REFLECTOR: My big trip

[stedmanlou at roadrunner.com]

Lou Stedman
n7044Q
Olean, NY


Thanks for the report. Sounds like you had a great time. I am located just south of Buffalo at KOLE. Next time you come through let me know and we may be able to get together.

---- Geoff Gerhardt <geoff.gerhardt at gmail.com> wrote: 
> All,
> 
> On Thursday, I returned from my big trip.  Here's a brief synopsis of it:
> 
> On Thursday, June 6 I headed out early trying to make it from my home base,
> Worcester MA (KORH) to Minneapolis.  I had a conference in Minneapolis that
> started on that Saturday.  There was a storm front moving up from the South
> West and tracking North East and I wanted to see if I could make it over
> top of the Northern tip of it at Buffalo.  I looked at the radar in the
> morning before I left, and it was going to be close.  By the time was
> approaching Buffalo, ATC warned me I was heading into thunderstorms.  I
> have ADS-B weather in the plane (Dynon Skyview) and could see it, thought I
> might be able to squeak thru, but in the end, decided to divert to Syracuse
> to wait it out and let it pass by.  Well, that turned out to be one long,
> frustrating wait.  I was holed up in Syracuse for two days watching and
> waiting.  While the thunderstorms passed, there was lingering low-level
> clouds that kept the field IFR.  On Saturday, with ceilings West of KSYR
> lifting, I decided to contact departure and request an SVFR to get out of
> there.  Pulled my plane out of the hangar, taxied out and contacted
> departure with my request.  Departure came back and said the field had just
> gone VFR, I was free to leave!  Took off and did some scud running to get
> out of the area.  As I flew west, the ceilings lifted a little.  By Buffalo
> I was up to 2000', then by London ON, I was at 3500', then pretty soon it
> was clear skies and I moved up to 10,000'.  I fueled up in Fremont, MI
> (KFFX), then onto Minneapolis.  I hangared my plane at KMIC in Minneapolis.
>  The kind folks at Thunderbird Aviation there provided a hangar for free as
> long as I bought fuel.  I stayed in Minneapolis at the conference from that
> Saturday (June 8) to the following Wed (June 12).  Before I left KMIC, I
> visited Albert Khasky as he's building a screaming fast Velocity at a
> hangar there.  Nice looking engine install - get started on that finishing,
> though, Albert!
> 
> On Wed, June 12, I headed up to Canada to visit my sister in Kenora, ON.
>  Did the whole process to enter Canada, leave the US.  Create an eAPIS
> manifest and submit it, file a flight plan, call CanPass and let them know
> I'm coming.  Rain and low clouds around Minneapolis as I left, and a few
> radar images to navigate around as I headed North, but nothing serious.
>  100mi out of Minneapolis, I was able to climb up.  I felt much safer at
> 10,000' flying over Northern Ontario - not many places to land there, just
> lakes and forest.  Getting into Kenora, I learned that things are done a
> little differently in smallish airports.  ATC told me to contact Kenora
> radio when I got close.  Contacted them, thinking it was like a Class E
> CTAF and stated my intentions, but got a response telling me about traffic
> in the area and which runway was in use.  These smaller airports have
> someone in the "tower" to give advisories, but they don't direct you in.
>  Its called an MR (mandatory reporting) area, 5mi around the airport that
> everyone needs to check in on.  Anyway, got into Kenora just fine - a
> little over 2hr flight from Minneapolis.  Stayed the night with my sister
> and her family then headed West to visit my parents in Saskatchewan.
> 
> On Thursday, June 13, I flew from Kenora ON to Virden MN.  Virden was the
> closest decent airport to where my parents live in Moosomin, SK.  I'd been
> able to arrange a hangar there through one of my Dad's friends.  Getting
> out of Kenora, I contacted Winnipeg approach, as I needed to transit their
> airspace.  Can't remember if it was Class B or C, but typically their
> airspace goes up much higher than in the US.  I think KBOS goes up to
