I wrote about my Iron-Butt Florida roundtrip a couple weeks ago, that was predicated on getting back home quickly because "Grandma was dying, come quick!" Well, she did indeed pass away about a week later, and there was one more cousin up in Iowa that needed to come down here for the funeral and to begin cotton planting season here, so I saddled up to go get him.
I fueled up (67 gallons) and departed on Saturday May 9, and climbed out to 17,000 for the efficiency. There was a forecast tailwind that, as forecasts many times do, failed to materialize but at least my fuel burn was low on the way to Moline, IL KMLI, about 800 miles northeast. Temperature at altitude in Texas was +22F and at the same altitude at top of descent was +1F, but with the sunshade rolled back and the cabin heat on I was fine with a light jacket for the 5.2 hour duration. All pics were taken with an iPhone 6 with a dirty lens, sorry - you get what you pay for.
Crossing the Red River and saying goodbye to common sense for a bit as I leave the comfortable borders of Texas.
Tinker AFB off the right wing, home to some of our good fighting folks.
As I flew on a bit further I saw something in the distance that looked kinda interesting, a huge oil tank farm. I pulled up the sectional map on my Dynon HDX, and sure enough it is the storage tank farm at Cushing OK that everyone is so concerned about, being nearly completely full at the moment.
Traffic at this altitude is almost non-existent. Lower budget aircraft are well below me, and higher budget aircraft are way above, so usually there is very little to worry about. This is the only traffic I saw visually until I got down into the pattern at Moline, IL. I landed with 31 gallons still onboard of the original 67, tankering in my $1.84 fuel instead of buying more expensive fuel enroute.
I had a pretty good howling crosswind, not the tailwind that was forecast. I saw between 40 and 60 knots direct on the left wing all the way up there.
Alas, all good things come to an end, and I flew into a good solid undercast a couple hours out and the lookie-loo portion of the trip up was over.
I spent the night there with my cousin, enjoying some good steaks, good properly mixed beverages, and sitting out in the yard around a wood fire and BS'ing for a good while in perfect weather for that. We saddled up in the morning and departed for 1K1 just outside Wichita KS, since it was the only place around the halfway mark that I could find that had a cafe within walking distance of the airport AND was open on Mothers Day.
We had some IMC early on and then an undercast for most of the rest of the trip but I did get a couple good locations on my phone. We were at 8,000 and 10,000 on the way back for best winds.
Here is an endangered species in our modern era, a genuine still-operating coal-fired power plant. Note the train tracks looping around the plant for coal delivery.
Here is the Kansas City Raceway, home to many a fast car and frosty cold beverage.
And the Kansas City airport - if you look carefully you can see rows and rows of parked airliners on one of the shut-down runways.
Anyway - that was 5.2 up there and 5.7 back. Sometime next weekend when he finishes up the cotton planting it will be time to shuttle him back up there and extract another good steak from his grill. Another week after that it will be time for Florida again to retrieve the 172 after the Dynon panel install, and hopefully it will be a more relaxed trip than the previous one.
I fueled up (67 gallons) and departed on Saturday May 9, and climbed out to 17,000 for the efficiency. There was a forecast tailwind that, as forecasts many times do, failed to materialize but at least my fuel burn was low on the way to Moline, IL KMLI, about 800 miles northeast. Temperature at altitude in Texas was +22F and at the same altitude at top of descent was +1F, but with the sunshade rolled back and the cabin heat on I was fine with a light jacket for the 5.2 hour duration. All pics were taken with an iPhone 6 with a dirty lens, sorry - you get what you pay for.
Crossing the Red River and saying goodbye to common sense for a bit as I leave the comfortable borders of Texas.
Tinker AFB off the right wing, home to some of our good fighting folks.
As I flew on a bit further I saw something in the distance that looked kinda interesting, a huge oil tank farm. I pulled up the sectional map on my Dynon HDX, and sure enough it is the storage tank farm at Cushing OK that everyone is so concerned about, being nearly completely full at the moment.
Traffic at this altitude is almost non-existent. Lower budget aircraft are well below me, and higher budget aircraft are way above, so usually there is very little to worry about. This is the only traffic I saw visually until I got down into the pattern at Moline, IL. I landed with 31 gallons still onboard of the original 67, tankering in my $1.84 fuel instead of buying more expensive fuel enroute.
I had a pretty good howling crosswind, not the tailwind that was forecast. I saw between 40 and 60 knots direct on the left wing all the way up there.
Alas, all good things come to an end, and I flew into a good solid undercast a couple hours out and the lookie-loo portion of the trip up was over.
I spent the night there with my cousin, enjoying some good steaks, good properly mixed beverages, and sitting out in the yard around a wood fire and BS'ing for a good while in perfect weather for that. We saddled up in the morning and departed for 1K1 just outside Wichita KS, since it was the only place around the halfway mark that I could find that had a cafe within walking distance of the airport AND was open on Mothers Day.
We had some IMC early on and then an undercast for most of the rest of the trip but I did get a couple good locations on my phone. We were at 8,000 and 10,000 on the way back for best winds.
Here is an endangered species in our modern era, a genuine still-operating coal-fired power plant. Note the train tracks looping around the plant for coal delivery.
Here is the Kansas City Raceway, home to many a fast car and frosty cold beverage.
And the Kansas City airport - if you look carefully you can see rows and rows of parked airliners on one of the shut-down runways.
Anyway - that was 5.2 up there and 5.7 back. Sometime next weekend when he finishes up the cotton planting it will be time to shuttle him back up there and extract another good steak from his grill. Another week after that it will be time for Florida again to retrieve the 172 after the Dynon panel install, and hopefully it will be a more relaxed trip than the previous one.
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