July 20th 2012, dark-o'clock... I'm woken from a light sleep as the alarm goes off. Time to get up. The Bonanza is already packed, all that is required is coffee, a snack and the presence of mind to pre-flight and take off.
Well, that is the first step anyway. I'm taking it one step at a time!
You need to read my post on Preparing for Oshkosh to really understand why this morning seems so easy and organized. (Actually, that post is yet to be published.)
It has been a journey, even to this point. And a steep (but healthy) learning curve for me.
Our flight today is 2 legs. Longmont (KLMO) to Tekamah (KTQE) NE for a fuel stop, then on to Rockford (KRFD) IL for the night.
As I was saying... Coffee drunk, snacks and drinks packed into cooler, last chance to pee... Then we were on our way.
Wheels were up about 6:20am. I was PIC but being that this was an IFR flight plan and I still had much to learn, Mark was responsible for most of the communications after take off.
LMO to TQE was smooth at 9,000 feet and we had a slight tail wind. Ground speed? Oh, about 180mph., Our flight plan was cleared as requested and we seemed to be alone up there for the most part.
Did I mention we had our friends GoPro and Spot, along for the ride too?
It was easy flying and the weather was cooperative - if not darn hot. We dined on candied apricot scones and Vitamin Water, then found ourselves landing uneventfully at Tekamah, approximately 3 hours later.
It was a short stop. Just enough time for closing a flight plan, getting a weather briefing for the next flight, to Rockford and refueling. Then we were off again.
Heading to Rockford, we flew at 7,000 feet. The airspace was a tad busier and we overhead several interesting communications. This is my favorite:
Controller to another airplane in the area: "NXXX, you have VFR traffic at 5 miles, 1 o'clock, heading your way, altitude unknown."
Pilot: "Roger, will keep an eye out for the traffic"
A minute or two later...
Controller to Pilot: "NXXX, that traffic is no longer observable"
Pilot: "Roger. Traffic no factor."
My thought? Yikes!!! Not observable is NOT the same is no factor!
Not far from Rockford we were cleared to descend from 7,000 to 2,700 feet. We were now apparently following another Bonanza in for landing on Runway 7. I couldn't see the other airplane. The scattered clouds, more pronounced here than along the rest of the route, caused some mild turbulence and the humidity of the area reduced the visibility. We were definitely not in Colorado anymore!
It was easy to see we had come to the the right place. Taxiing to the ramp for tie down, we found ourselves parked among a swarm of V-tail Bonanzas. In fact, parking was a well orchestrated event, whereby the ramp staff identified our tail number and put us exactly where we needed to be for our 3-element departure and formation flight to Oshkosh, tomorrow. Nice!
After tie down, getting our overnight bags out and covering up N303B, we headed to Emery Air for registration and "meet and greet". It was nice to see familiar Pagosa Springs formation flying clinic, faces again. :-)
Yes, I was exhausted. I had flown 5.5 hours today. The journey from Colorado, via Nebraska and Iowa, into Illinois took just under 6.5 hours total. I had just enough energy left in me, to gobble down the tasty feast that Bonanzas to Oshkoh (B2OSH.org) provided for dinner, and check into the hotel, before I crashed.
I'm not entirely sure when the last time I had 9 hours unbroken sleep was. Or when last I was asleep by 8:30pm. It felt good though!
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