I thought I'd visit my parents for Thanksgiving and since the drive bums me out, I rented a Cessna. I took N99243 which turned out to be a bonus since it has the long-range tanks (54 gallons!). That allowed me to go direct and still have an hour and a half of flying time. AND it took the travel time from a 8-hour drive to a 3.5-hour adventure! Loved that part.
As you can see, the weather for departure was great and I started out having the intentions to document the trip with lots of pics, but you know how that goes. Here is the mighty Cessna 172P.
I had to shoot an approach at Kearney Regional to get below the weather. I was flying VFR, but it sure is nice that KEAR has an approach to RW36. And a precision one, no less! This is a panoramic of the airfield. I actually love this weather but it was a bit cold. If you zoom in on the pic, you'll see the windsock pegged. I think I landed in about 200 feet.
The FBO there is Kearney Aviation Center. They were very nice, had a nice reception area and even but my plane in a hangar. That turned out well since the weather was not getting better (or warmer). Since their fuel truck was broken, they even comped me the hangar fees. Very nice.
I only took a few shots in the air. Not sure why - maybe I was focused on just getting to and from while avoiding the weather. This was a pretty cool affect - falling snow blow around hay bales. These pics never turn out like the real thing. I was lucky enough to get a tailwind even going back west. I couldn't believe it, but it sure was a blessing. The weather was deteriorating and the sooner I could arrive, the better. The ironic thing is I left Kearney a day earlier based on weather forecasts but I ended up flying into crappy weather. The visibility held up so I was able to set myself up for a straight-in at Meadow Lake. I was happy to see that runway! And even happier that it wasn't covered in snow! Overall, it was a great trip, but next time, I'll stop at more places - just to see them.
- mm -
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