Sandi's maiden flight is a long x-country (OWI-SIK)
Saturday dawned to beautiful skies and promised to be a great day. We had planned a cross-country flight to Sikeston, MO which was 288nm. Sikeston is home of Lamberts Cafe, Home of the Throwed Rolls.
I had just changed the oil and put some shims underneath the HS front spar, so I went up for a quick test flight to make sure all was well before heading out with Sandi. Everything checked out OK, so off we went.
It was a smooth flight over the Ozark mountains. At 6,500ft we caught a great tailwind with ground speeds of 175kts. It took right at 2 hours to get there. An approach into Sikeston with a couple of 360's to loose some altitude and a nice landing. As we were walking up to the terminal building, the lineman said he had already called Lamberts to come and get us. How did he know we wanted to go to Lamberts?? We didn't say anything on the radio... telepathic I guess. 5 minutes later, Chris showed up in the minivan and took us over. It's only 1.5 miles down the road. Pilots get escorted in the back door and get seated ahead of everyone. Since it was early, seating wasn't an issue.
Lambert's is a place you definatly need to visit. It's a southern home-cooking kind of place that is all-you-can eat. It's isn't a buffet.. you just ask for more if you want it. In addition to AYCE, they walk around with bowls of fixin's like fried okra, macaroni-n-tomatoes, fried potatoes, black-eyed peas at no cost. At what makes them famous is their freshly baked rolls that they THROW to you from across the room. You just stick your hand up and they toss them to you. Cost for Sandi an I... $20! She had the chicken wings and I had sausage and kraut.
When you are done eating, just let me know you need a ride back to the airport. Chris was kind enough to drop us off in downtown Sikeston for a little sight seein'. Turns out there really wasn't much to see. We stopped at the Depot Museum and saw some local high school art and they had some museum stuff for the local cotton industry.
We walked back to the airport a couple of miles to work off the lunch and headed back home. The flight home was a bit bumpy.... Sandi was struggling a bit to stay calm. She hasn't flown in awhile so it will take her a couple of flights to get used to turbulence. I tried several altitudes looking for calm air but couldn't find any. As we got closer to home the clouds were building to our south and looked like they might encroach on our flight back. A quick call to FSS for a weather report told us that we would probably be OK, the storm was to our south and dissipating. We did pass by a couple of cloud banks. A stop at Paola (K81) with a direct cross-wind landing for some fuel ($2.93) and then a quick flight home to put the bird away.
5.1 hours on the hobbs and a great day of flying! Sandi had a great time (besides the turbulence). We will definatly be back to Sikeston for some lunch. Sandi also wants to check out the Outlet Malls in town that we didn't get to.
I had just changed the oil and put some shims underneath the HS front spar, so I went up for a quick test flight to make sure all was well before heading out with Sandi. Everything checked out OK, so off we went.
It was a smooth flight over the Ozark mountains. At 6,500ft we caught a great tailwind with ground speeds of 175kts. It took right at 2 hours to get there. An approach into Sikeston with a couple of 360's to loose some altitude and a nice landing. As we were walking up to the terminal building, the lineman said he had already called Lamberts to come and get us. How did he know we wanted to go to Lamberts?? We didn't say anything on the radio... telepathic I guess. 5 minutes later, Chris showed up in the minivan and took us over. It's only 1.5 miles down the road. Pilots get escorted in the back door and get seated ahead of everyone. Since it was early, seating wasn't an issue.
Lambert's is a place you definatly need to visit. It's a southern home-cooking kind of place that is all-you-can eat. It's isn't a buffet.. you just ask for more if you want it. In addition to AYCE, they walk around with bowls of fixin's like fried okra, macaroni-n-tomatoes, fried potatoes, black-eyed peas at no cost. At what makes them famous is their freshly baked rolls that they THROW to you from across the room. You just stick your hand up and they toss them to you. Cost for Sandi an I... $20! She had the chicken wings and I had sausage and kraut.
When you are done eating, just let me know you need a ride back to the airport. Chris was kind enough to drop us off in downtown Sikeston for a little sight seein'. Turns out there really wasn't much to see. We stopped at the Depot Museum and saw some local high school art and they had some museum stuff for the local cotton industry.
We walked back to the airport a couple of miles to work off the lunch and headed back home. The flight home was a bit bumpy.... Sandi was struggling a bit to stay calm. She hasn't flown in awhile so it will take her a couple of flights to get used to turbulence. I tried several altitudes looking for calm air but couldn't find any. As we got closer to home the clouds were building to our south and looked like they might encroach on our flight back. A quick call to FSS for a weather report told us that we would probably be OK, the storm was to our south and dissipating. We did pass by a couple of cloud banks. A stop at Paola (K81) with a direct cross-wind landing for some fuel ($2.93) and then a quick flight home to put the bird away.
5.1 hours on the hobbs and a great day of flying! Sandi had a great time (besides the turbulence). We will definatly be back to Sikeston for some lunch. Sandi also wants to check out the Outlet Malls in town that we didn't get to.
posted by Matthew at 8:20 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home