Day 3 - The Trip Home
(To see all 170+ photo's from our trip, go here.)
Sunday morning... It rained during the night and there was some scattered clouds when we woke up. We piled into the car with sis, mom, gary, sandi and I and headed to breakfast. After some food and a quick trip back to the 'Inn', we headed to the airport. The family hung out with us for an hour or so while we waited for things to clear up a bit more. The plan was to depart and fly an hour west to McMinnville airport where fuel was cheaper. I had probably 16-18gals in the tanks so thought we could make it over there fairly easy. I looked at weather on the internet and it was kinda spotty with some areas be clear and others being overcast. I called the AWOS at McMinnville on my cell phone and they were reporting clear below 12,000. So we hugged the family and said goodbye and made our departure.
Pretty much as soon as we got out of the valley and up to 8,500 feet it was pretty much solid overcast as far west as we could see. We picked up flight following and then made a call to FSS to see if they could get us the weather at McMinnville. Unfortunately, the couldn't get us the actual weather but the nearest report was saying overcast. With the fuel gauges bouncing on 1/4 tank, solid overcast in front of us we kinda weighed our options. Knoxville was the closest airport with fuel but was also overcast. There was an airport directly underneath us but they were closed. Soooooo.. we turned around and went back to Macon County and paid $4.14 for fuel instead of $3.36. (If you want gory details about this little diversion... ask Sandi about this some time, her version is a little more dramatic!)
So back in the air we go, full fuel and snacks purchased (which Sandi forgot to do before we left the first time). With full tanks, we didn't have any good reason to stop on the way home, so we flew non-stop from 1A5 to KLXT! It was just under 4.5 hours total. We had a head wind coming home, so our ground speed averaged around 134kts. We stopped at KLXT because EAA Chapter 91 was having a cook-out and it was a good place to stop and get something to eat. We at and socialized for a couple of hours and then made the short 20 minute flight from KLXT to our home airport of KOWI.
This trip was really great. We got to see my sister, do a little sight-seeing, and did a lot of flying (10.6 hours). This trip also had a few 'firsts' for us:
First #1: Farthest trip east to date.
First #2: Longest distance traveled. (600 nm one way or about ~1200 miles total)
First #3: Longest NON-STOP leg of 4.5 hours or ~570 miles.
First #4: First mountain flying experience.
Sunday morning... It rained during the night and there was some scattered clouds when we woke up. We piled into the car with sis, mom, gary, sandi and I and headed to breakfast. After some food and a quick trip back to the 'Inn', we headed to the airport. The family hung out with us for an hour or so while we waited for things to clear up a bit more. The plan was to depart and fly an hour west to McMinnville airport where fuel was cheaper. I had probably 16-18gals in the tanks so thought we could make it over there fairly easy. I looked at weather on the internet and it was kinda spotty with some areas be clear and others being overcast. I called the AWOS at McMinnville on my cell phone and they were reporting clear below 12,000. So we hugged the family and said goodbye and made our departure.
Pretty much as soon as we got out of the valley and up to 8,500 feet it was pretty much solid overcast as far west as we could see. We picked up flight following and then made a call to FSS to see if they could get us the weather at McMinnville. Unfortunately, the couldn't get us the actual weather but the nearest report was saying overcast. With the fuel gauges bouncing on 1/4 tank, solid overcast in front of us we kinda weighed our options. Knoxville was the closest airport with fuel but was also overcast. There was an airport directly underneath us but they were closed. Soooooo.. we turned around and went back to Macon County and paid $4.14 for fuel instead of $3.36. (If you want gory details about this little diversion... ask Sandi about this some time, her version is a little more dramatic!)
So back in the air we go, full fuel and snacks purchased (which Sandi forgot to do before we left the first time). With full tanks, we didn't have any good reason to stop on the way home, so we flew non-stop from 1A5 to KLXT! It was just under 4.5 hours total. We had a head wind coming home, so our ground speed averaged around 134kts. We stopped at KLXT because EAA Chapter 91 was having a cook-out and it was a good place to stop and get something to eat. We at and socialized for a couple of hours and then made the short 20 minute flight from KLXT to our home airport of KOWI.
This trip was really great. We got to see my sister, do a little sight-seeing, and did a lot of flying (10.6 hours). This trip also had a few 'firsts' for us:
First #1: Farthest trip east to date.
First #2: Longest distance traveled. (600 nm one way or about ~1200 miles total)
First #3: Longest NON-STOP leg of 4.5 hours or ~570 miles.
First #4: First mountain flying experience.
posted by Matthew at 8:54 PM
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