Saturday started off busy – we fit in a lot before we left!
I started the morning with a run. I tried to pack light since we have weight limitations in the plane, but I still ended up with two pairs of shoes – some Skechers BOBS and my running shoes. All that to say, I feel really good when I actually use all the things I bring with me on a trip and I did use those running shoes… once. That still counts! (And I used all the shorts, jeans, tanks, t-shirts, and hooded sweatshirt because I kept sweating through my clothes in the plane, then it got cold.)
Steven had plans to meet his college friends for breakfast, and on the way (actually out of the way but it doesn’t matter) he dropped me and his dad off for breakfast with his longtime friend Eric’s parents.
Steven’s Kansas City friend group goes all the way back to kindergarten, so those friends’ parents were like second sets of parents to Steven growing up, meaning as soon as I met them (in the early aughts!) they were like a second set of parents to me too. All that to say, it’s not odd that I had breakfast with Eric’s parents without Steven (and Eric?)!! We had a wonderful time catching up!
We hung out with them a bit at the house, then when Steven got back we went into flight planning mode, which included figuring out where the heck to get fuel (and calling and confirming they could provide said fuel). Then we headed to 0N0 in Roosterville (ha, I forgot to mention in the Friday post that none of Steven’s friends at the reunion knew where this airport was), did preflight, etc. etc. and took off to GPH, which was only 6.7 miles away!
The flight was basically go up, descend to pattern altitude, and land. Seems easy, right? What we realized after this trip is that these short flights (this one was 9 minutes) don’t give us the time to plan in flight for landing like we usually do – check the field elevation, confirm pattern elevation, elevation to be at on final approach, if it’s left or right pattern, how to enter the pattern for the runway we are using, etc. Oh, and there is the task of FINDING the freaking airport at all, which is harder than you’d think sometimes.
It’s a lot. Too much to do in that amount of time. Next time, we’ll figure it all out before and just be confirm it in the air.
Also, this airport became super busy right before we entered the pattern. Someone was taking off, then after we called out how we were entering the pattern and what we were doing, two other planes confirmed they were right behind us (and the order we’d all land in). This was a non-towered airport, and everyone communicated really well, including helping us out when we misspoke on something.
When we landed we were like, “we need to go in, sit down, and refresh.” Yes, from a 9 minute flight.
We had them fuel the plane, and enjoyed the snacks and drinks (and air conditioning) at their FBO (Fixed-Based Operator). That was another learning lesson on this trip – we need to pack lunches if we’re flying through lunch time! We took off for that flight at 1:07 pm and for our next one at 2:05 pm, landing in 4M1 around 4:00. We were HUNGRY, especially for something more meal like and less snacky.
But I got ahead of myself. While at the FBO, we also did a debrief of our GPH to 4M1 flight, which of course, was going to have another headwind. We checked the fuel (each wing holds around 26.5 gallons and we had them add about 15 each – we didn’t want them too full since we were planning on flying with two more people the next day) did run-up, and took off.
It was neat flying out on the east side of Kansas City. We saw the lake Steven’s maternal grandparents lived by (small C-shaped lake near center of photo below):
Right after we took off, there was traffic that didn’t look like it was going to be an issue, but kept turning to be pointed at us. It obviously wasn’t an issue (we still exist) but it was annoying “WHY DO YOU KEEP CHANGING YOUR HEADING TO POINT AT US?!?!?!”
This flight was HOT. It was in the 90s when we left GPH. The AC is the Cessna is vents letting outside air in – there is no AC. Ha.
We actually went up from 5,500 MSL (mean sea level) to 7,500 to try to cool down and see if there was less of a headwind. That’s the highest altitude we’ve gone up to in the 172! It was kind of cooler? We are technically cooler now for having a new max. HAHAHAHAHA just seeing if you’re still reading.
We didn’t do flight following for this flight since it was short (180 miles) and not in heavily trafficked areas, so we felt free to chat and catch up on each other’s mornings and discuss the trip so far (without radio interruption).
When we got closer to the Missouri border the terrain changed quite a bit and we had some baby turbulence from thermal lift. Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!
(Edited to add: when we got close to 4M1 another plane was on it’s way to land there, I think from the east, and we were coming in from the north. We communicated with them and did a 360 to give them more space, even though they said they thought we were far enough apart. And we did a teardrop entry to the pattern, which was interesting – Steven hadn’t done many of them before this trip but did one then, in the morning at GPH, and the next day at HRO.)
We had a nice buttery smooth landing when we got to 4M1. Courtney and David were waiting for us at the airport, and as we unpacked and walked to the car I noticed the fuel system at that airport was also out of service. WONDERFUL.
We went back to their place and immediately scarfed down the delicious food they’d made us – smoked tofu burnt ends, potato salad, and cookies.
Then we just chatted for hours and hours (until after 11:00?). We hadn’t seen them in person since last October! Courtney and I text every day, but some stories are just better told in person. We never seem to run out of things to talk about!
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