Flight Log 19-Jun-10a

I am trying to finish up landing at all hard surface airports in Missouri. I have 11 to go.

I planned on adding 3 new ones in MO, 2 new ones in KS, and revisiting 4 to get newer pictures. This would only leave Kansas City International (MKC) in the Kansas City area.

Early in the week, the forecast was for showers on Friday and Sunday. So I planned on Saturday. This also left Sunday open for father's day.

As the week progressed, the forecast changed. They added isolated thunderstorms on Saturday. The probability went from 10 to 30 percent.

I figured I wasn't going to cancel just due to an possiblity of an isolated storm.

By Friday, they had taken the storm out for St Louis, but added them to the Kansas City area.

My internet is down so all I could do was call various Automated Surface Observation Stations and see what they were reporting. Alton, Spirit, and Downtown were all reporting clear sky with light winds.

Around 10:00, I called and got my Standard VFR Flight Briefing. It was not good.
     Adverse Conditions reported.
     Intense Thunderstorm watch to the west of Kansas City.
     Hail 2.5 inches with 60 knots winds
     Storm moving eastward at 35 knots.

I normally have several flights planned so I checked to see what might work to the east.

There was a possiblity of isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon, but other than that, nothing unexpected.

The winds aloft were from the west at 11 to 24 knots so I would have good ground speed over and be slow on the way back.

I had planned to leave by 10:30 so I could stop and get lunch and be at the airport by 11:45 so I could pre-flight and be ready to go right at 12:00. Due to the change, I didn't leave till 10:45.

On the way to the airport, I was parked for a while on the highway. It turns out the highway department thought it was a good idea to shut one lane of traffic so they could trim some trees near the roadway. (It was more like ripping down trees.)

As a result, by the time I stopped for lunch, I didn't get to the airport till 12:03.

I went in and Paul was at the desk. He asked if we were going to Kansas City. I told him no. He said Good.

I told him we were headed east to Kentucky. I showed him the planned route on my chart and asked him to check LOU for FBOs for fuel. I remembered there were 2 there but with no internet at home, I couldn't check. He looked it up and we decided to use Louisville Executive.

The plane was in the hangar, to keep it cooler, so I did my pre-flight check there before Paul pulled it out with the tow cart.

N6464R was parked on the ramp. This is a Cessna 172 RG, a Cutlass. The RG means it has Retractable Gear. Air Associates uses this plane for training. I haven't flown it, but I have flown other RGs. I'll get around to it yet.

Paul and I got in our plane and I started up, did my final checks, entered the flight plan into the GPS and I called Ground.

I told them we were at Air Associates with Bravo, ready to taxi for departure to the east. Ground cleared me to 26R. I acknowledged and asked Paul why the controller didn't tell me to use taxiway Echo. Paul said this guy sometimes doesn't.

There is really only one way to get the the end of 26Right unless I want to taxi all the way around the airport so I taxied down taxiway Echo.

I stopped at the hold short line and got set up to take off. Paul asked if I was going to go south to stay out of the Class B airspace. I said we would be south of it, but I was hoping to get ATC to let me through.

When I was ready, I called Tower and said I was at 26Right, ready to depart. He cleared me to takeoff, left or right turn out approved. I acknowledged, cleared to takeoff 26Right, and said I would be going left. This would keep me a little farther south of the Class B airspace around Lambert.

I climbed up to about 1,000 feet before turning left then left again to my on course heading of 090 degrees.

I climbed up to 2,000 feet and was about 4 miles from Spirit when I called St Louis Approach. When they responded, I told them where I was and asked for flight following to I83, at 6,500. They told me to remain VFR and stay clear of the Class B, he would get back to me with a code. I acknowledged.

Shortly he came back with the code and cleared me into the Class be at 3,500 feet. I acknowledged and climbed up.

He handed me off to another controller and they eventually cleared me to climb, altitude pilot descresion. I acknowledged and said I would climb to 7,500.

When I had asked initially, I had said 6,500. That would have been correct if I was heading west towards Kansas City, but east altitudes are odd plus 500.

