Flying home from OSH

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 away from OSH to get a clearance. I called up Chicago and they worked me in quickly with a clearance to head direct home (yet more music to my ears).

The remainder of the trip was quite uneventful. I enjoyed a few knots of tailwind for the flight so I was able to avoid a fuel stop. I made a rule for myself that if the flight computer told me I'd only have 20 gallons upon landing (or if the gas needles showed values that didn't make sense with the computer) then I'd make a stop.

With the tailwind I was able to just keep the music cranked and simply monitor the aircraft systems (and other traffic) while taking in the sights.

Charlotte gave me the typical vectors around their airspace and set me up for a ILS approach into my home base (the clouds had built up a bit during the flight). Not many folks were flying since the clouds were a little low, so the radio was fairly quiet.

I ended with a landing to be proud of for the finale of my longest aircraft trip to date!

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