I have an older brother, Jason, who lives in Wisconsin. I haven't seen him in over five years, and this weekend he came with friends to visit. We thought it would be a lot of fun to rent a plane and have me fly him to the Arch. Since he wanted to bring his friend Todd along, I needed to take a plane that could hold more than one passenger, which also meant that I needed to take my instructor Matt. I chose N73855 which is a Cessna 172 with 180hp.
Jason and his friends watched me do the preflight inspection, then we went inside to greet Matt. After introductions, we went out to the plane and prepared for flight. We departed from runway 18 and headed south.
We flew directly over my place of employment, then over my house. After turning east, we flew over Creve Coeur Park, then found Hwy 40 and followed it downtown. We cruised by Forest Park at 120kts (140mph).
Once at Forest Park, I contacted St. Louis Downtown airport to get a clearance to enter their airspace, which allows us to circle the Arch. It was a beautiful day for the tour; it wasn't hazy, not too hot or humid, and it was partly cloudy. We did two laps around the Arch before heading home.
We followed the Mississippi River west, checked the weather report, then listened for any other traffic in the area. It was relatively quite, so we decided to enter the pattern a little differently. There was going to be some crosswind from any of the runways, so I decided to land on runway 18, which gave us a crosswind from the right (west). The touchdown was smoother than I had expected.
We had an absolute blast and I feel so fortunate that we were able to do this. Afterward, I parked the plane and it became picture time.
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| My brother Jason, and I |
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| Jason, Me, and Todd |
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| Matt and I |
Hours flown: 74.1
They all look so proud of you! It must've been a wonderful experience! -- Sean
ReplyDeleteIt was a fantastic experience! I've taken passengers flying before, but they were the first that I've taken to see the Arch :)
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