First flight with my wife! (long)

One of the goals of getting my pilot license was to be able to go
places with my wife and kids. Frankly, I'm tired of driving, I love
to fly, and it makes getting places faster and a lot more fun. My
wife still had some reservations about flying with me, however. I
don't blame her; sometimes I'm scared to fly with me too! Despite
this, I talked her into a trip this weekend from Laramie, WY (LAR) up
to Deadwood, SD--her first crosscountry with me, and her first time in
a small plane in about ten years.
We launched Saturday morning around 8:15 for the two hour flight.
It is normally a 4 1/2 or 5 hour drive for us, so the time savings
right off the bat is a great selling point. The flight up was
severe-clear, and smooth, except for some light chop around Laramie
Peak and just over the Black Hills. Visibility was great, and we
could see Devil's Tower about 50 nm to the North West as we approached
Spearfish (SPF).
The descent into SPF was fun. The airport sits in a hole,
surrounded by the Black Hills. Field elevation is 3931, and you have
to clear a ridge above 8000 feet 15 miles South of the airport. I
chopped power as soon as I crossed the ridge, descended at 1000 fpm
and barely made it down to pattern altitude in time. There are also
several hills located strategically around the airport, so it was a
bit intimidating.
Winds at SPF were interesting. They were blowing 210 at 15,
gusting to 20, and the only paved runway is 12-30. uh-oh--90 degree
direct crosswind at the maximum demonstrated crosswind component. I
told my wife that we would make one low pass at the paved runway, then
probably use the turf 21-03 (2023x150). I made the pass at the paved
runway and needed full right rudder and a lot of left aileron to
maintain the center line, so I quickly decided to use the turf,
despite club policy to the contrary. I felt it was a lot safer at the
time to use the turf directly into the wind, rather than risk sliding
it in sideways on the pavement.
The hill off the approach end of 21 looks huge when you are on
downwind, but I put it out of my mind and flew the pattern. And is
that a runway or a hay meadow down there!? My instructor and I had
gone into a dirt strip during training so I wasn't too concerned about
my soft field technique, but the short field looked tiny. only 2000
feet, so short and soft.
I nailed the pattern and my speeds, and landed beautifully. A
nice, soft and short landing, and stopped in probably the first 800
feet of the strip. I now wished I had landed a little long; it took
forever to taxi to the end of the turf and up onto the pavement to
taxi down the runway to the FBO. Take a look at the airport diagram
at http://www.aopa.org/members/airports...d_pdfs/SPF.pdf.
Some friends picked us up at the gate, and it was off to Deadwood
for a weekend of fun!
We got a late start on Sunday morning, about 12:30, and the
forecast called for the chance of thunderstorms later on that
afternoon. The sattelite showed up clear along our route, however, so
I decided to go ahead and go.
I had told my wife that, despite being a great airplane, the 172
we were in was too small and slow as a family airplane; that a 182
would be a much better plane for us. Well, she picked up a Controller
magazine at SPF, and spent the first part of the trip home going
through it and circling all the 182s! WooHoo! Maybe it won't take as
long as I thought to turn her on to airplanes!
It was nice and smooth, albiet a little hot, but when I got
further South, I noticed a cell building up around Laramie Peak, and
it looked rather dark to the South towards Cheyenne as well. I called
Casper radio, and asked for the weather along our route, and it was as
I feared. A line of cells building along the Laramie range starting
at Laramie peak and going South past Cheyenne, all the way into
Colorado. I decided to divert to Douglas (DGW), 20 miles to the
North, and wait it out, check the weather at home in Laramie, and hope
we could make it home that day.
I checked the weather, and sure enough, the only cells in the
area were directly over where I needed to be. Oh well. We borrowed
the courtesy car and drove into Douglas for some mexican food.
We got back to the airport, and I checked the weather again,
called Casper FSS, and also called my Dad back in Laramie to get a
good picture of what was going on. There were still cells along our
intended route, but it looked like if I went West and North of Laramie
Peak before turning South towards Laramie, I could get in behind the
thunderstorms. In addition, Dad said it didn't look like there was
anything building around Laramie anymore, and FSS said that the
convective activity looked like it was subsiding. Casper was still
clear so I had a good alternate if I needed it, so I went ahead and
launched.
The flight was mostly uneventful, aside from some amazing climb
rates when we crossed the Laramie range. I got in an updraft that was
taking us up at 1000 fpm at normal cruise speed. I just went with it,
and decided that 12500 would give me a better safety margin than 10500
anyway , in case we found a downdraft to match. My wife slept the
entire leg, so I guess she is a little more comfortable flying now!
Laramie was calm, which is almost unheard of, and I made a great
landing to bring us home safely.
Despite it being only my second crosscountry since getting my
license, I was fairly proud of my flying, and of my decision making.
At no time did I let get-there or get-home-itis creep into the
process, and I felt all legs were maded with plenty of safety margin.
Best of all, I didn't scare my wife and she didn't get sick, so maybe
this kind of thing will become common. WooHoo!


WW