Passing 100 hours, two wheeling, and checkout flights.

Despite my lack of blogging, I actually did some flying in May. In the early part of the month I flew my last flight in the venerable 95T out of Mettetal. Here is a pic as I wait in line to depart from runway 36. It was on this "hop" that I finally passed 100 hours. At the end of the month, I flew the first of two checkout flights in the club's Warrior.

Just another day at your typical general aviation airfield.



One of the trade-offs I made to get into flying was to sacrifice a portion of one hobby for another. A good chunk of my flight instruction tab was payed for when I sold two of my motorcycles. Thankfully I held onto the first bike I ever purchased, and I've found a (safer than on the street) way to go fast on two wheels...track days! This is me running Grattan in reverse. On the bike, it sure felt like I was leaned over ALOT more than that.

With the checkout complete for the Warrior, my wife and I took the plane up on Father's day. A quick flight out to Jackson was the order of the day, giving me time to get more familiar with the layout of the panel, and the Garmin 430 Nav/Com. It was a NASCAR race weekend, and the teams fly into JXN and get shuttled over to Michigan International Speedway via helicopter. In the picture below, we have just departed to the southwest on a crosswind for a left downwind departure to the northeast. You can see the ramp is crammed full of all sorts of different aircraft and there were three choppers in the mix.

After leaving Jackson, we flew back to Mettetal for the annual pancake breakfast served up by the local EAA chapter. The pattern was busy, the radio chatter was lively, and there were lots of families watching all the planes come and go. It felt a bit strange flying TO Mettetal, since I had previously always flown FROM there. After filling our bellies with pancakes and sausage, we jumped back in the Warrior and returned to Willow Run. I refueled the plane, which brought back all sorts of memories from years past working at the FBO in Erie, PA.

Next up, more flights in the Warrior and a checkout in the Archer.

My Total Time stands at: 104.6
Landings: 333

Vancouver trip: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

I've been slow in posting up about my latest adventures, the industry in which I work (automotive) has been taking some hits lately which has been a bit of a distraction.

The Good
Around the early part of April (is it really June??) my wife and I took a trip to Vancouver, BC. Thanks to her work, I got to tag along as "carry on luggage" and we enjoyed someplace new together instead of me sitting at home with the cats. We left Detroit in a somewhat spring like weather pattern, and flew to Minneapolis for our connecting flight. The weather at MSP was very un-spring like, but I was excited to see that our flight to Canada would be aboard an Embraer 175.

Vancouver is a wonderful city, and we enjoyed many sights and good eats. Our first day included a walk around the waterfront along the north side of the city. My wife had to drag me away from one particular spot which had this sign out front:

I could have stayed for hours watching the seaplanes land and takeoff.

We continued on our tour of the waterfront by walking 10 miles around Stanley Park.

We got dumped on with rain halfway through, and by the time we had walked to the restaurant with our dinner reservation it was sunny.

The next day we took advantage of many different modes of transport (taxi, bus, water taxi, sea bus, and gondola ride) to see this:

The Bad
Leaving Vancouver was tough, my wife had to stay longer to finish her work, and my visit was all too brief. We ate some spectacular food, saw many cool and interesting things, and I left knowing that someday I will return. If the title change doesn't help, I am going to announce right now, that things get worse from here on out... how's that for foreshadowing?
















Our first sign of trouble was an announcement by the flight crew made, not from the cockpit, but from the front of the main cabin before the cabin door had been shut, that we would be (more or less) "racing some bad weather to Minneapolis".








































The flight was smooth and comfortable, and I elected to pay extra for a snack box. A bit of apprehension snuck in when the flight crew came on the horn to say that we would be entering a holding pattern just short of MSP because it seemed that the weather was closing in. I started to do some mental calculations in my head as we started standard rate turns to the left. I came up with the magic number of 3 trips in the holding pattern before we would have to divert, and was feeling pretty good as we made the third turn inbound. Right then, the captain comes over the speaker to tell us what we all dreaded, a diversion!















