Longest flight yet gets me over 500 hours

This weekend I made my longest airplane trip to date - from KUZA in SC out to KCFD in TX - about 850 miles. The trip was for our quarterly ForeFlight strategy meeting, where the company gets together to plan out the next 3 months of work.

Leaving KUZA I took off and picked up my IFR clearance in the air. Sometimes, like this time, the Charlotte controller knows what I wanted before I can even ask. After I called in with my tail number he just automatically gave me a transponder code and told me to standby for the clearance. Very nice, makes you feel almost welcomed. :)

I made a fuel stop at KMEI in Meridian, MS. It's a great little towered airport with plenty of young navy pilots stopping in for a break from various practice missions in the area. My stop was a short one - I got the tanks topped off, grabbed a free hot dog and drink, filed my next leg on the iPad via ForeFlight Mobile, and went out to the airplane to blast off again.

The next leg was also uneventful, and after a couple of hours I landed at KCFD. I spent most of the time in the air listening to the radio or the iPhone, talking with controllers, and religiously monitoring the flight plan, fuel situation, and engine health.

I was met by my co-workers at KCFD (GREAT airport) and we started a fun and productive long weekend to hash out company plans.




Friday included some flying in the local area. I got to take up one of our developers while my co-founder got in a quick flight with our CFI support lead. We landed at sunset, coded a bit out on the ramp in the dark, and saw two of our staff off as they departed in a C152 for the night flight home.

The flight home Monday was nice as well. I picked up only a little tailwind for the first leg to KJFX in AL. Found some good turbulence around that airport once I was under 4000' but the airport was easy to get in and out of. It was self-serve fuel, and was easy to work with, even with a 15-20 knot very cold wind trying to freeze me while I worked the pump.




I was cranking up again within 15 minutes of shutting down, and soon I was talking to ATC again on my final, shorter leg home. Had a nice 20 kt tailwind for this leg. There were lots of reports of turbulence in the area near home, and ATC asked me for a few reports on the ride (all smooth at 9000), but the flight was easy and straightforward.

I had gorgeous weather for both flights, and managed to hit 510 total hours of flight time after the trek.

Comments

Anonymous said…
Just stopped by to say how much I enjoy using ForeFlight in my A36.

I have added your link to my Blogroll. Keep up the great work.

RB
December 14, 2010 at 11:09 PM
Unknown said…
Ah, MEI. I was once one of those young navy pilots flying an A-4 out of the NAS. I remember clearly one day, on an IFR flight plan, having to take my own diversion to avoid a commuter airline coming out of MEI. Only after it was no factor did I get a call from ATC.

Now I spend my time in a Cessna 182 It doesn't climb as well but the avionics (G1000) are MUCH better.
December 30, 2010 at 4:47 PM
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