Thanks to a persistent (and most welcome) area of high pressure, my wife and I were able to fly to a family reunion on South Bass Island in the western end of Lake Erie. Initially, the weather on Friday was looking crappy, and I wasn't very optimistic for our departure based on an "outlook" briefing I had obtained Thursday night with flight service. The skies were clear by the time I drove home from work, and after talking to flight service again (this time a standard weather briefing) the only issue was convective activity southeast of my destination that would continue to move south and east as time passed. I called the AWOS/ASOS phone numbers for all the airports along my route, which confirmed that the weather was fine the whole way.
We loaded up the car and departed for the airport with our luggage, my flight bag, a birthday gift for our newest nephew, and 24 ears of corn. After a quick but thorough pre-flight (added 1 qt of oil and stowed some extra wheel chocks) we were soon talking to Willow Run Ground and getting our taxi instructions. We took off on Runway 32 into the northwest wind that was the bringer of the clear skies we were flying in. I planned to stay below Detroit's Class B airspace, and gave Toledo approach a call for flight following as we passed west of Monroe-Custer field (TTF). After confirming that the Restricted airspace near Camp Perry was "inactive" we turned direct Port Clinton (PCW) , traced the coastline of the southern shores of Lake Erie, and climbed up above 3000 feet.
Put-In-Bay doesn't have weather reporting so I used Port Clinton's automated weather to set my altimeter, and about 15 miles out from 3W2, Toledo cut us loose and asked us to squawk VFR. I tried getting airport advisories from PIB Unicom but no-one replied... no matter, as an aircraft about to depart PIB announced he was taxiing to runway 3. I made a call at 10 miles out, 7 miles out, and was planning on entering a right downwind for runway 3 when another inbound aircraft called saying he was 7 miles to the southeast. I announced that I was 2 miles south and would enter a right base for 3. Soon we were on the ground, searching for a spot to park.
We set the parking brake, unloaded our stuff, chocked one of the mains, locked the plane up and headed to the airport office to pay our ramp fee. I did some "ground flying" with my niece and nephew on Saturday, both were genuinely interested in Uncle Monkey's airplane, and both were sad to hear that we would not be flying that day.
Sunday morning was a planned flight with my younger brother, who specifically asked for an airplane ride to celebrate his recent birthday. The weather again was exceptional, and the flight service briefer seemed surprised that I was calling considering the conditions. We departed PIB, and flew down to Mansfield (MFD) which for my purposes was more than 50 miles from 3W2. Turns out Mansfield is a towered Class D airfield with approach and departure control during certain hours. As we taxied back to depart to the northwest, we got our clearance, squawk code, and departure frequency. We waited for two arrivals before we were cleared for takeoff, which was just fine because one of the arriving aircraft is on my top 10 list of "airplanes that I want to fly/own someday".... a yellow Beechcraft Staggerwing.
Soon after takeoff we were talking to departure, cleared on course, and receiving flight following on our way to Sandusky County (S24). At 15 miles out I requested a switch to advisory and cancelled flight following. Ater checking the automated weather, it became clear that we would need a plan to get into left traffic for runway 6 as we approached from the SSE. I decided to stay above the traffic pattern altitude and execute the "procedure turn" style of pattern entry... and announced my intentions on the CTAF. As we turned inbound "on the 45", a Cirrus announced he was on a straight in for runway 6. We kept each other updated on our position as I turned base and final. We saw him turning a 360 on final for spacing (those damn Cirri are too fast!) as we exited the runway.
We refueled 33149, bought and drank some Sprite, visited the boys room, payed the fuel bill, and got a free cookie from the nice folks at Advanced Air Services. S24's runway does not have a full length taxiway so I got some experience in back-taxiing. We climbed out and away from the pattern and up to a safe altitude to do some steep turns, slow flight, and a power off stall. Back to 3W2 at 3500ft and we did a slow orbit of the island so my bro could take pictures. I could tell from monitoring the traffic frequency at PIB that things were heating up and the pattern was getting busy. I decided to fly towards Kelly's Island (to the SE) and descend to set up for an entry into the downwind. My first pattern was too close in to the airport, and so I ended up too high and too fast. One go-around later I was back in the downwind "number 2" following a Saratoga, with two more aircraft calling in as "number 3, and number 4" in the pattern behind me. I followed the Saratoga's lead and made my pattern much wider than the first try, and everything worked out just fine on the approach.
As we rolled out on Runway 3, we heard the aircraft behind us announce that he had "overshot the turn from base to final" and that he was "re-aligning". I called clear of runway 3 and taxied to a parking spot. What happened next will be etched in my memory banks FOREVER. I looked up over the instrument panel, to see the Cessna (who was behind us in the pattern) just touching his wheels down... on the numbers for Runway 21.... 1720ft down the runway. My first thought was 'we are going to see a crash', next thought was 'he's going to hit the fence'. Then the guy absolutely firewalled the throttle and appeared to use every inch of the 600 some feet of the displaced threshold to regain airspeed and cleared the trees 500ft from the end of the runway by maybe 15 feet! Soon after escaping the treeline, and while still low and slow, he started his turn to crosswind. I was actually yelling out loud at this point (not into the mic), less bank, don't turn so steep!. We finished securing the plane, and the near-incident aircraft taxied in and parked right next to us.
Later that evening, my wife and I loaded up 33149 again and departed just before 8pm. Up to 4500ft, in contact with Toledo approach for flight following, we got to watch the sun set after we made our right turn at Toledo.
Upon reflection, our first trip "overnighting" with an airplane was a resounding success. I got some additional cross country experience during our stay, and learned about "lake effect haze" on both the trip out and back. The hour flight time is a dream compared to driving.
Flight time this trip: 4.3
Total Time: 122.3
Landings: 361
Here are the "Geko Tracks" of our trip overlayed onto Google Earth:
And since I don't do any low level flying antics in the Piper, this is currently the BEST way to have fun going fast close to the ground!
