Clouds, clouds, clouds

 Monday, July 10

When I got to the airport this morning, the weather was very iffy for flying. Some of the EAA members gather on Monday mornings, and bring donuts. So it was a very pleasant way to spend part of the morning. We all kept a close eye on the weather, and about 10:00 a.m. Kevin said that it was clear at Youngstown, OH. Although that's not one of my stops, it's en route, so I left quickly before the weather could change.

It was an easy flight to Marion Municipal Airport (MNN), Ohio, and the clouds were low enough that I decided to fly above them at 4300' rather than below them.

It's always enjoyable to see the farms and yet after about 90 minutes, I found it difficult to keep paying attention. It wasn't boring flying - but it was monotonous. At that altitude, everything is so similar. Not identical, yet similar.When you're down low, you can see much more of the variety.

Every picture I took was a variation of these two photos.

I refueled at Marion Muni and flew on to Jack Barstow Airport (IKW) in Midland Michigan. Dennis had gotten there yesterday and was staying with friends, Malcolm and Jeanne Brubaker. I've had contact with Malcolm in the past when he started making sails for ultralights, yet I'd never met him in person.

The flight to KIKW was different than I expected. It was very bumpy below the clouds and the tops didn't look that high, so I climbed, intending to go over them as I'd done on the last leg. This time 4300' wasn't quite high enough, so I climbed to 5000', which worked for a while and then I had to climb to 6500' to stay on top, then to7500' and finally to 8500'. I've never flown at 7400' AGL before. When I've been that high, it was because the terrain below was really high. It was very beautiful, absolutely calm air, and even more monotonous than before. These photos look like the clouds were clumping, but they actually were quite scattered with lots of holes.

I hated to give up all that altitude, then realized that I had to get down below 3000' to stay below MBS' delta ring. I've never slipped from that altitude before, and it was an exciting experience.

Malcolm and Dennis were at the airport to greet me, and after I tied down Malcolm took us to a hamburger/hot dog barbeque at another airport. Chapter 159 welcomed us and I got to see some really interesting planes. I even got to sit in a DH2 replica that one of the members is building.

Then Malcolm took us home and we spent the night. We're revved about flying to Mackinac Island tomorrow.

My track today: