Vectors To Final

Today my Dad and I took a mid-day flight to grab lunch at 57 Alpha, the cafe at Rutherford Co airport, KFQD. We made a detour on the way there to overfly KCEU, Clemson, SC. We both went to school there so it was nice to take a quick peek. After landing at KFQD we found the place fairly deserted, no doubt due to some cloudiness in the area. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the cafe: I had a chicken burrito with banana pudding (their specialty - very good) and my dad had a hamburger. After that we just walked around the airport a bit to enjoy the scenery. It's in the foothills of the mountains, so the skyline was nice to look at. For the crank up to leave FQD, I was a little worried the engine might be tough to start. It had been turned off for about 45 minutes, and I wasn't sure if priming the engine a bit would be bad or good. Normally if I've shut down for just 15-30 minutes I don't prime, so that's what I did this time. It actually started quite quickly with no ...

Today I grabbed a ride from my co-worker to get back down to KFLD for the trip home. When we arrived my airplane was tied up right in front of the FBO. Most of the hundreds of other planes were already gone. A pair of guys cranked up a DA-20 while I preflighted, and what I think was a C-210 took off just before I did. I filed IFR from KFLD to the Chicago VOR (ORD) to KUZA. When I called up approach they told me I couldn't pick up IFR within 100nm of OSH. That surprised me a bit because I had read that Sunday was the last day of unusual rules, but I guess I missed that one. After thinking a second I realized that going VFR for a while would actually be really great. So I pointed my nose at Chicago and climbed out to 11,500' to get over their airspace. I used the autopilot to follow the shoreline of Lake Michigan and worked my way south. Plugging in the iPhone to the intercom gave me a good soundtrack for the trip. Once I cleared Chicago's airspace I was plenty far...

My week actually in Oshkosh was pretty amazing. I saw very little of the airshow, but spent the majority of my time manning the ForeFlight booth in Hangar D. We setup Sunday afternoon after I arrived at KFLD. ForeFlight rented a house and borrowed a car from the home owner. We used that and another rental car to drive to the airport/show and park by Hangar D. A colleague went ahead to grab up our credentials so, with that all set, we brought our literature, posters, and other materials into Hangar D. The booth was there waiting on us (I had shipped it UPS to the show) so within an hour or so my Dad, co-worker, and I had the booth setup and ready to go. It really went about as well as it could have. The next day, Monday, was the first day of the show. We were swamped from the beginning of the day until the end, 9-5. It was really great getting to talk to everyone - existing customers, well wishers, people that had never seen an iPad before, the whole gamut. My co-worker and ...