Avengers Assemble
By the end of August 1, all of the usual characters had arrived at the cabin. But we were still missing one person: The Bear's friend, Izzy who had consented to join our summer sojourn. Oh, woe upon her!
Izzy was unable to travel with us due to space limitations in the Warrior. While Mark and Dena were happy to put her on a Wisconsin-bound airliner, flying her to Madison's Dane County Regional (KMSN) was the most reasonable way for her to get close by airline. Unfortunately, this fell short of the destination by a nearly two hour one way trip by car.
Alternatively, the Warrior was in Viroqua just 30 minutes from the cabin and the flight from Viroqua to Madison about 40 minutes. Obviously, it would be more efficient to take up the airline's slack by picking Izzy up from Madison in Warrior 481.
I might say "obviously", but the truth is that the extra preparations involved in readying the plane to fly probably made the overall time a wash versus driving. But flying into Madison would be much more fun than nearly four hours spent in a minivan. Moreover, I promised Izzy stick time after she flew with us from Hilton Head, SC to Jekyll Island, GA last summer. This seemed like a great opportunity to make good on that commitment.
Bear Is My Copilot
| Date | Aircraft | Route of Flight | Time (hrs) | Total (hrs) |
| 02 Aug 2022 | N21481 | Y51 (Viroqua, WI) - MSN (Madison, WI) - Y51 | 2.0 | 2495.9 |
It is always great to have The Bear as a copilot again. We arrived at Viroqua under a beautiful blue sky, but with some gusty winds swirling around the tied-down Warrior. We pulled Warrior 481 over to the pump so that she could drink deeply of Viroqua’s relatively inexpensive $5.49/gal fuel.
Given the wind direction, I thought that a landing on grass with Izzy might be fun and performed a quick inspection of the runway. The grass was generally well-maintained and showed lots of tire tracks indicating that it was in regular use. It was well-outlined by yellow cones, which felt proper after my time in Michigan. (Grass runways in New York are not always as well or as consistently defined.)
Looking to the northeast, the downslope was visibly obvious. The runway is not long, but we would be landing uphill if the wind direction held.
We launched into the Wisconsin sky and enjoyed the examples of crop art that passed beneath our wings.
When Madison Approach called out to an Arrow Eight Two One without an immediate response, I checked to see if they were actually calling me. They weren't. There was an actual Arrow in Madison's traffic pattern with that tail number. Considering the number of times I have been called Archer or Arrow with a tail number comprising virtually any combination of the numbers two, one, four, and eight, experience has shown that it is good to check. Nine times out of ten, those calls with scrambled tail numbers are meant for me.
It was windy in Madison (#244) and we made a textbook sideslip to a one-wheeled landing on runway 14 for which I was pleased to claim credit. It seemed like half of the paved surfaces at Madison were closed due to rework of runway 3-21, but landing on 14 set us up for an easy turn onto the East Ramp where the general aviation operations were based. Like Rochester, all non-airline aviation activities were on the opposite side of the airport from the commercial terminal.
Near where we parked was an ancient hangar labeled with "Madison Municipal Airport". It was probably the oldest structure on the field and probably a direct link with the field's humble beginnings.
The folks at Wisconsin Aviation were fantastic. Even though I did not buy fuel (I did not need any), there were no parking fees and they were pleased to loan me a little-red-Hyundai-something-or-other to fetch Izzy from the other side of the airport. I offered to contribute to a fuel fund, but was refused.
Shortest Leg
We found Izzy in baggage claim and I sent the above proof of life to Dena and Mark. In Izzy’s journey to SurnameFest, her shortest travel leg would be the drive around the airport perimeter from one side to the other. Weirdly, we learned after the fact that someone from their suburban Rochester school was also in baggage claim and recognized The Bear. What are the odds?
I was very pleased to welcome Izzy to the "Capital of Cheese". Someone really used their "fromagination" to come up with that description, didn't they?
Student Driver on the Controls!
Finally aloft and away from Madison's Charlie airspace, it was time to let Izzy try her hand at flying the airplane.
 |
| As sent to Mark and Dena as objective evidence of Izzy having the right stuff. |
She did some maneuvering while holding her altitude reasonably well. This did not go unnoticed by Chicago Center, who saw the initial turn to the north and asked if we were still headed back to Viroqua. I answered in the affirmative and explained that the maneuvers were for the benefit of a passenger.
Understanding exactly what was happening, Center responded with, "Very well, carry on!"
Unfortunately, the gusty winds at Viroqua were more easterly than southerly by the time we returned, so we landed on the pavement instead of the grass. Either way, Izzy got to arrive at SurnameFest in style by private aircraft!
(At least, she arrived in style if one neglects to include the thirty minute minivan ride from Viroqua to the cabin.)
No comments:
Post a Comment