Nate Henderson Solos

Nate and I were out flying early this morning at Green Castle. Preflight done around sunrise and off we went for some touch and go's. Our first time around served to clear the runway of Turkeys. A light crosswind from the right presented no problem for this student, patterns were nice so I jumped out. Nate made 3 nice landing solo on 15, and returned 19Q to its parking spot. What a great way to start the day, congrats Nate!

Citabria to the UP

On Friday Leah and I left Green Castle for our Labor Day getaway. Our destination was Prickett Grooms Field, 6Y9, in Sidnaw, Michigan. The airport manager there is a friend of mine and had organized a Labor Day fly in. Our trip up was completely uneventful. The Citabria flew wonderfully, although it couldve gone faster! We averaged about 80 knots groundspeed, arriving in just over 4 hours.

Several other attendess had shown up on Friday ahead of us. This included a couple of Cherokees, a 182, a Luscombe, and an RV-7A. Another friend in a 182 would arrive after us. With the tent setup and camp established we were off to town for supper. We had a great time seeing the UP and meeting the locals. Its a truly different world up there. Ive never seen so many trees in my life!

Saturday was the big fly in day. Several other airplanes came in. This included a Kolb 2 seater that gave many rides, a Zenith that was built from plans, a 1946 Taylorcraft, 2 Tri Pacers, a Warrior and a Diamond DA-20. Nearly the entire town came out to see the airplanes and get a ride. Lunch was served and many of the fly in attendees gathered around the shade of the Citabria to talk flying.

Sunday arrived with strong headwinds but clear skies and excellent weather everywhere. I figured it would take at least 5 hours in the air to get home due to higher headwinds than on the way up. But first I needed to get Gas. The local gas station was right next to the airport so we taxied over and filled up. There must not be many airplanes that get gas in Sidnaw cause it made quite the scene! We were set for departure at 1:30

Departure from the 2200 foot long grass strip was simplified by strong westerly winds. With the trees cleared we headed towards our fuel stop of Adams County, 63C, in central Wisconsin. The 155 nautical mile flight would take over 2.5 hours with 60 knot groundspeeds the entire way. The flight at 4500 feet was beautiful with the trees just starting to turn colors for the fall. After fueling up in Wisconsin it was another 2.5 hours for the 150 miles left to Green Castle. The trip was once again uneventful, just awfully slow. We arrived at Green Castle about 7:20. What a great way to spend Labor Day weekend. Everyone that went had a lot of fun.

Many more pictures from the weekend are at http://picasaweb.google.com/cherokee373y/6Y92007

EDIT: A short note on the local newspapers site is here. Shows yours truly fueling up with a crowd of onlookers. It will be replaced this coming Friday the 14th. http://www.lansesentinel.com/local_news.htm

Geneology Flight

Sunday - I flew a friend in N3936T to Western Iowa so he could take aerial photographs of his ancestors farm land and townships for an ancestry project. Doug is a "professional amateur" photographer, and works at Rockwell Collins as well. This was Doug's first opportunity to take aerial photos, and this was only his 2nd time in a small aircraft. We photographed the towns of: Kingsley, Le Mars, Merrill, Westfield, Elk Point, Akron, Alcester, Hawarden from 4,000 ft. MSL. We landed at Orange City (KORC) and filled-up at the self-service 100LL pump. Walked into town (less than a mile) for lunch. 4.1 hours logged today, great flight!

Tips - Make sure you check your NOTAMS prior to flight. I pulled up my pre-flight briefing on GTE DUATS the night before and learned the Le Mars airport was closed for runway extension, our original destination before changing to Orange City. No Blue Bunny ice cream tour this time.