A month or so ago, my wife Sandi was invited to attend a scrapbooking retreat with a friend of ours in the Minneapolis area. (Our ladies need their hobbies too!) What better way to get there than in the RV-9A. If the trip came together it would be a nice trip for both of us since she would be off doing her thing, I would have the opportunity to rub some elbows with some of the local RV'rs, of which MSP has a lot.
The plan was to depart Kansas City on Friday afternoon (21st) and return on Sunday. At 150kts, the trip would be about 2hrs and 45 mins. I dropped an email to fellow RV-9A'r, Pete Howell to let him know I was coming to town. Pete and I have chatted and swapped some emails over the last year so it would be a great opportunity to meet him. Pete even arranged to get a spot in a hangar for me at 21D where I'd be staying close by.
Friday dawned to a great day in Kansas City but the weather in the MSP area was rainy. Decisions, decisions. We decided to head out. Worst case, we'd have to set down somewhere and finish the trip Saturday morning. We launched from KOWI, our home airport, around 2:30pm and quickly climbed to 9,500 ft to get on top of the Kansas City Class B airspace. Once leveled out we picked up flight following. The ride was smooth but our ground speed was only 133knots. When we got north of Des Moines, we had to drop down to 5,500ft to stay under a cloud deck. We pickedup some mild turbulence but also picked up a little ground speed. Our flight following got cancelled since they wouldn't be able to pick us up on radar for very long.
As we got closer to MSP we could see the weather wasn't to hot. A call into FSS revealed rain showers surrounding most of the MSP area except off to the west side, opposite end of town we were headed to. About 60 miles south of MSP we couldnt' continue any farther without getting wet. I skirted around the rain showers to see if there might be a way through but didn't find any, so we set down in Austin, MN (KAUM) about 75 miles south of the twin-cities. A fresh, concrete 5,800 ft runway and a brand-spanking new FBO building. It was a very nice place. Bruce from Austin Aeroflight gave us keys to the courtesy car and gave us directions into town for some dinner. After a bite to eat and a quick tour of downtown Austin, we headed back to the airport to check on the weather. Radar was indicating some rain activity between us and where we wanted to be but there was a narrow band that we might be able to get through as most of the heavy stuff was off to the west. Told Sandi we might as well pop up and see what it looked like, if we were lucky we could get through, otherwise we'd just come back to Austin and crash for the night.
We took off and headed north. We could see the heavy rain showers off to the west and a small batch off to the east but sure enough, there was a path between the two. We picked up a light mist as we passed under the clouds but kept moving forward. The radar indicated it was clear on the other side and the visibility was still good. 20 minutes later we were wheels down at Lake Elmo Airport (21D). Mike (husband of Sandi's friend Donna) picked us up and drove us out to the retreat where Sandi would be doing her thing for the weekend. I called Pete to let him know we had made it but it was too late to get the plane in the hangar for the night.
Pete put me in touch with Doug, a 757 pilot for NW and RV-4 builder/pilot. Doug and his hangar mate Paul (RV-7A builder) had the hangar I would put up in. The plans for Saturday morning were to fly out to breakfast with some local RV'rs and he'd call me in the morning.
Saturday dawned.... socked in with fog. IFR everywhere. Doug called to let me know the breakfast run was cancelled but if I wanted to ride with him in his RV-4 over to Anoka County around 9:30 I could tag along while he visited Alex Peterson. Alex and Doug have decided to install the Lightspeed ignition system in their planes and Alex was just getting started. I met Doug at the hangar, where we pulled his plane out and put mine in. We hopped over to Anoka County (short 10 min flight) and hung out with Alex for an hour or so, helping him pull off his prop. Back at Lake Elmo, Doug proceeded to start on his installation by doing and oil change and pull his mags off. I got wrangled into helping the guy in the hangar next door install some bolts on his Cessna 305C Birddog. Back in Doug's hangar and feeling motivated by Doug's work, I did a little maintenance on my bird. The nosegear strut fairing had come look, I loosened my right brake pedal a bit and tweaked my right aileron to correct a heavy right wing.
