Dealing with the remnants of Fay

Flew a nice cross country to Grand Rapids (GRR) yesterday. The remnants of Fay built up from the southeast as our departure time approached. Visibility was fine, but clouds held us below our desired VFR cruising altitude until just a bit south of Lansing. Grand Rapids approached asked us to fly direct to the VOR (which is south of the airfield) and kept us at 4500 until we were due south of the airfield. One (sort of) slam dunk approach later we were talking to tower on an extended right base for runway 8L.

The FBO we parked at was "Rapid Air" and they were very friendly and accomodating. We got charged 15 bucks to use the ramp, but the facilities there are excellent and the entire FBO interior had been remodeled since the last time we were there. Departing from GRR is always fun because you get treated to the "big airport" atmosphere. After a quick word with Clearance Delivery we had our departure clearance, a squawk code, and we were ready to taxi. We taxied to, and departed from runway 8L with me nailing the correct airspeeds on climb out.

As soon as we checked in with departure we were cleared to 5500 ft and we turned direct YIP with the sun starting to set behind us. The cruise portion of our flight back was some of the smoothest flying conditions I have ever flown in, though we noticed the haze starting to build in around us. It was night by the time we landed back at Willow Run, and after a quick trip to the self serve fueling area, we parked the bird back in its nest.

Time this flight: 2.5
Total Time: 118.0
Landings: 356