Gryphon's Aeire

Today I am flying to Malden and New Madrid, MO.

I plan on getting some new pictures from some airports I have been to before.

Here is the Radio information for my flight.

Weather Brief

I called flight service and got my VFR flight briefing.

Today was an interesting flight. Originally I had planned on flying on Sunday and going to Bloomfield, IA, Carthage, IL, and Bowling Green, MO.

I had scheduled with Paul since I hadn't flown with him in about 2 months.

His schedule didn't really work for flying on Sunday so he asked if we could switch to Saturday. That was fine with me so we switched.

Then the weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate. The forecast winds were for 15-20 knots with gust upto 30 knots.

I started watching the weather early in the week and talked with Paul several times.

He had an opportunity to go with Jenny to Iowa on Saturday so he asked if we could switch to Sunday. That was fine with me so we were schedule for Sunday at 9:00.

I did my planning for Iowa and planned a flight to the south, just in case.

As it worked out, we used the just in case.

Saturday, I checked the weather for Iowa for Sunday and the winds were still forecast at 15 gusting to 25. Additionally, there were clouds forecast at 3,000 to 4,000 feet.

I decided to go south.

The winds were still from the southwest at 15-20 but they would be mostly down the runway.

Sunday morning when I got up, the winds were still there, but now there were scattered clouds forecast at 4 to 5,000 feet.

I figured I could either stay low or find a hole and climb up above them.

I called and got my pre-flight briefing and headed for the airport.

The reason for this flight was to get new pictures for airports I have been to before. Part way to the airport, I realized I had left my camera sitting on the counter at home.

I had done this before so I had purchased a disposable camera and keep it in my flight bag.

When I got to the airport, I checked and the disposable was there.

Paul was cleaning bird's nests out of the planes parked on the ramp and cleaning the windshield.

I got the book, noted the times, and headed out to pre-flight the plane.

N5331K is a 2003 Cessna 172S. It does not have the G1000 glass panel instruments, which was why I had chosen this plane.

I haven't flown a 172 since September 30, 09. The various 182s I have been flying are very similar.

My right ankle has been bothering me for the last few weeks. When I try to flex it up, the is some discomfort.

When I stepped down from the right side of the plane after returning the checked fuel, my ankle started hurting much more when I flexed it. I started walking with a limp.

When I was done with the pre-flight, I headed inside to go to the bathroom and get Paul.

I checked the weather. It was reporting winds variable at 5, 10 mile visiblity, scattered clouds at 5,500, broken at 7,000.

When we were both in the plane and ready to go, I did my runup and final checks on the ramp.

I called Ground and said I was at Air Associates, with Golf, ready to taxi for departure to the southeast.

Ground cleared me to 8Left via Echo. I acknowledged and headed for the runway.

I taxied down and stopped at the hold short line before calling Tower.

I said I was at 8Left, ready to depart to the southeast. Tower cleared me to depart, right turn-out approved. I acknowledged and rolled onto the runway.

When I was lined up, I applied power and started rolling. I waited till my airspeed was about 60 knots before lifting off.

I climbed up to about 900 feet before turning to my heading.

I crossed over the other runway where a twin was just exiting the runway.

Previously, I didn't know if I would bother with flight following. If I couldn't climb up higher then 3,500 feet, I figured it wouldn't be worth it to try since when I got farther south, Memphis Center would not be able to see me down low.

It was clearer than I expected so at 5 miles out, I called St Louis Departure. I said I was at 2,600 feet, 5 south of Spirit, request flight following to MikeAlphaWhiskey at 5,500. Departure gave me a squawk code which I entered.

They cleared me up to 5,500, maintain VFR. I acknowledged and climbed up.

At 5,500, I leveled off and trimmed for straight and level flight. I planned heading was 165 degrees. With the wind, my actual heading was between 170 and 175 degrees.

We flew along and watched the scattered clouds build.

To the east, the were growing bigger and less scattered and more broken. We were ok, but weren't sure if we would be flying this high on the way back.

St Louis Departure cancelled my flight following about 50 miles south. He was pretty busy.

I called Kansas City Center and picked it up again a little south of Festus, MO.

I got handed off pretty soon to a different Kansas City Center Frequency. I had expected that.

KC Center handed me off to Memphis Center.

When we were still about 25 miles out, Memphis said to say when airport is in sight.

I said I would let him know when we got closer.

At about 20 miles, I reported decending from 5,500 down to 2,000 feet.

