| Ponca City Breakfast Flight Page 3 |
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| Most folks stayed about an hour or so then either returned to their starting point (such as I did) or went off to another aviation event. The greater the range of your plane the greater the opportunity to fly to multple distant locations in one day. Also, thank goodness for auto gas fuel prices that are now below $2.00 a gallon. Avgas is even down around $4.50 a gallon down from almost $7.00 a gallon this summer. My 120 miles of flying plus breakfast cost only $22.00. |
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| After filing a flight plan at 11:20 I straddled my AirBike's 12" wide fuselage then took off doing a climbing 180 degree turn heading north for my aerodrome just south of Wichita, Kansas. The tailwind that helped me on the outbound leg was now an obstacle. I tested various altitudes and found that 300' AGL gave me the best groundspeed, nearly 70 mph at 6000 rpms. |
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| That little plane just hummed right along and at times I was chasing my shadow as it slithered over houses, farm equipment and bean fields. Occasionally a ground-pounder would wave and in return I wiggled my wings and let out a stream of smoke. Flying this low kept me out of the wind but necessated my keeping a keen eye out for cell phone towers. |
| Occasionally I would wave to farmers out working their fields. This was a feel-good day! These thoughts warmed my heart as distant Wichita gradually rose from the horizon as I approached my home airfield. Ah, what a feeling to fly my own hand-made plane on a crisp Kansas Fall morning and enjoy the camaraderie of other pilots! I love this flying stuff and thank God for guys like Wayne Ison who design these little airplanes. |