Flying with Friends: Fun, Fuel, and Unexpected Conversations

What would these posts be like if I just pasted my Instagram caption? I feel like that’s what I did for my Europe recaps, then I expanded on it? Too lazy to look it up. But let’s try that (again?):

Sunday morning was fun! We took Courtney and David to Hangar Kafe in Miller, MO to eat lunch and watch the skydivers! What a cool place. We loved sharing flying with them (it was our first time having two passengers in the back)!

On the way back to 4M1, we flew over Eureka Springs, AR and over Courtney and David’s house

After we landed we decided to get fuel because it was so low. We thought it would take an hour max, but the engine was being a bit touchy to start because it was hot. So we gave it a rest and spent quite a bit of time talking to a local, Kevin, and seeing his planes. We had a really good conversation (mostly in the hot sun, eek!), then went and got fuel and came back more than a couple hours later (because of course the stop at the airport included talking to the guy running the FBO about the other business there and the Cessna 206 in the hangar…)

Sunday stats:
4M1 MO9 4M1 HRO 4M1
2.3 hour total trip (includes run-up, taxi, and flying)
4 takeoffs & 4 landings
2 new-to-us airports (MO9 & HRO)
1 new friend made (Kevin)

ANYWAY! We were freaking exhausted when we got back (and guilty we took so long) and were happy to spend the rest of the day chilling with Courtney and David!

And now, for the extended version…

We knew we wanted to take Courtney and David on a flight (that’s why we didn’t fully fuel on Saturday) but we didn’t know if we’d do it right after we landed Saturday (nope, too hungry and sweaty and the place we wanted to fly to was closed for the day), on Sunday (too windy?), or on Monday before we took off.

I’m grateful our friends understand how flexible (with your schedule) you have to be for flying. Mostly because of weather, but also because of our poor meal planning. Courtney and David were so great about this trip and understanding we wouldn’t know at all if we were coming until we were basically on the way there. Safety (avoiding bad weather) takes top priority!

I’m really glad it all worked out!

So back to what I was saying, we discussed a few flight options, and when we got up Sunday Steven checked weather and saw it was going to be getting a bit windy around noon and discussed flying Monday instead, then was like “F*ck it! Let’s go!”

And we went!

We have a spreadsheet of ideas for places to fly to, and I’d added MO9/Kingsley Airfield in Miller, MO because it had this restaurant that looked so darn cute!

And it was!

I mean, come on! Adorable.

We knew it was a skydiving place too and could hear on the radio that it was active, so I was excited to watch the skydivers.

Our flight there was pretty straight forward. We found the airport, talked on the radio to confirm there was no skydiver traffic, landed, figured out where to park, and ordered breakfast/lunch.

The food wasn’t anything to write home about (for a vegan, ha) but I was there for the experience! Steven said his eggs and pancakes were good, and he liked the fried okra, and Courtney and David liked their sandwiches.

After breakfast we watched the skydivers for a bit (gah, we saw one land so hard in the parking lot! ouch!). Before we left, we did some flight planning to fly by Courtney and David’s house and near downtown Eureka Springs, then Steven talked to the skydive place owner to confirm it was okay for him to take off. He said yeah, then before we did Steven checked on the radio with the other pilot (who dropped off the skydivers) and he assured Steven he had at least 5 minutes before the skydivers came down, so Steven took off, then shortly after we got off the ground I pointed out this skydiver who was doing 360s to spiral down fast and Steven had to turn at a much lower altitude than he would have liked to to give the skydiver as much space as possible.

Lesson learned – don’t trust anyone. Just kidding, the lesson is to wait until the skydivers are on the ground (and not trust anyone).

We flew back and went over Courtney and David’s house, and the downtown area:

Then because we took a few diversions and didn’t do a straight course to the airport we came in kind of high and Steven did a fun slip to lose altitude fast. It wasn’t enough so halfway down the runway he put more power in and we climbed and did the pattern again then landed.