I knew my wife wouldn't believe me so I took a pic for proof, we went to the home airport of Cirrus Aircraft in Duluth. This pic was taken shortly after the flight crew executed a masterful approach and landing in conditions that were the most turbulent and gusty I've experienced on a commercial airliner. We taxied onto a ramp area that wasn't the terminal, and it seemed like we would just wait a bit for an aircraft to move and free up a jetway. We taxied toward the main terminal, and then things got confusing, an aircraft left, another arrived, we taxied away from the main terminal, and then back again. In the meantime I had called my wife, ever the savvy traveler, whose advice was "stop talking to me, and re-confirm on a later flight". I called the reservation number, and confirmed myself on a flight leaving MSP later on in the evening... what could go wrong?


























After some time, and many updates from the flight deck, we were refueled, but there would be no timely connection to MSP which was still dealing with weather. Another call to "Airline with major hubs in Detroit and MSP" reservation number, and the full severity of my predicament was becoming clear. "I am sorry sir, we don't have any available seats until 5pm the day after tomorrow" Wha wha what?! The stinky stuff, had truly hit the rotating blades. I reluctantly confirmed on the first available flight, and started to mentally prepare for a hellish night/day. A quick call to my friend back home, explaining my situation and begging a favor to check in our animals.

We launched from Duluth, into low, gray, snow-filled clouds and set a course for MSP. The pilots did an excellent job getting us to our destination, and for a moment I allowed myself to get in a trance watching the wingtip strobes freeze frame snow as it whizzed by my blackened view of the outside world.

The Ugly
The relief at having made it to MSP soon dissolved after arriving in the gate area at the top of the jet way. A scene that I had only previously experienced through a TV set was right there in front of me, people camping, people waiting, people getting angry. The airline rep at the counter asked "final destination?", when I replied "Detroit", he told me to exit the secure zone and reps at check-in would rebook me, and arrange for a hotel. Fantastic, what service! Little did I know, this is a ruse simply to get "you" out of "his" hair and pass the buck down the line.

When I realized that another passenger (a nice old lady) on my flight was trying to return to Detroit, I suggested that we attempt to wade through the process together. I was trying to keep a good attitude going, as I talked to the guy at the check-in counter. He proceeded to tell me things I already knew (like how there were no seats available), and things I didn't know (how a hotel stay was not provided, but vouchers for a discount hotel miles from the airport were). My positive attitude went into the trash, when I overheard the nice old lady one ticket agent over get booked on a flight to Detroit THE NEXT MORNING!!! I quickly ended my conversation with the lazy agent and slid down to the other agent. "Excuse me, I wonder if you could help, I couldn't help but overhear how you got the nice lady on a flight out in the morning, and was wondering if you might do the same for me.... you are clearly the person who knows how to get things done."

She grabbed the phone, dialed some magic number, that the other guy didn't know or refused to call, and within 5 minutes had me confirmed on a flight leaving 11am the next day! Crazy.

We walked back through the security line, and got re-cleared into the terminal. We both headed to the gate area where the Detroit bound flights would leave from and attempted to settle in for the night. The remaining hours from that point, until I sat down in my assigned seat for the flight back to DTW the next day, was a blur of exhaustion, thirst, delirium, hunger, semi-sleep, anger, boredom, comedy, and nausea. Here are some pics:
















This one, just about sums it up:















I can't say enough good things about the professionalism and courtesy of our flight crew. They kept us informed of the entire situation as it unfolded, and displayed excellent stick-and-rudder skills when we needed it the most.

In a rare moment of Internet convergence, I discovered that my flight had been blogged by a member of the flight crew, so if you want to experience Vancouver-Duluth-MSP from the "pointy end" of the airplane click here.

I can't say enough bad things about the "airline with major hubs in Detroit and MSP", for dropping the ball on the customer service end of things.