I climbed up and leveled off at 7,500 feet and headed east. On the ground it had been 84 degrees. At 7,500 feet it was 64 degrees. (At 2,500 it had been 77.)

It is 212 miles to Salem, IN (I83). I wasn't going to land here, just use it as an aiming point to get around a Military Operations Area (MOA) and Restricted Area.

As we flew along, a layer of clouds at 4,000 feet started to get a little thicker. They were still scattered, just a little less scattered.

I checked with Kansas City Center to make sure the Red Hills MOA was not active since I would be flying through the middle of it. He said it was cold.

The plane was flying itself and at Salem, it turned slightly to the left and headed to Scotsburg (3R8) before turning more to the north towards Madison (IMS).

We were approaching the airport from the west and with the wind reporting from 250 at 4, I reported 10 miles out and that I would be overflying the field and entering a left downwind for touch and go on runway 21, Madison.

I did 3 ok touch and gos. I still tend to be a little flat on landing and am trying to work on my flair.

I get a newsletter from Lee Bottom Field (64I) near Hanover, IN. It is a 4,000 foot turf airport that a husband and wife bought and have lots of activities.

Most rentals don't want you to land on turf runways though this one looks pretty well maintained.

From there, I turned southeast and headed for Frankfort, KY 37 miles away. I stayed at 2,500 feet and flew along.

From 7,500 feet, the ground looked fairly smooth. Down this low, you could see there were lots of ravines and hills that the trees were covering up.

I checked the weather at Frankfort and it was reporting the wind from 300 at 7. I planned on using runway 24. Again I would have to overfly the field.

10 miles out I reported my position and my intent. There was another plane in the area, taking pictures north of the airport. He said he would stay out of our way.

The elevation changes in Frankfort are pretty dramatic. The State Capital building is only 1 to 1.5 miles from the airport and it is almost completely below the level of the airport. (I checked and the elevation of the Airport is 806 feet. The elevation of the Capital is 509 feet.)

I climbed up to 2,500 feet again and called Lexington Approach and asked for flight following to Louisville. He asked Bowman or Standiford? I said Bowman. He gave me a code and told me to maintain VFR.

He eventually handed me off to Louisville Approach. When I checked in with them, they told me to report airport in sight. I acknowledged. I was 20+ miles from the airport. I couldn't see it yet but picked out where I thought it was by about 15 miles out. I was sure by 10 so called and Approach told me to contact Tower. I acknowledged and switched frequencies.

I had the the weather. It was reporting wind varible at 6, runway 24 in use. Since my heading was 280, I figured I would get a left base for 24.

When I called Tower and reported 10 to the east, he cleared me for a straight in for 24. I acknowledged and turned right a little to get better lined up for a straight in.

There were 4 other planes in the area, 2 taking off, 1 on right base and 1 15 miles out. Tower told me to fly direct for the numbers and I would be number 2. I acknowledged, looked for the number 1 plane, and headed for the runway.

I had planned on doing 2 touch and gos before landing but with all the traffic I decided just to land and worry about it later.

As I was starting my turn off, Tower cleared us off at juliet (where I was headed) and asked where we wanted to go. I told him we were headed to Executive (I could see it ahead and to the left). He cleared us off juliet to the ramp, stay the same frequency. I acknowledged and headed in.

While we were wondering where to park, a lineman came out and directed me to park right in front of the building. I taxied in and shutdown.

Paul headed inside while I told the lineman to fuel the plane and talked with a guy that walked over and wanted to look at the plane.

Paul wondered if we had enough oil and checked. He thought we could use a quart. When asked what kind, we didn't know. It could be 15/50 or 20/50. Paul tried calling back to Spirit to find out. It took a few minutes to get an answer but when he did, it was 20/50. While he put the oil in the plane, I paid.

He had checked the weather while I was outside and was concerned about the storms that had been over Kansas City. Now they were headed for St Louis.

We decided to skip my other 2 planned stops and head directly back to see if we could beat the weather.