Wanting to fly, I went out for a bit on my own and bombed around. Headed back over to Anoka County for some $3.30 gas which I saw advertised earlier in the morning when I was over with Doug. Nice airport.. lots of warbirds around. Saw two L-39's do a formation landing while I was getting fueld up.
Made plans with Pete to meet him at Lake Elmo around 8:30 to go do some flying in the RV-9A. He's ridden in several RV's but never an RV-9A, so this would be a good opportunity. Sunday morning came with clear blue skies... and a phone call from Sandi asking me if I had seen the weather report in Kansas City. She was looking online and the forecase was for severe t-storms all afternoon. Our planned departure was to be around 2:30-3:00... but plans change. New plan was to go flying with Pete for a bit and then I'd fly up to Osceola, WI which as just a few miles down the road from where she was at to pick her up and head home....hopefully in time to beat the t-storms in KC.
Pete and I hopped in and when for a quick flight.... I let him fly for a bit and we just dinked around. He asked for some stalls, so we did a couple of no flap and full flap stalls. He's all fired up now to get his RV-9A finished. The RV-9A is just a fantastic airplane to fly. We did a couple of landings which demonstrated my need to practice some crosswind landings with passengers. Not my best landings by any means. Thanks go out to Pete for getting me a hangar and hooking me up with Doug.
A quick hop up to KOEO to pick up Sandi. Just as we were about to leave, an RV-3 taxied up. Those are neat little airplanes. This one was a 25-year project finished about a year and half ago. We departed KOEO direct for KOWI. Picked up flight following after leveling at 8,500 with a ground speed of 164 knots. The closer we go to Kansas City, the hazier it got but we sure didn't see any clouds that would indicate t-storm activity. Looks like we'd make it home just fine. Wheels down about 2:00 and we were sitting at Applebee's for some lunch at 2:30.
The hobbs read 61.0 hours at shutdown... total time for the whole trip: 9.3 hours. It was a great trip and Sandi especially had a good time and was really fired up about the whole thing when we got home. We have plans for every weekend in May going into June. There's nothing like touring the country in your RV. I figure we spent about $215 in gas for the whole trip and spent about 6.5 hours traveling there and back. (Minus my time of just goofing off.) Two non-stop, round trip tickets from KC to MSP would have cost us $600 and we would have spent 7.5 hours of traveling. The trip in the RV was much better!
KOEO just prior to depature
The plan was to depart Kansas City on Friday afternoon (21st) and return on Sunday. At 150kts, the trip would be about 2hrs and 45 mins. I dropped an email to fellow RV-9A'r, Pete Howell to let him know I was coming to town. Pete and I have chatted and swapped some emails over the last year so it would be a great opportunity to meet him. Pete even arranged to get a spot in a hangar for me at 21D where I'd be staying close by.
Friday dawned to a great day in Kansas City but the weather in the MSP area was rainy. Decisions, decisions. We decided to head out. Worst case, we'd have to set down somewhere and finish the trip Saturday morning. We launched from KOWI, our home airport, around 2:30pm and quickly climbed to 9,500 ft to get on top of the Kansas City Class B airspace. Once leveled out we picked up flight following. The ride was smooth but our ground speed was only 133knots. When we got north of Des Moines, we had to drop down to 5,500ft to stay under a cloud deck. We pickedup some mild turbulence but also picked up a little ground speed. Our flight following got cancelled since they wouldn't be able to pick us up on radar for very long.
As we got closer to MSP we could see the weather wasn't to hot. A call into FSS revealed rain showers surrounding most of the MSP area except off to the west side, opposite end of town we were headed to. About 60 miles south of MSP we couldnt' continue any farther without getting wet. I skirted around the rain showers to see if there might be a way through but didn't find any, so we set down in Austin, MN (KAUM) about 75 miles south of the twin-cities. A fresh, concrete 5,800 ft runway and a brand-spanking new FBO building. It was a very nice place. Bruce from Austin Aeroflight gave us keys to the courtesy car and gave us directions into town for some dinner. After a bite to eat and a quick tour of downtown Austin, we headed back to the airport to check on the weather. Radar was indicating some rain activity between us and where we wanted to be but there was a narrow band that we might be able to get through as most of the heavy stuff was off to the west. Told Sandi we might as well pop up and see what it looked like, if we were lucky we could get through, otherwise we'd just come back to Austin and crash for the night.
