Woo hoo, we made it to Saturday! Our last day in Iowa!

Steven woke up feeling a bit congested and I asked if he wanted to take any meds. He said no – he didn’t feel like spending the time researching what medications are allowed/disallowed by the FAA. Ahh yeah. Smart. Kind of forgot about that. (Some basic googling shows that MucinexD (pseudoephedrine & guaifenesin) is okay!)

I was confused about what time we were leaving and thought we were taking off at 9:00. That was NOT the case and we didn’t leave until after lunch. Yay for more time with family!

So we started the morning with donuts from Icon and chais from Starbucks.

Then we got to do something really fun – go to William’s first soccer game!

He had just started practice the week before, and I was impressed with the level the kids were playing at with just a bit of practice. It was fun to watch and made me miss playing soccer.

I was so grateful for our extra time together, and especially that we got to go to William’s game. I miss a lot of that stuff being in a different state, so it felt special to get to go.

After the game we picked up sandwiches for lunch, and ate at my snister’s and played a bit more of Over/Under, then we did some flight planning (including “packing” the VFR (visual flight rules) data again), and my snis dropped us off at the airport. We are so grateful for her shuttling us around so much on the duration of our visit!

We went into the FBO (fixed-based operator) and confirmed they had fueled the plane, paid for the fuel, then I packed all our stuff in the plane while Steven did some of the preflight and plane inspection.

Then we went inside and did the final briefing – we always do this right before we fly so we have the most current information. Because it had warmed up so much (19C/66F) it was a bit windy – 18 knot steady, 25 knots gusty. But we had mostly clear skies to fly in, which meant we got to go up to 5500′. Yay!

We finished preflight, did run-up, and took off 3:33.

As we were ascending, ATC (air traffic control) let us know that the Cessna 172S (exact same model as us!) that took off right before us was going on the same heading. What are the odds, right?

So we were basically buddies for their whole flight to Dubuque, about half our trip. On the screenshot below we are the blue plane and they are the lower marker with the -2, meaning they were 200 feet below us. You can’t tell but they were also 5 miles to our south. I kept trying to find them visually but couldn’t. But I felt them in spirit. And appreciated that they changed their course to be a little south of ours.

We got to cross the Mississippi River in the daytime (much different than our flight in!) and I enjoyed seeing Dubuque from above!

The Iowa part of the flight was pretty chill, and the begining of Illinois was too. I should have asked Steven if I could fly a bit. Regerts. (Misspelled on purpose.)

Randomly though, there was traffic in the middle of nowhere Illinois that went right over as, at 1000′. What are the odds? This is the kind of stuff it’s good to have ForeFlight for. I don’t think we would have seen this guy above us until he was above us, which would have been frightening. Steven lowered our altitude a bit – you can see the difference in two images below – 5,335′ vs 5,084′. I wonder if the other pilot would have increased his altitude if we hadn’t descended.

After that we got closer to Rockford airport and some class Delta airports and then there was a lot of traffic. Lame, but understandable. Nothing that came that close to us again, thankfully!

And then as we started to get closer to the Chicagoland airspace the transponder lost wifi again. Wonderful. The image above shows what kind of traffic we were seeing when that happened.

No worries though, we have eyeballs. This used to stress me out (not having this data) but it doesn’t anymore. Steven did ALL his training without this information. We don’t actually need it, it’s just a “nice to have.”

And I was able to spot some planes with my eyes. Good work, Kim! (it’s harder than it seems during the day)

Our home airport had a bit of traffic but we were first in line to land. There was a funny moment where ATC told the plane behind us they were clear to land and they were like “I think I am #2.” I had been confused why they were telling them! ATC corrected it quickly and told us we were clear to land.

We landed at 5:27 and taxied to our ramp.

After we finished all the post-flight stuff and were walking to the car to unload our things before dropping off the book/keys, I said to Steven “I know we just got back but it looks like a really nice day for flying.” Ha. He was probably so worn out! He got 8.7 hours in on this entire trip!

But I do hope we fly again soon 😉

On Friday we slept in a bit after staying out so late for the concert. I texted my dad “We’re starting to get up. Sorry we slept so late!” To which he responded, “I prefer my pilots well rested…lol.” Ha. Good point!

