Steven booked a plane for a good chunk of time Saturday afternoon so we decided to fly somewhere new-to-us and ended up in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin. Random, right? Here’s how I search for new places to fly:
- How far away is it?
- How complicated is it to fly there?
- Is there anything to do near the airport?
- Does the airport have a courtesy car we can use to get around?
- Bonus – does it expand to a new area on our flying map?
The research involves a lot of zooming into airports on google maps and searching for food, coffee, activites, etc. And that is how we ended up in Fond du Lac yesterday. Just under an hour flight ✔️ free courtesy car ✔️ and a few coffee shops to try ✔️
We had a fun adventure and one of our most successful flights! Steven’s radio communication was perfect, there wasn’t a lot of other aircraft in the sky to think about, the weather cooperated, and we found the Fond du Lac airport easily. Woo hoo!
Now, if anyone cares, some details.
It warmed up a bit yesterday (it was in the 30s!), but it was pretty windy when we got to the airport – 20 knot winds with gusts at 29. We preflighted in the hangar, pulled the airplane out ourselves (first time!),
then I stayed with the airplane while Steven went back to close the hangar door to make sure it didn’t start rolling forward because of the wind.
And guess what? It did a bit. Nutso!
While we finished preflight, Steven had me hold the yoke in place because the wind was making the ailerons flap around so much (I always feel so good when I can “help” with something, even if it’s this simple).
All that buildup to say that after takeoff we were thrown around a bit by the wind but it leveled out when we got to our 4,500 MSL cruising altitude, and was smooth sailing.
A direct path from Waukegan to Fond du Lac would have taken us through Kenosha airspace (class D) and Milwaukee airspace (class C), so we flew more to the west than necessary (magenta part of path below) at the start to avoid that. Then we did a direct route.
We actually flew over a class D airport – Waukesha – but we were 1000+ feet over their airspace, so we didn’t have to communicate with them (but tuned into their frequency just in cases).
Like I said, it was a mostly quiet day with hardly any other general aviation planes out, and we were grateful! We enjoyed a bit of sightseeing – pointing out airports, the Milwaukee skyline, large quarries, sprawling suburbs,
lakes with ice fishers, wind turbines, etc.
Ha, I say it was quiet, but right when we got to Fond du Lac, two planes were taking off right before we were landing. It’s funny how timing works out like that!
As I saw those planes on ForeFlight (flying app we use) but could not find them in the air I realized a math mistake I was making, by not doing it. Let’s say we were at 2500 MSL and ForeFlight said those planes were -17, meaning 1700 feet below us. So I am expecting them to be in the sky (because otherwise wouldn’t it say -25?) and that is where I am looking for them.
BUT, this is MSL (mean sea level), not AGL (above ground level). Which means I need to account for how high above sea level we are, which is 800 feet. So when it says they are -17, they are actually on the ground. So… yeah. I need to keep that in mind.
Blah blah blah. Always learning!
Steven had a great landing! Well, I rated it 9/10, and he said 6/10 then later came around. He had done a ton of prep work to familiarize himself with the area around the airport so he’d know where to enter the pattern, when to turn base, and final.
We did really well with our prep work! Like I mentioned, I was super proud of us for finding the airport right away too. The snow actually helps with that – the runways stand out more.
We wanted to tie the plane down because it had been so windy at our home airport, but all the tie downs were frozen with ice in them. And it was actually calmer. So we put some chocks out and hoped for the best (just kidding – we never “hope for the best” – we would not have left it like that if we weren’t comfortable with it).
The Fond du Lac FBO (fixed-base operator) was really nice, and so was the guy working there.
Steven signed out the courtesy car (it was free for an hour and $25 an hour after), said he would adhere to the strict instructions NOT to touch the lights as to not drain the battery, and we were off!
We went to Just Love Coffee Cafe. I got a chai and Steven tried the coco loco latte. Neither was spectacular, like, I wouldn’t fly an hour to get it again ha ha ha, but they were decent!
We drove through downtown on the way back and were only a few minutes late with the car. We brought back a muffin from the cafe for the FBO worker and I hoped that would make him change his mind if he was thinking about charging us! But he didn’t seem like the type to care (and wasn’t).
We did flight planning, preflighted the plane, and were on our way! The winds had died down, which was nice – only 9 knots, no gusts.
I almost forgot to mention, the density altitude was so low, we had crazy vertical airspeeds on takeoff at both airports – 1000′ a minute. Nuts! We got to our 5,500 cruising altitude in no time.
We followed a reverse course to avoid those airspaces again. And it was quiet, like on the way out. I really enjoyed seeing the sun start to lower and create some beautiful color.
We had a bit of a tailwind, kinda, so we got back a bit quicker (47 mins) than on the way out (58 mins).
Steven had a smooth 10/10 landing, and we did all the postflight stuff (including the “hurry hurry I have to pee” portion) and that was that. A fun day ending with a beautiful sunset.
