1st Annual Cirrus Migration, June 2003: Continued

1st Annual Cirrus Migration, June 2003: Continued Last updated
Come Sunday morning the seminars started at 7:00 AM at the hotel pool. The first was entitled "Wet Survival Demonstration" by, once again, Doug Ritter. This gave us an opportunity to see life jackets fitted and inflated. Not shown, it gave us a chance to see folks struggle to get into any of the three life-rafts deployed in the pool. I could have been one of the clothed volunteers that wore a vest and struggled into a raft. My excuse for not doing it is that Jack and I planned a roughly noon departure and there was much to do to get ready. At the very least we realized that water survival takes thought, equipment, and training!	Image by Jack P.
Meanwhile, I had taken advantage of being at the Cirrus factory and the factory service center. Several squawks were to be fixed over the weekend. As it turned out, my plane was in the shop Sunday AM. This allowed me to do my preflight indoors and out of the hot sun.	Image by Jack P.
Images by Jack P. Part of one's preflight inspection is "sumping" the fuel tanks. That is, draining a bit of fuel from each of five drains, to look for water, particulates, or any other contaminants. The fuel in the sampling vial should be a blue or light blue to indicate 100 octane low lead (100LL). Other fuels have different or no color.
After I had finished my preflight, the guys in the shop kindly pulled my plane out onto the ramp and I got ready for departure. Jack jumped out and snapped this image - and yes I'm in the plane.	Image by Jack P.
Because the weather was so nice, I decided to take the scenic route. We would fly east along Michigan's upper peninsula and then turn south for a stop at Saginaw for gas.	Image courtesy www.airnav.com
Scenic can mean sky as well as ground. I never tire of the interesting shapes and textures of clouds...
Then there was something strange about the scenery - some of the lakes were red! Methinks there be iron in the ground.
We continued eastward, the red lakes dissapeared and we began to think about turning southeastward. Once again I had planned to minimize over-water time. At 9,000 feet we would be within easy gliding distance of land. After all, that water is COLD! The multifunction display (MFD) sure helps situational awareness. On that one display I have a moving map showing course lines, my present position, bearing to next way point, track, text data including ete, eta, distance, and engine data including values for all six cylinders. A person could get spoiled.
Ah - blue lakes.	Image by Jack P.
As we crossed from the UP to mainland Michigan, there were many pretty sights...
Those sights included a very long bridge connecting the UP and mainland Michigan.
We landed at Saginaw just after another Cirrus had departed. We filled the plane's tanks after our three-hour flight and then thought about us. Thanks to Jack's suggestion, we had picked up box lunches before departure from Duluth. Both being fairly hungry, we ate! Further, we relaxed for a bit before climbing back into the plane for the next leg. Curiously, we departed just before another Cirrus landed. The folks at the Saginaw FBO were scratching their heads :-)
Our flight took us west of the busy Detroit airspace, then (avoiding over-water flight) to the south of Cleveland, then north-east to home base. Jack got some nice photographs while I "chatted" with Cleveland ATC. The following series of Jack's photos shows our approach to CGF and almost our landing...	Image by Jack P.



The good news is that the VASI (Visual Approach Slope Indicator) lights at the left of the runway showed red over white - just as they should have :-) Jack also got one last photo of me as I flared for landing. At least I was paying no attention to him and all my attention to landing.
All in all it was a great trip and a great fly-in. Can hardly wait until the 2nd annual Migration...
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