We weren’t in any hurry to get out of town (and were actually waiting for the clouds to break a bit before we flew back), so we had a leisurely morning.

We had breakfast at Hen House Eatery, which I randomly found while looking for a place with some vegan options. It turned out to be very popular, with a line out the door and a wait for a table! I wonder if it’s normally that busy or just after days that have events? We saw lots of people with AC/DC shirts on.

After eating, I am guessing it’s like that normally – I got a vegan hash and it was delicious!

After breakfast we walked around a bit, checking out the Basilica of Saint Mary,

and the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden. I was pretty excited to get to see “Spoonbridge and Cherry”!

We got an Uber to Crystal Airport (MIC) just after 1:00. Then we did flight things a bit out of order since we needed to get fuel.

First, we went to the bathroom (priorities), then Steven preflighted the plane, then we drove over to fuel (which required talking to air traffic control (ATC) because of the kind of space we had to cross).

We haven’t fueled the plane very often on our own, and each airport has a little different system, but the instructions were pretty good on this one, and I dare say it was our most successful fueling experience so far. We put 11 gallons in each tank – a bit less than what they can hold – we still had to be mindful of the useful load of the plane!

After fueling we moved the plane out of the way and shut the engine off (since we get charged by how long the engine is running) to do a briefing for our flight. We downloaded the packet that included all the visual flight rules (VFR) information I might need in case the transponder dropped wifi again (it did).

Then we did run-up on one of the taxiways. After we did it and talked to ATC they informed us there is a run-up area right before you enter the runway. This is more a note for me and Steven – we usually see these areas after we do run-up, and need to figure out if they are indicated somehow on the airport diagrams, because we’ve looked and it’s not clear to us!

Anyway, ATC was just being helpful with that info and it reminded us we want to look it up (or ask the Chief Instructor at Skill about it).

A plane took off before us, then it was our turn (we left at 2:34). Oh! I didn’t mention, there was WAY more traffic than the previous day. There must have been 8-10 departures since we got there? The clouds were higher than the day before, you could see the sun, and lots of planes were out!

So that made things interesting. We had to contend with all the general aviation (GA) planes flying under the MSP Bravo airspace, and the commercial planes in the Bravo airspace (which felt like they were under the Bravo?! Or maybe commercial planes just appear that way when they are headed your direction from a few miles away.). If you look at the image below we are the blue plane on the left, and all the teal markers with numbers are planes in the sky. And this screenshot isn’t even of the busiest time!

So, we were happy to get out from under the Bravo airspace.

But then! As soon as we got out from under the Bravo we went right by two Delta airports which were also very busy, including a plane that kept turning toward us near our altitude. UGH. And did I mention that is when I lost wifi and all tracking on the iPad? Ha.

We were glad to get out of that area, too. Then it was just us and the beautiful blue sky and clouds.

We were telling Dad how the sun heats up the air between the clouds and creates thermals (connective currents of rising air) which moves the plane around a bit. The same happens over bodies of water.

All day I had been teasing Steven about flying between openings in the clouds, which you are allowed to do – you just need an opening to get back down if you are a VFR pilot (an Instrument Flight Rules (IFR) pilot could fly through the cloud).

So he saw an opening and went for it – with the plan to come right back down. It was fun to tilt the plane up and just see sky and get so close to the clouds (still a mile away horizontally as required). But we didn’t make it through the opening and up above the clouds, and just came back down. Maybe next time, Dad!

The rest of the flight was chill! As we got closer to Iowa, the clouds became less broken and more overcast. It was pretty moody around the Waterloo airport.

We landed at 4:11, and tied the plane down, and my snis was waiting for us with ice cream treats! She’s the best!

As soon as we got back to the house I immediately changed into joggers and a sweatshirt. I wanted to be cozy and warm. We got stuff to make crunchwraps for dinner, had those, then had a blast playing Over/Under. I never would have guessed that I’d be crying and laughing playing a game where as a group you have to come up with the answer to a question and the judge decides if you’re “over,” “under,” or “spot on,” but here we are! We now have a bunch of inside jokes from this game and I can’t wait to play it again. We also had fun playing Happy Salmon. It was a great night!

Well that’s definitely the latest we’ve ever departed for a flight – 9:41 pm!

