Recent Recap

Things of late...

Started formation flying (aka "flying dangerously close to other aircraft...and doing so on purpose"). The first flight scared me a good deal, and I didn't even fly that much of it...but the second felt a lot better. Looking forward to my next shot in the formation medium.

Finished cross country. Great fun! Changed the itinerary a bit.

We went to Omaha first, looking for a specific type of instrument approach that has proven beguilingly difficult to find nowadays. The one at Offutt AFB in town was broken, like so many, so we opted for a quick landing and some Jimmy John's.

Off to Duluth, Minnesota, through frozen rain and nighttime at 29,000 feet. Pretty high up!

In Duluth, spent a good deal of time enjoying Sammy's pizza, cruising along the lake shore (by airplane, by foot), drinking coffee, and admiring planes - saw a Canadian jet on the ramp at the airport, and got the pleasure of seeing a sweet airplane factory, Cirrus. Woot!

On the way back, flew low and slow over the southern edge of Lake Superior. Found some sweet islands to admire. Flew into the weather a bit, though, so we recovered by instruments to LaCrosse, WI. No problem, we thought, we'll be off to Lincoln, Nebraska before we can say "cheesehead." Well, a major aircraft accident at Vance, my home base, changed that (everyone was okay, no worries there).

So we spent a good deal of time in LaCrosse, home of the world's most bars-per-capita. Saw the Harlem Globetrotters, walked the Mississippi River, had Cajun food, enjoyed beer.

The flight back, we finally got those beguiling approaches in a little airport in northwestern Missouri. I'll be eternally grateful to St. Joseph, and their awesome PAR controllers. Much love.

Back to Woodring airport in Enid, where I got my first double-clicked landing (that's a good thing!).