I rented 6343D again yesterday and took my sons up for the “first” time. I say “first” because neither one of them remembers being up with me before, not surprising since Kevin was three and David one at the time. David was pretty cute on that last flight. I strapped his car seat into the copilot’s seat of my Archer and let him “fly.” He thought he was playing with some toy and, in a large sense, he was.
We spent a long time on the preflight, poking at everything that piqued either’s interest. Surprisingly, both declined my offer to let him check the stall horn. David did climb up and check the fuel and I heard, “Cool!” escape his lips.
We departed St. Charles Muni (3SQ) 
turned west at the STL VOR (image included for “visual” navigation) 
and flew over to Greensfield / Moscow Mills (M71). From there we headed north to Bowling Green (H19). I introduced them to a power off stall and steep turns (both 45 and 60 degrees of bank). Since both of them have flown lots of combat flight simulator game missions, I got a kick out of listening to them marvel at what just 2 Gs feels like.
Finding these little airports (and I include my home field in this) is tough! Most of my previous flying had been to larger fields and often IFR. These little guys hide in the grass. Thank goodness for navaids and David’s eyes or we might still be flying around looking for Bowling Green.
David spotted H19 so we landed and the guys switched seats. Both agreed later that the front seat is better.
We ended the trip by following the Mississippi home (IFR can also stand for I Follow Rivers). No dawdling for sightseeing or maneuvers on this leg because I was late and did not want to keep the next renter waiting. My goof was forgetting to allow time for taxiing, run-ups, flying the pattern, etc. Some habits are slower to come back than others. Fortunately, there was a one hour gap in the schedule so I did not actually keep anyone waiting.
All in all I would rate this a 10 on the Enjoyment Scale and I logged 1.7 of cross country. From the look on Kevin’s face when he posed for a photo, I think he agreed.
Thanks to Kevin for taking pictures. You can see the rest of them here.
ohh man! that was so much fun! and yes, bowling green was a pain in the butt to find. hidden behind all those annoying trees! but all in all, it was AWESOME! we should definatly try to fly to a swim meet some time!
Swim Dude
Know the feeling guys! I flew a 172 for a number of years, and have had that awful feeling of not knowing where I was. This happened one night coming back across Nebraska. I finally spotted a beacon and headed for it, got landed without mishap. But the radios had gone out so following a signal was impossible. I called the highway patrol and asked them to locate my wife, Sharon, who was driving back. They found her just south of where I’d landed, and told her that, “Your husband is down”. Well, of course she knew what that meant, that there’d been a plane accident. She told the patrolman not to try to keep up with her, and he told her the highway was hers! She headed north to David City, Nebraska and found me at the airport. We drove on home, then later went back to get the plane. At that point we had still another radio installed at the Lincoln, NE airport! And never had troubles again. But that was enough. I’d love to fly again! It was such fun, and at that time was so cheap! There were 3 of us who owned the plane. We formed a corporation and charged ourselves $10.00 per hour to fly, and that took care of the payment on the plane, the gas, oil, annual exams, insurance – the whole ball of wax. That, of course, was in the last century, in fact about 1963-9. What a wonderful thing it was. That plane is still flying and belongs to a CPA in Tucson, AZ.
I envy you, and really want you to enjoy every minute, even those when you’re scared out of your minds.
John
Great story, John. I don’t think I’d like flying around over a dark Nebraska countryside without radios. Ugh!
The highway patrol’s report reminds me of the major airline captain who got on the loudspeaker as he began the approach to landing and gleefully announced, “Folks, this is your captain speaking. We’re going in now!”
— Art Z.
Nothing like playing a nice game of “find the airport” to sharpen the vision. Great that your’e back in the fold, Art, and that the kids are into it.
I had a similar experience to John’s a few years back. I was out at ACK (Nantucket, MA) with a friend, and had a 45 minute delay for refueling, and no cell phone. I asked the line guy to call my house collect and let my wife know I’d be late. She gets a call “Collect from Nantucket airport…” – scared the bejezus out of her!! My explaination that night that I was just trying to keep her informed fell on deaf ears.
Cell phones are now more ubiquitous and she’s now more tolerant, so most likely it won’t be repeated.