Building some flight time together...

BEH - lots of concrete below - taxiways and runways galore.

In the weeks leading up to the race, Kata and I planned to make some flights together visiting a few of the race stops in the upper Midwest - Columbus NE, Watertown SD, Ashland WI, and Benton Harbor.  In the end, we found time to make it to Ashland and Benton Harbor, and it was great fun.

BEH - Motorcycle parking in the hotel lobby...

The North Central Section 99s meeting was held in Dayton OH, which is a great place to visit for its aviation history - the Wright Brothers, the National Museum of the United States Air Force, the Wright "B" Flyer Hanger Museum to name a few. It also provided a great opportunity to fly by Benton Harbor (BEH), making a brief stop to visit Stop Chair Lee Scherwitz.  He's very enthusiastic about hosting the Air Race Classic.  We spent a bit of time on the ground and walked around a bit in dowtown Benton Harbor.

BEH - Really nice compass rose in town along the
waterfront park space.

After taking off from BEH, Kata took over the flying all the way back to Cedar Rapids. We had a bit of rain and some low clouds.  So she got a good IMC workout in what my instructor liked to call "benign IFR."  Great job too!  As we approached Cedar Rapids, I took the controls and shot the approach into CID.  The ceilings were getting quite low, and after we had a bite to eat after a long day, I realized that it was night with minimum ceilings and winds that would need a circling approach for me into IOW - NOT a good idea.  So the folks at PS Air loaned me the crew car so that I could go home for the night and return in the AM to move my plane to IOW.

ASX - Kata with our ride to the Maple Creek restaurant.

A couple weeks later, we had a day of good weather and an alignment of our calendars - so we flew to Ashland WI (ASX).  Great flight to the northernmost part of Wisconsin and we discovered a log cabin airport! Nobody around at the FBO on a nice Sunday, and Kata went in search of a hidden crew car key. We found one under a planter, but it didn't open the well marked CREW CAR parked in front of the airport.  HOWEVER, parked next to this car was a BMW SUV - unlocked, open, with keys...nobody around...parked in front of the airport. therefore it MUST be the real crew car parked next to a decoy crew car. We left a note inside the FBO and drove off for lunch in town...put some gas in it on the way back, didn't get picked up by the cops for driving a stolen vehicle, and left a nice thank you note signed by the soon-to-be famous Flyin' HawaiIowans.

So the team was coming together, and things were a good fit...

Next up: The Flight to Lake Havasu City...