Sounds strange but he’s been practicing maneuvers like that for well over a year for situations just like that. It’s amazing to watch him in action and see how he knows just what to do!

So we landed and that’s when things got a bit wonky. We decided to go get fuel so we didn’t have to worry about it in the morning. Courtney and David drove home (they live so close, I told them I’d text on the way back), and we went to start the plane and the engine was being touchy because it (the engine) was hot.

We took that as a sign to take a break and we were going to sit in front of the airport for a bit when a local, Kevin, came by, and we started chatting. Long story short, we chatted for a long time. He showed us his plane he’d just had the engine rebuilt on:

And the STOL (short takeoff and landing) plane he’d just built:

I was very excited to see a STOL plane in person! We watch videos of them all the time but I’d never seen one. This one was about to be inspected to get its airworthiness certificate. I wish it already had been so we could see it in action! Although I think Kevin said he didn’t even know how to fly a tail dragger yet. Getting sidetracked. Long story long. Oops.

Then we had a long conversation about the sustainability of farming and how it’s changed over the years. Kevin is a first generation farmer and had so many interesting things to share! (And he had an amazing accent that I loved listening to.)

He also gave us advice on a less windy airport (than the one we had planned) to go to for fuel, which was helpful, cause the winds had picked up and the airport we were planning to go to was on top of a windy plateau and would have had a crosswind. We went to one that lined right up with the direction of the wind – much better!

So we took off to HRO and had a similar problem to the day before with not enough flight planning (during flight) time, and we were tired and had just stood in the sun for a long time. So after we figured out how to get fuel (Steven’s first time doing it by himself, my first time EVER – not exactly intuitive), we went inside to cool down and do a briefing for our 9 minute flight back.

We also tried (unsuccessfully) to get a receipt for the gas. The machine was out of paper and the school takes what you paid for gas out of the overall rental fee. We never got a receipt but Steven was able to use his credit card record. ANYWAY. Wow, focus, Kim.

So while we were talking to the guy who runs the FBO about our receipt we started asking him other questions, like what the business was they are running there (Plane Spares), and about the Cessna 206 in the hangar. It turns out the owner bought it from a government auction from USMS and I was immediately like “CRY! We can’t do that since I work for the government!” But it was cool to see one in person – we’ve looked at them online but not up close! They hold a lot more weight than a 172.

Ha, completely random, while we were there we could hear the radios and this one local was saying the name of the airport (Boone County) in a super funny voice. The FBO guy was like “that’s just Dan Childs.” And I was like “cause he’s acting like a child?” Ha, me so funny. I told Steven he should do that funny Boone County voice when we left but he didn’t. Ha.

Moving on! We flew back and had no issues and Courtney and David picked us up and we apologized for being gone for much longer than expected. I’m blaming the plane and fuel but also that I keep chatting with so many people. That’s on me.

We had fun telling them all about our afternoon and talking more about the flight we did together. It’s nice they are both so interested because we love to talk about it! And I like sharing what I’ve learned and hearing all the things Steven knows, including some never before heard stories from his checkride. And Courtney was very complimentary of me and Steven’s communication skills while flying which made me feel really good, like, maybe I am actually a useful copilot? Maybe?!

We had a nice evening – just chilling and talk talk talking and having nachos for dinner. We called it a night at a reasonable hour (11:00?) since we had a big day ahead of us (and were exhausted), but I was bummed since I knew we were leaving the next day. This trip was much too short!

Could you tell ChatGPT wrote the title of this post? I asked it for recommendations and here’s what it came up with:

1. Sunday Skies and Skydivers
2. Fuel Stops, Fun Flights, and New Friends
3. Flying Adventures: Skydivers, Slip Landings, and Surprises
4. A Sunday in the Air: From Eureka Springs to Hangar Kafe
5. Planes, Friends, and Skydivers: A Sunday Well Spent
6. Flying with Friends: Fun, Fuel, and Unexpected Conversations
7. A Day in the Sky: From Hangar Kafe to Kevin’s Stories