> 7000', whereas Toronto goes up to 11 or 12K', same with Winnipeg.  Anyway,
> it seems that most VFR pilots in Canada don't use flight following very
> much.  That was what the pilots in Virden told me.  But, I was able to get
> on with Winnipeg approach just fine, and they held my hand thru their
> airspace and all the way to Virden.  I stayed with my parents for a few
> days.
> 
> On Saturday, June 15, I headed to Regina, SK to visit friends.  My endpoint
> was Saskatoon, as I needed to give a talk there on that Monday, but the
> weather in Saskatoon was poor, so I decided to hole up in Regina until I
> saw a break.  It was just about an hour from Virden to Regina.  Getting
> close to Regina, I listened to the ATIS and heard 30kt winds...did I hear
> that right?  30kts, gusting to 35kts?  Yikes!  Well, it was right down the
> runway, so, a bumpy ride in, but once I got into ground effect, it was
> fine. When I got to the ramp, tho, I could feel my plane being pushed
> around just sitting there.  I was able to get it into a hangar at the FBO.
>  I stayed in Regina for the weekend, hoping to get out Monday morning to
> make the hour flight up to Saskatoon, but the weather was poor.  So, I
> rented a car and drove up as I couldn't risk waiting and being late for the
> lecture I needed to give.  I stayed in Saskatoon until Wednesday (this last
> Wednesday) then drove back down to Regina for my trek home.
> 
> Flying out of Regina, it was a good steady rain and thunderstorms in the
> area, but they were clearly visible and where I was headed, Southeast to
> Fargo, was clear.  Bumpy ride navigating between the rain showers and
> thunderstorms, but once I got past them, it was smooth sailing.  Again,
> before taking off did the whole border crossing routine.  Filed a eAPIS
> notice of entry, called ahead to the Fargo CBP to make sure an agent would
> be available, called CanPass to say goodbye to Canada, filed a flight plan
> and headed out.  Landed in Fargo (2.5hr flight from Regina) and, other than
> the CBP agent being a little pissy because I gave him the wrong time to
> meet me (I screwed up and gave him the local Regina time I expected to
> land), everything went fine.  I had intended to just do a short hop to pick
> up some cheap fuel at a small airport outside of Fargo, but decided to just
> keep flying and head to a little airport just outside Green Bay - Shawano
> (KEZS).  It was about 2.5hrs there, so I'd flown about 5hrs since Regina
> and had about 10gal left in the tanks when I landed.  Stayed the night in a
> Shawano.  Nice little airport - friendly people there, good fuel prices.
> 
> Got up in the morning for the final leg home.  Fueled up and took off.
>  Clear skies, so I climbed to 11.5k', leaned it out and was down to
> ~7.5gal/hr, cruising at 155ktas, but making ~200kts ground speed with a
> nice tail wind.  Funny, flying through the midwest, you can go an hour
> without being handed off b/w ATC centers.  Sometimes I had to call in and
> just make sure they didn't forget me, "no 3 victor sierra, you're still
> with us!"  Once I got onto NY center things got busier, handed off every
> 15min or so.  Flying over the finger lakes, it was nice to start to see
> familiar landmarks of home.  It was about a 4hr flight from KEZS in WI to
> KORH in MA.  Made great time and just sipped away on fuel.  I thought I'd
> have to stop for fuel or stretch my legs, but the 4hrs went pretty quick.
>  That's the longest flight I've done, but, of course, I've sat on
> commercial flights for much longer!
> 
> All in all, it was a great experience.  About 20hrs in flying.  At home I
> never fly in weather, so it was a good experience to make decisions about
> weather and fly when the conditions were not perfect.  Learning about
> flying in Canada was good, crossing the border, although I'd done that once
> before, is not at all intimidating now.  The plane worked almost
> flawlessly.  No serious problems whatsoever.  Found the main doors leak
> when it sits on the ramp in pouring rain, though (soaked carpet in
> Syracuse)!
> 
> Geoff