Our receptionist at work and her hubby own a 1983 Beechcraft Bonanza (B36TC for you AvGeeks), and I asked her a while back if they’d mind taking Faith up for a ride sometime (this was around her birthday) and she said they should be able to do that at some point (although at the time the plane was undergoing its annual inspection). Yesterday, she pinged me and said that her hubby needed to go make a gas run down to K81 (Paola) from OJC. K81 is about 20nm from OJC, and is well worth the trip, as 100LL at K81 is about $1.25/gallon cheaper than it is at OJC. Big difference when you’re buying 80 gallons. Besides, there’s a great little BBQ joint in the terminal building at K81.

The flight was contingent on “Optimal VFR Conditions”, and today’s conditions were about as optimal as they get – crystal blue sky, mid 60s, and winds around 5 knots. The sort of day you’d want to play hooky so you can get up in the sky.

When I went to pick up the girls at school today, Faith was running around the room with her arms out, wanting to “take another fly around the room”… And I hadn’t ever told her (nor had her mother) that we were going flying. I think we’ve got a born aviator in the house.

We went out to OJC around 4:00 and waited for Dave and watched some planes come and go (bonus: there was another girl there who just turned 4, watching planes with her grandpa, and our girls made fast friends.)

We got up in the air, and Dave let me drive for a bit, which was fun. I’d almost forgotten what a thrill it is to ride shotgun, hadn’t done so in about 10 years, when I was on the company Cessna 414 for a previous employer. On the way back, he passed the controls back over to me and let me fly most of the way home (all of about 5 minutes, 20nm goes by fast at 160kts!). Sadly, Dave isn’t licensed as an instructor, so I wasn’t able to log the time 🙁

I really need to figure out how to pay for flight school. Paypal contributions happily accepted!

Looking east In flight, N819DK K81-OJC on approach to OJC RWY 36. The body of water is located just east of Quivira Rd between 191st and 199th streets.