Malden currently has 2 runways, 18/36 and 14/32. The use to have others, but they have been decommisioned.

With the winds, I figured we would be using runway 18. It has right traffic and is 4,999 feet long by 80 feet wide.

Before this flight, I noticed I had 2,295 landings so I figured I would do 5 today and end with an even 2,300 landings. This includes Landings & Touch and Gos.

For 5, that means I would do 2 at Malden, 2 at New Madrid, and 1 back at Spirit.

We were approaching Malden from the northwest and with the right traffic pattern, I would have to do a nice big S-Turn to enter the pattern and do my touch and go.

And that's what we did.

I checked the weather about 15 miles out. It was reporting wind from 200 at 11, clear skys, density altitude of 2,000 feet.

My first touch down was very nice. The wheels touched down nice and smooth.

Flaps and power and I was back up.

I reported airborne off 18, staying in the pattern, right traffic, Malden Traffic and went around again.

My second one wasn't quite as good, but still pretty nice.

Down and back up and I reported airborne off 18, departing the area to the east.

New Madrid is 19 miles away.

They have a 18/36 runway also. It is 3,200 feet long by 60 feet wide.

Since we were approaching from the west, I had to over fly the field and entered a teardrop turn to turn back around and enter left downwind.

I did 2 more nice touch and gos and reported airborne off 18, departing the pattern to the norht.

The clouds were moving in but I flew between 2 and climbed up.

It was hot out and the engine seemed to be running a bit warm so I lowered the nose to increase my airspeed and contined to climb.

I thought I would level off at 6,500 but the clouds didn't agree so I decided to continue up to 8,500 feet.

This was just a little above the clouds so I had to decide if I wanted to go up to 10,500 or go back down under the clouds.

If I had been in the 182, especially the turbo charged one, I probably would have gone high. Instead I decided to go under.

I saw an area where I could decend and stay clear of clouds. I started down and ended up in a 2,000 foot descent. I was watching my airspeed and kept it just at the bottom of the yellow arc. I expected turbulance once I got below the clouds. It turned out to be not to bad.

I had to go all the way down to 2,500 feet to be 1,000 feet or so below the clouds. They didn't look that thick from above.

Down this low, it was dark and hazy and a little bumpy.

But we did have a good tail wind.

Since we were so low, I didn't bother with flight following but I did monitor their frequencies as we flew along.

The clouds got thicker for a while then thinned out a little, but I was still glad we had already come down.

Paul is an Instrument Rated Flight Instructor so we could have stayed high and picked up a pop-up clearance if we had needed to.

30 miles out, I checked the weather at Spirit. It was reporting wind from 190 at 11, gusting to 16, few clouds at 3,700, Scattered at 4,500. It was cloudier than that.

We heared another plane inbound before we called.

10 miles out I reported 10 miles to the south, with Juliet, inbound for landing, would be parking at Air Associates.

Tower told me to plan on a left base for 26Right. I acknowledged.

I couldn't see the airport yet, but knew about where it should be.

There is a ridge to the south of the airport that make it hard to see the actual runway till you are almost there, if you are flying low.

I adjusted my heading as we got closer and when I was almost to the airport, Tower cleared me to land, 26Right. I acknowledged and made my turn to final. I touched down nicely, but was a little fast.

I had to step on the brakes harder than I had planned to be able to slow enough to turn off at the taxiway.

As I was turning, Tower cleared me to the ramp. I acknowledged and wished him a good day.

I pulled in and parked where we had left from before shutting down.

Paul and I cleared out our stuff, tied the plane down and headed inside.

While I was flying, my ankle didn't hurt but when I stepped on it to walk, it hurt.

I got inside, filled out the tach sheet and paid.

Christine wasn't feeling well so Paul did the billing, charging it to my credit card.

All in all, a better flight than I expected this morning.

I stopped on the way home and dropped off my disposable camera to get the pictures developed.

I am going to get them digitally so once I have them, I will post them.

I was going to give a Pilot Weather Report (PIREP).
Since I had to descend down from 8,500 to 2,500, I never called it in. I didn't think they would be able to hear me at 2,500 feet.

Here is the airport weather information from my flight.

Here is the inflight weather information for my flight.

Here is the waypoint information for my flight.

Because of my diabetes, the FAA wants me to monitor my blood sugar 30 minutes before flight, during, and 30 minutes before landing.

Here are my readings.