For starters it was the longest cross country I have done to date as we continued on from Oshkosh to Grand Island Nebraska then on into Rocky Mountain Municipal (Jeffco) Colorado. Our return trip had us stopping in Sioux Falls SD quick turning there and continuing on into Chicago Midway for the night. MDW to BUF where we were on the ground for 30 minutes and off to DXR via V2 and whatever arrival.
It was our first trip out of annual and out of the radio shop where we had a STEC System 20 autopilot installed and my Garmin 396 GPS mounted on the panel and piped into the ships power with an external antenna.
We picked up the plane Monday afternoon and I flew it back from VIP in Hartford Brainard to Danbury and tested the autopilot. Those guys do great work but I had some questions so I called Rob Tuesday morning and he said bring it on over.
We flew it around for an hour or so and he adjusted it up and after dropping him off. I shot the GPS 8 back into Danbury and watched how it did with the needle while I looked out the window.
Deeming we were good to go from an equipment standpoint I loaded the Mooney and we started planning the route.
As is typical flying west, we had a front to cross and the decision of how and when to take it on influenced our departure and route planning.
The question is always whether to take the northern route (Buffalo,London Ontario,Peck Mi, Lake Huron, Saginaw, White Cloud crossing Lake Michigan at the Little Sable Pt.) or South via Cleveland, Toledo, Goshen, SouthBend and around the bottom of Lake Michigan to Janesville Wisconsin on into Oshkosh.
Judy likes the north as it is shorter and quicker. I prefer non over water routes.
Our preference in the summer is to fly early to beat the heat of the day but not so early that we have low ceilings and reduced visibilities due to mist and fog. If we can't get out then its better to wait until the early evening when the sun is going down and stop and spend the night somewhere.
We were planning on launching on Thursday prior to the show and flying towards the weather, setting down prior to the convection, letting the front cross over us (hopefully while sleeping) and then take off into drier air behind it.
The forecast was for the front to stall over new england and eastern new york and typically this results in the system shifting from a normal northeast to southwest direction to more of a east-west orientation. These can extend from off the atlantic coastline through Eastern NY New Jersey Pennsylvania and into Ohio.
Well the long and short is it usually makes for low ceilings and fog in the morning, bad visibility during the day and usually a good chance of thunderstorms along the frontal boundry at any time.
After checking the weather on Wednesday we found that the aforementioned pattern was to set in early Thursday morning so at 2 in the afternoon on Wednesday we decided to blast off or face the possibility of having to wait until Sunday when the system was to move through.
Flying along Victor 2 east of Syracuse at 3000 feet we started to encounter clouds and considering it was starting to get dark we asked Griffis Approach to change us from Flight Following to an IFR clearance into Buffalo.
The XM weather was showing buffalo was 2000 overcast and visibility 10 in light rain and we were seeing green returns starting about Rochester back through BUF with some yellow and red around Eire PA, Dunkirk NY and out over the lake.
We got to BUF with the heavy rain and did vectors to the ILS 23 approach. The runway was in sight at about 3 miles and we landed and pulled into Prior where the line guys met us with an Umbrella at the plane.
Next Morning we launched into 1600 Over and 3 bound for Toledo's Express Airport. We were fine until about 20 miles east of Toledo when the XM on the garmin zoomed in on our courseline and showed some big honking red returns right in our way. Almost at the same time the controller called and said the last guy to go through there reported that it was a wicked ride with heavy rain and turbulence.
We caught the edge of it and it sounded like when you are burning a wood stove at full tilt. Judy and I looked at each other and then the windshield and said RAIN.
We were cleared for the ILS into Express and even though there was much daylight left the radar showed heavy rain and thunderstorms ahead. Another front was due to move thru that night so we called it a day and got a hotel a couple of miles from the field. It rained all night and through the morning so we camped at the hotel watching the weather channel until checkout time.
After all that the weather was still crappy so we went into downtown Toledo saw the sights and had lunch.
Arriving back at the airport, we returned our rental car and got ready to leave. When doing our runup out by the runway we found we weren't firing on the right mag- cylinders 1 and 2 so we taxied back shut down and went in to find a mechanic. Turns out they left at 4pm and being a weekend wanted $$$$ to come back to the airport to troubleshoot the problem.
Judy was pissed and impatient wanting to get out of Toledo at any cost. (EXTERNAL PRESSURE/Impulsivity) We tried starting again and ran it up on the ramp and this time it was fine.
We blasted off of Toledo and because of convective activity over Lake Michigan decided to go along south of the lakes and up the western side around Chicago. Just like at home in New York our clearance was meanigless to the Chicago Controllers with South Bend calling with a full route amended clearance that had us fo 30 miles south of Gary and 30 miles west of the southwest edge the Chicago Bravo's Mode C veil.
We flew most of it and with each hand off I kept asking for direct Janesville. Finally the rockford approach controllers cleared us direct and when we were north east of Chicago I asked and received GPS direct to Oshkosh. The camping area closes at 7PM and it was 530 when we got the clearance. We were held for a NORDO Canadian plane we couldnt see on final for the visual RWY 36, so cause we couldnt see them we couldn't follow so we cancelled the IFR and landed 5 minutes late for the campground.
We called the Hilton from our cell and taxied to their ramp where we tied down for the night.
The next morning we taxiied to the north 40 and picked the runway end of row 523 to set up our camp.
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