It was a really great day trip for us - The only bad thing about it was that we couldn't stay longer. I wish I'd thrown a change of clothes for us all in the baggage compartment anyway, I'm sure we could have snuck into the back bedroom of
@SixPapaCharlie's lodgings unnoticed! (We stayed there the first year it was open... Way more room and beds than we needed!)
I wish we could have stuck around and chatted with everyone more, seen the auroras, and done some ATVing. Grayson had a great time with
@Ted and Laurie's kids and cried a lot when we had to leave.
Also, after nearly 20 years of flying I don't have a whole lot of firsts any more, but I did have one on the way in to 6Y9: My first ever Cruise clearance. ZMP gave
@masloki one and he cancelled immediately thereafter, but I was gonna savor it a bit! As soon as he cancelled, I got a cruise clearance into 6Y9, and kept it past TOD, cancelling when we started to get to the lower edge of radio coverage. Kinda cool!
Alas, this was probably the first and last trip for the Mooney, with the slight possibility of an exception for a future day trip for just me.
@steingar,
@masloki and
@German guy will have to be the Mooney representatives to 6Y9... I had posted several pages ago in this thread about the lack of much of a safety margin when departing, so after we got there I went up by myself to see if I was being too big of a chicken.
Long story short... I was not. I climbed out within a wingspan or so of the trees on the east end at Vx-5. It was... Uncomfortable. My wife, watching from the ground, said it looked scary. EdFred flying overhead said it looked scary. So, we exercised the Land o' Lakes option and I entrusted Ed with my most precious people. Kelsey said he's only the fourth GA pilot she's flown with - Her grandfather, me, my partner in the Mooney (I was still in the right seat tho), and Ed. They had only good things to say about the mighty Comanche, and after a bit of formation on the way down there, I was impressed too. Unlike most other aircraft types, I really can't run away from the Comanche. It performs admirably, and having flown it, I know it has a nice comfy cabin and obviously better runway performance than the Mooney. Kinda made me want a Twin Comanche again.
At the end of the day, everyone had fun and that bodes well for all of us to make another long visit next year, though it'll probably be by car... The car's rotation speed is high, but the runway is sufficiently long.