We took off and headed north. We could see the heavy rain showers off to the west and a small batch off to the east but sure enough, there was a path between the two. We picked up a light mist as we passed under the clouds but kept moving forward. The radar indicated it was clear on the other side and the visibility was still good. 20 minutes later we were wheels down at Lake Elmo Airport (21D). Mike (husband of Sandi's friend Donna) picked us up and drove us out to the retreat where Sandi would be doing her thing for the weekend. I called Pete to let him know we had made it but it was too late to get the plane in the hangar for the night.
Pete put me in touch with Doug, a 757 pilot for NW and RV-4 builder/pilot. Doug and his hangar mate Paul (RV-7A builder) had the hangar I would put up in. The plans for Saturday morning were to fly out to breakfast with some local RV'rs and he'd call me in the morning.
Saturday dawned.... socked in with fog. IFR everywhere. Doug called to let me know the breakfast run was cancelled but if I wanted to ride with him in his RV-4 over to Anoka County around 9:30 I could tag along while he visited Alex Peterson. Alex and Doug have decided to install the Lightspeed ignition system in their planes and Alex was just getting started. I met Doug at the hangar, where we pulled his plane out and put mine in. We hopped over to Anoka County (short 10 min flight) and hung out with Alex for an hour or so, helping him pull off his prop. Back at Lake Elmo, Doug proceeded to start on his installation by doing and oil change and pull his mags off. I got wrangled into helping the guy in the hangar next door install some bolts on his Cessna 305C Birddog. Back in Doug's hangar and feeling motivated by Doug's work, I did a little maintenance on my bird. The nosegear strut fairing had come look, I loosened my right brake pedal a bit and tweaked my right aileron to correct a heavy right wing.
Wanting to fly, I went out for a bit on my own and bombed around. Headed back over to Anoka County for some $3.30 gas which I saw advertised earlier in the morning when I was over with Doug. Nice airport.. lots of warbirds around. Saw two L-39's do a formation landing while I was getting fueld up.
Made plans with Pete to meet him at Lake Elmo around 8:30 to go do some flying in the RV-9A. He's ridden in several RV's but never an RV-9A, so this would be a good opportunity. Sunday morning came with clear blue skies... and a phone call from Sandi asking me if I had seen the weather report in Kansas City. She was looking online and the forecase was for severe t-storms all afternoon. Our planned departure was to be around 2:30-3:00... but plans change. New plan was to go flying with Pete for a bit and then I'd fly up to Osceola, WI which as just a few miles down the road from where she was at to pick her up and head home....hopefully in time to beat the t-storms in KC.
Pete and I hopped in and when for a quick flight.... I let him fly for a bit and we just dinked around. He asked for some stalls, so we did a couple of no flap and full flap stalls. He's all fired up now to get his RV-9A finished. The RV-9A is just a fantastic airplane to fly. We did a couple of landings which demonstrated my need to practice some crosswind landings with passengers. Not my best landings by any means. Thanks go out to Pete for getting me a hangar and hooking me up with Doug.
A quick hop up to KOEO to pick up Sandi. Just as we were about to leave, an RV-3 taxied up. Those are neat little airplanes. This one was a 25-year project finished about a year and half ago. We departed KOEO direct for KOWI. Picked up flight following after leveling at 8,500 with a ground speed of 164 knots. The closer we go to Kansas City, the hazier it got but we sure didn't see any clouds that would indicate t-storm activity. Looks like we'd make it home just fine. Wheels down about 2:00 and we were sitting at Applebee's for some lunch at 2:30.
The hobbs read 61.0 hours at shutdown... total time for the whole trip: 9.3 hours. It was a great trip and Sandi especially had a good time and was really fired up about the whole thing when we got home. We have plans for every weekend in May going into June. There's nothing like touring the country in your RV. I figure we spent about $215 in gas for the whole trip and spent about 6.5 hours traveling there and back. (Minus my time of just goofing off.) Two non-stop, round trip tickets from KC to MSP would have cost us $600 and we would have spent 7.5 hours of traveling. The trip in the RV was much better!
KOEO just prior to depature
