May 6th to May 25th, was a long 19 days for members of the Pacific Flying Club to wait for their new toy to arrive - but it was well worth the wait! The 2012 Cessna 172 with a G1000 glass cockpit, GFC700 autopilot and that new aircraft smell dazzled the dozen people that were watching as the aircraft touched down at 1330.
Early on May 6th I left my house and boarded a plane heading to Tulsa Oklahoma with a short stopover in Denver. After arriving and picking up my rental car I started the 90-minute drive north from Tulsa to a town called Independence Kansas. Wichita is where most Cessna’s are thought to be built, but Independence is where Cessna builds their piston aircraft and Mustang Jet.
 |
| Dan Martens |
After a good night’s sleep and an early morning, I made it to my first day of training at the Cessna factory. Both training days were full of ground school
classes, labs, simulator sessions and finally…flying.
Over the two and a half days of training I met a lot of nice people and had a wonderful time, but now it was time for me to start the long journey home. To my delight when I left Independence (KIDP) the skies were blue, the winds were calm and the earth was flat… all the way to Denver. I had never been so bored yet so intrigued at the same time. My challenge wasn’t the flight itself, it was trying to remember everything my instructors had taught me. I flew IFR all the way to Denver where I planned to stay for the night. Because of the autopilot I had used very little energy hand flying the aircraft, so by the landing in Denver, I felt great. I canceled my Denver hotel room and booked one at my next fuel stop in Douglas, Wyoming. If you haven’t heard of Douglas you’re not alone, it’s tiny. So small that in hind sight I should have kept going to my next stop. But, never the less, I jumped into the airport van (a 1990 Chrysler Voyager) and drove to the motel that would be my home for the next 10hr.
Morning came early due to an extra jolt of motivation I had to get this aircraft to Canada. I got up, showered, shaved and shoved off to Billings Montana, never to give Douglas another look.
This is where the fun started.
En-route to Billings I checked in with Flight Services only to find a front was approaching my route. It had already started to affect Billings and my entire northern route to Canada. So along I went, battling head winds and turbulence that preceded the oncoming front until I had Billings in sight. I landed in a crosswind and got marshaled in by a girl who looked wet and cold. She clearly didn’t want to be outside at that moment. I didn’t blame her, the rain was coming sideways and the visibility was coming down. I ran inside and hunkered down at a computer to watch the front slowly pass overhead.
Four hours later I was on my way to Calgary via Cutbank. This leg was uneventful, but the recent cold front gave me time to use the G1000’s MFD. I was able to watch the front move, get updated METARs and TAFs and tracking thunderstorms cells while I was flying. These proved to be very useful features while en route to Calgary. Eventually I made it into the busy Calgary International Airport to clear customs. The Calgary air traffic controllers were amazing and wedged me in between a Beech 1900 and a Boeing 737. I then flew a short hop over to Springbank to leave the aircraft for the import inspection. From Independence to Calgary took 14.2hr of flying, which I did in a 33hr span.
Two weeks later the aircraft had finished being imported and the weather cooperated enough for a board member and I to fly GBUD home. Through Rogers Pass the weather was less than perfect but when Golden was in sight the clouds parted and we took a straight shot to Boundary Bay. The 3.6 hour flight from Calgary ended with a smooth touch down on runway 30 and a greeting from 12 excited staff and club members.
On Monday I stumbled on a interesting fact - the National Hurricane Center in the US had just named their newest hurricane Bud! Welcome to your new home GBUD.
No comments:
Post a Comment