$100… pasta!

I know what I’m going to do next. I considered all my options and it turned out that the best thing I can do is ‘informally’ start process of getting instrument rated. I’m saying informally because as a foreigner I can’t really start formal training without TSA authorization. The thing is that this authorization is valid only for 12 months. So if I got one I have only year to finish. And there is no way I could pull this off right now. But there is plenty of things I can do on my own, at home in my own peace. I can study the theory, I can try flying my X-Plane simulator, and (probably the most important) I can work on filling out the requirement of 50h PIC cross country time as a regular private pilot. There is no difference how I made them. This way I can fly ‘for the cause’ no matter if it’s vacation trip or just a _not_so_short_ hop for a lunch. As it happened today.

The original plan was to fly on Saturday but due to weather conditions including very gusty winds and reported turbulence we switched to Sunday. Today winds were way lower and the weather was generally nicer. We took off around 12 and headed for Pella. The beginning of our trip was simply awful. Location and configuration of the Green Castle Airports makes take offs very challenging when the wind is blowing from the headings between 160 and 210 degrees. As you already figured out it was 180 degrees today. Flying is still a stressing experience for Iza so I tried to make it as smooth as I could. Yet today it was still very turbulent. I tried to escape it climbing up as soon as possible and in fact just after passing 3000 ft. MSL air became very smooth. One can’t get everything so for a bit of smooth air we had to pay the price in 30 knots headwind. Well it was worth it. The rest of the flight was very uneventful and even the descending through turbulent air below and landing were quite nice.

Pella which is also called as small Holland in the middle of Iowa is a small town with a climate. It’s best known for it’s Tulip Time festival that happens every May. Fortunately it’s climate stays in the town even when tulips are gone.

The brick building on this photo is the airport terminal. Inside is even better:

It more resembles home than airport terminal. Friendly guy at the counter loaned us their courtesy car and we headed downtown to find something to eat. It turned out that here we had to pay another price of switching days. As it happens in many small town in rural Iowa almost all businesses are closed on Sunday. We managed to find one open local restaurant. There were some other chain places open, but we didn’t fly so far to eat in place we have around the corner, did we?

After lunch and small walk during which Iza shot one of the best HDR pictures I’ve seen lately:

we headed back to the airport. Short preflight with a bit of posing time:

and we headed back home. The air was just a bit nicer to us in lower layers, and the wind was now blowing from the back so our short hop home became even shorter 28 minutes. For comparison Google Maps says that it would take us 1h56m if we went by car. WOW!

On a very positive note Iza is slowly getting used to flying and we already have some nice places lined out within her current time aloft limit of 45 minutes one way. And I can get needed XC time for my instrument rating.

1.7h/0.0h inst : 2 to/ldg logged
67.2h/3.1h inst : 326 to/ldg total