My parents recently celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary.  They aren’t big on gifts and things.  Well, long story short, Mom got a new convertible this year that she’s calling a gift and she wanted to do something special for Dad.  What could be more special than a first flight?  How about your son being the pilot?  So, Mom’s gift to Dad was that she set up a lazy (well, that was the idea) Saturday with me for flight to London, KY for a hundred dollar hamburger.  I have been dying to perform this age old tradition, but thing just hadn’t worked out.  So, without any coaxing I planned the flight, called the airport to verify restaurant hours, and we were off.

I was a bit concerned about the weather since the forecast was indicating less than perfect weather.  It was still a great day to fly, it just wouldn’t be clear and a million.  I planned like I normally would: weight and balance, fuel burn, navigation log, etc.  All this stuff is important and I do it anyway, but it serves a dual purpose when carrying passengers – it makes you look professional.  I was taking my father for his very first airplane ride ever, so it was important that he see that I wasn’t just jumping in and taking off.

Unfortunately, the first issue popped up about 3 minutes after the engine was running; the transponder is prone to losing its knobs.  I’ve flown it enough to know that SOP is usually to drop them in with the little fuel cup, but they were clearly not there.  To further the problem, I couldn’t get any of the other knobs to come loose and I wound up fiddling with a flat piece of medal.  After far too long, I got the right squawk in and we were ready to taxi.  Since it was busy on the ramp, I did the run-up at the end of the taxiway.  After a brief delay for some landing traffic, we were cleared for takeoff.  I taxied out on the runway, firewalled the throttle, and we were off.

I hoped that we had experienced our first and last issue with the transponder knobs, but that was very short lived when the tower told us to check our transponder.   I confirmed it was on and gave it a little tweak.  Apparently there was still nothing because they switched us to departure who asked us to confirm our mode c was operating. I cycled it all the way off and back on again which seemed to work.

About 5 minutes after take off, we turned on course and climbed to our requested altitude of 4500 MSL.  This allowed plenty of clearance over the Cumberlands, which I was particularly concerned about today considering the turbulence.  This was exacerbated by the concerned pilot headed over the Smokies who was asking the departure controller about reports of a 182 that had allegedly gone down in the mountains.  Needless to say, this was concerning for all involved, but proved to be a nonevent.  Other than a considerably bumpier ride than I wanted, the cruise portion of flight was uneventful.  The only thing even remotely odd was a rapid fire succession of handoffs to bridge the gap between departure and Indy Center.  I was handed off to Atlanta Center, who immediately read me the altimeter for LOZ and handed me off to Indy Center. I was with them until I cancelled and switched to the CTAF.

I started calling at about 20NM south of the field.  I was surprised to get an immediate response from someone leaving the field and heading south.  We negotiated a bit about where exactly we were, and we managed not to crash into each other (this is always a good turn out).  The only other traffic was a helicopter that was currently landing.  I entered a 45 for downwind, although we were pointed straight at the field more or less.  It was a bit windy, but it was more or less down the runway.  The problem was that the wind was shifting a fair amount and it was pretty gusty.  I compensated by carrying some speed (we had plenty of runway).  As I called base, another plane called that they were 10 miles south of the field (no problem).  I turned final and I noticed I was a little high, so I pulled the throttle to idle and rode the crab all the way to about 5 feet off the runway.  I let the speed bleed off and then I straightened out the nose and the plane plopped down.  It was a little rougher than usual, but I used full flaps in pretty gusty conditions.  I did make the turn-off though.

We taxied in and the airport manager directed us to a parking spot.  It was nice not to have to wonder.  I cut the engine, turned off all the switches and he chocked the plane.  We secured everything; I made sure to tie the plane down, because I didn’t want it to blow away. We phoned home to let them know we had made it and headed into the restaurant.

The restaurant itself is quite nice, although it is undergoing some renovations so it is a little unpolished.  They have quite a selection of food, but I went with a real hundred dollar hamburger.  It was great.  Should you be so inclined, there is also a bar, but neither I nor the FAA recommend it for anyone piloting any aircraft.  It did look like they had quite a selection.  We had a nice leisurely meal before walking back to the airport building right next door.  We looked around a bit and I signed the guest pilot register.  Interestingly enough, dad was over at a bulletin board looking at planes for sale (at least I’ve got one convert).  I checked the ASOS and I didn’t really care for what I heard (or saw for that matter).  The winds were gusting heavier than before and shifting between a direct crosswind and a quartering headwind.  I called mom who told me there was a wind advisory in the area and that she knew I would do the right thing.  It took quite a bit of time to consider my position, but we eventually decided to head home.  I was a little concerned about the wind, but I was more concerned about thwarting any “get-there-itis.”

It took me a little bit to reason that I wasn’t concerned about getting the plane back and that the winds were well within my abilities and that of the plane, but I did and we got ready to leave.  Preflighting a plane in stiff winds is difficult to say the least.  We got it done though.  The biggest thing that stuck with me was the last words someone said to us: “You gettin’ ready to take off? Good Luck…”  I reasoned that if I got to the end of the runway and the wind was too much I would taxi back in and park it, but it wasn’t necessary.  I firewalled the throttle and we were off.

The ride was quite a bit bumpier than before, so I kept climbing and called for flight following.  We’d found the knobs at lunch, so it was easy to set the transponder this time.  In the future I’m going to carry a Leatherman tool.  There was quite a bit of chatter on the frequency about where the smooth air was.  It appeared somewhere above 10,000 MSL.  I opted to stay at 5,500 MSL since we were doing alright.  Other than getting blown around the return trip was pretty uneventful.  There was one time that the wind gusted and blew me into about a 20 or 30 degree bank, but that was it.

I figured mom would be at the airport when we got back since I told her when we were leaving.  I was cleared to land on 23L, so it would be a good show.  I opted to use partial flaps this time and I think it worked out better.  I still carried some speed, and there was some float, but we were down and clear with plenty of the 9000 feet of runway to spare.  Overall, it was a great day and I got to show off most of my skills.  I secured the plane and we talked a bit, watched some planes, and set off for dinner.  Oh, I also paid for the plane before I left.