A Marvelous Day to Fly

After many consecutive days of crappy weather, with the plane down for
annual, today dawned inauspiciously enough, with more rain.

This seemed like a good excuse to go back to bed, so in a fit of decadence
we did. We were enjoying a rare "true" day off from the inn, and neither
of us could remember the last time we had been able to such a thing...

When we awakened, the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, the winds
were light -- the sky was calling!

A short drive to the hangar was followed by an extra careful pre-flight --
post-annual flights demand extra-careful ones. You don't know what you
might discover, so each screw, bolt, hinge and rivet receives extra
attention.

Determining that everything was kosher, it was off to Clinton, Iowa, to pay
a visit to the guy who re-did our interior last fall. It seems he never
actually signed my logbooks, and the A&P doing my annual took a dim view of
having an entirely new interior installed without SOME sort of sign-off --
so it was off to see Frank Goodenow, upholstery guru.

The flight over was grand, with 100 mile visibility, light chop down low,
and crisp, clean, calm air above. We could see to the ends of the earth,
and smoke from power plants was rising stick-straight up to infinity.

We were there in no time, making 159 knots all the way. (Removing that old
Loran antenna at the annual must have really cleaned up the airframe! :-)
Old Frank seemingly hadn't moved in the five intervening months since I'd
last seen him -- he was still at his sewing machine, hammering out interior
sidewalls as fast as he could make 'em. (We saw Dave Butler's gorgeous
Pathfinder -- the only other one I've seen -- getting a new interior. Wow,
it's going to be great looking!)

After wrapping up our business with Frank (he gave Mary a bunch of extra
side-wall material so that she could make her booster pillow match the
plane -- what a guy!), it was off for a short leg to Muscatine for lunch.

Mary flew this leg, and the air just couldn't have been smoother. We
marveled at the flooded landscape -- a week of solid rain will do that in
Iowa -- as we cruised to a terrific meal at the "Good Earth" right across
the street from the airport... Great food, good prices, and usually ugly
waitresses (although today, for some strange reason, we had a knock-out
blond waiting on us. She won't last. ;-) are what the Good Earth is all
about -- if you're ever in the vicinity, give 'em a try.

Then it was my turn again, back to Iowa City. Again, conditions were
perfect, and Atlas was running like a champ. It was just one of those
perfect days to fly, and everything was just right -- the plane, the
weather, and the timing -- all were perfect!

After tucking Atlas away in his hangar, Mary had to go fetch the kids from
school, leaving me to touch up the paint, and goof around with re-routing
our maze of wiring for our yoke mount GPSs. After spending all afternoon
tinkering with the plane, she returned with the kids, who skate-boarded and
rode their bikes around the airport while I finished standing on my head,
zip tying wired every which way...

Soon the kids were mowling about dinner -- what to do? Well, shoot, the sky
was still a pretty shade of blue, the winds were non-existent, and we had
full tanks -- let's take 'er up again! This time it was to Amana for
dinner, at one of the great German restaurants, located just a block or two
from the little grass strip in Amana.

Coming into land, we were very aware that we were landing on a grass strip
after six or seven consecutive days of rain. Ready at any moment to do a
"go-round", Mary flew Atlas in to a perfect soft-field touch down on runway
08. The grass was longer than normal, but otherwise not bad at all.

After a marvelous dinner (served family style, as always, followed by
homemade pie ala mode), we waddled our way back to the airport . Before
starting up I had the kids scare five good-sized deer off the runway...

It took a fair amount of power to taxi in the long, wet grass, but I
executed a text-book soft-field departure, and we enjoyed a gorgeous sunset
flight back to Iowa City. With my 13-year old son flying all the way into
the pattern, we ended the night with a perfect chirper of a landing...

Four airports and two "hundred dollar hamburgers" in one day -- what a great
day! I hope you are also enjoying the same (long over-due) wonderful flying
weather we're having here in the Midwest!
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"