But Kim, isn’t your bedtime before 9:00 pm? Yes, yes it is. Flying is something I’ll stay out past my bedtime for, though!

So let’s back up. Last Thursday was the AC/DC concert in Minneapolis. Our plan was to fly to Waterloo, Iowa (near where my family lives) on Wednesday, fly to Minneapolis with Dad on Thursday, fly back to Waterloo on Friday, then back home on Saturday.

Best laid plans and all that. The weather wasn’t cooperating for a Wednesday departure – the clouds would be too low where we live, and snow and rain was predicted. And we didn’t want to do the entire flight on Thursday.

I went to work Tuesday thinking we’d be driving the next day. Womp womp. But then I got an early morning text from Steven saying “the weather looks great today. I am working on an alternate plan to leave tonight.” So I got excited and gave my snis a heads up we may arrive a day early but VERY late. The Steven told me someone else had the plane reserved so it likely wouldn’t work. Womp womp. So I told my snis that.

Then in the afternoon Steven told me he was going to talk to Chris, the Chief Instructor, about ideas for leaving that day, and before I knew it, the flight reservations were moved around and we were good to go! Thanks Chris! So I updated my snis again. Ha. My poor snis. I am mostly used to how unknown and unscheduled things are with flying, but it’s new for her and she was very patient and understanding with my lack of a schedule for the entire 5 days!

The problem with leaving Tuesday night is that I don’t get home from the office until 6:00 pm, and I had a nail appointment at 6:15. I asked Steven if he wanted me to cancel it and he said nah.

So I studied the flying route and airports on my train ride, went to my nail appointment, then went to the bank, then got us dinner. I arrived home at 7:55, packed and got the house ready for the cat sitter in 30 mins, and we were out the door at 9:00. I ate part of my burrito in the car. I was too jacked up and hyper to eat much though.

All that rush rush rushing is the opposite of the mindset we want to be in when flying. We don’t want to have “get-there-itis” – that’s when mistakes are made. We want to be calm, thorough, and in a mindset to make good decisions.

So once we got to the airport I slowed it down and we went through our normal process. Things are a bit trickier in the dark – Steven has a special red light he uses to see things in the cockpit (there’s lights in the dashboard but they aren’t great). And there are other risks with flying at night, like not being able to see “safe” places to land (if an airport is not available) in the case of an emergency. But other than that it’s normal flying with one giant perk – LESS TRAFFIC! (And another perk is that it’s easier to find other planes because they have their marker lights on.)

Oh! And it was so late the tower was closed at our airport and the one in Waterloo. When that happens, pilots get on a common frequency and communicate there.

Steven uses a suction cup ipad mount on longer trips and it fell off his window as we were departing! He caught it and gave it to me, and when we were at our cruising altitude (6,500) I figured out how to get it to work and showed him, then I got to fly for a minute or two while he put it on his window. The whole point in mentioning that is so I can share I got to fly. Ha ha.

We didn’t encounter any other planes on our way out from our home airport in Waukegan (we usually do) and didn’t see any other traffic until we were near Rockford, IL – and that was just UPS and American Airline planes that weren’t close enough to be a factor we needed to worry about.

And we didn’t see any other traffic after that. I mean, it was past 10:00 & 11:00 pm for the majority of the flight. Why would many general aviation planes be out flying that late LOLOLOL.

Something interesting (???) – this Cessna does not pull fuel evenly from the left and right tanks, so Steven manually switched back and forth from left and right rather than leaving it on “both.” So he was monitoring that closely, along with all the other gauges, like RPM, blah blah blah.

But yeah, easy peasy flight (says the passenger). We landed at 11:46 and parked the plane on the ramp. No one else was there. Steven had called the fixed-based operator (FBO) earlier in the day to ask them to put the plane in a hangar (we were expecting some weather) in the morning and NOT to fuel it.

My snis picked us up (thank you snis!) and we got to her house past midnight and were asleep around 1:30 am. I mean, we had to finish the last episode of White Lotus!

My sleep has been so wack lately – I have to get up at 4:00 to go to the office and I’m not getting enough sleep. I’m glad I got to sleep in Wed-Sun!!! I needed it!

I was going to write about our Wednesday, but this ended up being really long… oops. So that will be another post!