2002: More Hot and Sweaty Trips in June Last updated
June 2nd, the day after the AOPA Open House trip I flew out to Ashtabula County Airport to retrieve Debbie D. who had just dropped her plane off at Kettunen Aeronautical for its annual. Debbie was my instrument instructor from May 2001 to November 2001 but I didn't get a photo 'till this trip. When not flying, she spends her days as a nurse.
A scant week later, on June 8th, I got to fly myself on a work-related trip. What a pleasure to fly myself and not deal with all the hassles of commercial flights! I went to Louisville International-Standiford Field in Louisville, KY (known as SDF) on my way to serve as an examiner for the American Board of Radiology.	Image courtesy of "Great Circle Mapper."
SDF is perhaps best known for its UPS air-freight operations. That makes it a fairly busy Class C airport. (Class B's are the busiest, Class C's next busiest, and Class D's least busy of towered airports.) Even though Visual Meteorological Conditions, VMC, prevailed, I was given the fairly standard ILS 17L instrument approach. Fortunately , I did not have to share the approach with any 747's (Saturday at 1:00 PM is not the peak time for the freight haulers). 17L did land me close to The FBO AvCenter where I was to park my plane for a few days. Marty K., the president of the Cirrus Owners and Pilots Association, COPA, met me as we had arranged. He kindly gave me a lift to the Executive West Hotel where I stayed and where the ABR exam was given.	Image courtesy of www.airnav.com
A physicist colleague and fellow pilot Guy S. wanted to see my plane. So we jumped into his car and headed for The FBO AvCenter. The folks there were excellent. A woman at the FBO had not yet seen a Cirrus and insisted joining us for a photo session. That's her with me on the right. My SR22 was one of the few propeller plans on the ramp. I would hate to try to get a parking spot anywhere's near that FBO during Kentucky Derby week...	Photo by Guy S. with The FBO AvCenter's camera.
During my few days at the hotel I become more and more concerned about my return trip to Cleveland. The Weather Channel was incessantly predicting thunder storms. My go, no-go, decision would have to be made when talking to a Flight Service Station, FSS, weather briefer Wednesday morning. As it turned out, his briefing did not include thunder storms on my route and off I went. Twas a nice flight terminating in a ILS 23 at CGF in about 800' ceilings and 2 mile visibility.