my inbound radio call "on the 45 entry to left downwind runway 9 Mount Pleasant". This is different than the (non-standard) procedure at Mettetal, so it was fun to actually fly the whole thing.
The winds were calm by the time I was ready to depart back towards home, and several aircraft had used runway 27. After a quick check of the noise abatement procedures for that runway, I departed to the west and made my climb back up to a cruise altitude of 5500 feet. I gave Saginaw approach another call for traffic advisories, and soon I had a new transponder squawk and a request to report any change in altitude. Again the clouds between Flint and Lansing changed my plan, at first I could maneuver around them (adhering to the cloud clearance minimums) then they became more numerous so I elected to descend underneath them and fly at 3700 feet (which was well within the 3000 AGL rule). You might be able to make out my turns on the GPS track for the return leg.
Garmin Geko track, overlayed in GoogleEarth with Sectional Map overlays overlayed on top.
When I added up my logbook after paying for the flight I couldn't believe I had missed reaching the magic 100 hour mark by 0.1 hours. The nice lady at the desk said I could take another plane and taxi around for a bit, which I politely declined. I'll pass 100 on my next flight!
An update on the flying club, I got word this week that someone has left the club... which means my membership induction process will start soon... woohoo!
Next post will be a "Super Mini Mega Pilot Product Review: Garmin Geko" I have all the pictures formatted and uploaded, I just need to compose it.
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