Woo hoo, we got to add another new state to our flying map – Minnesota! Very exciting!

But first, our Thursday morning. I went with my snis to school drop off – I had some painted rocks I wanted to give her kindergartner’s teacher. It was fun to hand them off and get to see the kids’ school!

Some of the teachers were loving on my snis and telling me how much they appreciate her. I loved hearing that! She’s really passionate about being involved with the school and PTA and I like seeing her hard efforts recognized. I’m so proud of her.

Then, there was a Starbucks stop, of course:

We had breakfast at the house, and afterward Steven told me and Dad that the weather looked good to fly. Up until then I thought we’d be driving – somewhat typical last minute weather-based pilot decisions! You really don’t know if you are going until you go most of the time. Which I have become accustomed to but makes me a bit difficult to plan around. Anyway, we went to pack – which only took a couple minutes!

I mentioned we had to pack light – we had to make sure we didn’t exceed the useful load (weight of humans, fuel, and luggage) of the plane. All I brought (besides what I was wearing) was a sweater, underwear, socks, PJs, deodorant, makeup, makeup wipes, my medicine, credit cards and ID, a phone charger, and my headset for the plane. AND OF COURSE A FEW SOFTLIPS. Oh! And a tiny painted rock. That was basically it. I didn’t even pack a water bottle (and was so thirsty!). We packed VERY light. Go us! It inspired me to pack lighter overall in the future, because I packed too much for this trip (granted, I only had a few minutes to pack and was just throwing things in a bag).

We loaded the plane, did flight planning, preflight, and run-up, and took off at 11:51. It looked great when we left Waterloo – still Visual Flight Rules (VFR).

It quickly became Marginal Visual Flight Rules (MVFR) though. Which is fine – you can still fly VFR in these conditions it’s just… marginal, meaning clouds are lower and/or there is less visibility. As long as you fly 1000′ above congested areas (and 500′ above non-congested areas) you’re good.

It’s fun to fly so low, because you see a lot more on the ground. But there are A LOT of wind turbines in Iowa and Minnesota.

And here’s the funny (???) thing – when we purchased the paper sectional charts for this trip we got Chicago and Twin Cities (see diagram below). Then when we put the charts out, we realized a section was missing along our route (red line). We figured we’d be fine – we’d have the sectional on our iPads.

Well, the iPads stopped working – they lost wireless access from the transponder. The sectional went out on it right when Steven was asking me how many more wind turbines there were, and where they were. Great.

So I pull out the two maps. And we’re in that area we DON’T HAVE.

Fantastic.

But! We were low enough to the ground that I had a strong cell signal on my phone, so I pulled up the sectional there and pointed out all the obstacles to him along the way. We were 500’+ above them all, but it’s good to know where they are!

So yeah, that was interesting. Lesson learned – buy all the sectional charts AND download the sectional chart to the iPad prior to departure (something we did for the flight back!).

Weather remained marginal the entire flight there. We didn’t encounter any other traffic, thankfully. With us being so close to the ground, there would not be much space to maneuver if needed.

It was neat to get a view of the city as we flew in! I feel bad that Steven misses this views but it’s more important that he, ya know, fly the plane. I show him the photos later.

We did a good job playing “find the airport”! When we landed (1:37 pm) we told tower we were going to the FBO (fixed-base operator). They told us they don’t have one. Ha, that explains why no one answered when we called them.

We had planned to leave the plane in a hangar and have them assist with fuel, but that’s okay! The weather didn’t look bad for the evening so we tied the plane down on a general aviation ramp.

Steven had planned out our flight well for fuel – we started with 34 gallons and used around 20 total and were down to 12-14. That was enough to make the “low fuel” light come on at the end of the flight! It was my first time seeing that! For VFR flying you are required (recommended?) to have 30 extra minutes of fuel for daylight and 45 minutes for nighttime. We still had well over an hour of fuel left.

After we were done at the airport I got an Uber to Stray Dog for a late lunch. One of Steven’s staff had told him about this bar that has a regular and vegan menu. It was all delish!

Then we walked the mile to our hotel. It felt good to walk and get some steps in after sitting for 2 hours in the plane. And since we packed so light it wasn’t a big deal to carry all our stuff!

We checked into our rooms then I met an old coworker (he got RIF’d in March – sorry, government talk – RIF is reduction in force – he was fired as part of mass firings) for a drink. I wasn’t sure what to order so I got the same as him – a gin & tonic. It was my first time having one and it was hella strong. I was feeling good! And had a great time chatting with him. Steven came down to meet my coworker and help me finish my drink.

Then I knocked on Dad’s hotel door at 6:30 and we walked to the concert! More to come!