The Final Legs Home

Home!

As yesterday's short entry stated, we arrived home yesterday after an amazing and learning filled trip of two weeks. Each one of will admit that although the trip was filled with lots of fun and excitement, it was also exhausting. A combination of hard flying, early mornings, extensive adventures, and sometimes late nights leads to one tired group of people!

However, now that we have had a little rest, it is time to put together and recap the final leg for you!

As we went to bed, all of knew that a clearing trend had started, and each one of us was eager to finish the final few hours home. We went to bed relatively early, anticipating that we would have a relatively early start the following morning.

Sure enough, daybreak came soon. Thanks to Kieth Toczek and the "Greater Yankton Area Cessna 152 Aircraft Owners and Student Pilot's Association Inc." we all had a great nights sleep! Kieth's gift was particularly appreciated by us since we have all spent many hours in a 152. However, we were a bit surprised to be recipients, since this blog has clearly shown that we had been flying a 172 and (gasp!) a Warrior!

After further thought, however, we all now realize that Kieth's gift was merely a reflection of the attitude of all of those who fly in the Greater Yankton Area. It isn't just about the plane that you fly or the places that you visit so much as it is about the people that you meet along the way. All these people have a similar passion and love for aviation. We share our stories and love for the sky, and that is the biggest and most important thing. Thanks so much Kieth!

We were all at the airport by 9AM. As always, Katie and Gary were there to greet us, and loaded the planes and flight planned. With the weather clearing, an assortment of planes were now on thier ramp... a couple of King Air's and a Citation X. Gary and Katie greeted each of these pilots with the same enthusiasm and big smiles that we have grown accustomed to over the past few days.

By noon, we were finally able to begin our way Northwards. As we rose above the airport, thousands upon thousands of geese were doing the same. There were patches of sky that were black with the rising birds, and although we were wary of venturing into them, we were also excited to see them heading in the same direction. Spring cannot be far away.

The winds aloft were predicted to be quite high... and as we were soon to discover, the predictions were accurate. One of the great things about a cold front is that it generally brings clear skies. There are, of course, a couple of downsides to a Prairie Cold front. Namely, it gets cold, and secondly, that the winds will blow strongly out of the north.

And they did.

At times, we were grounding only 50 Knots. That's about 100km an hour. In a car, these speeds may seem normal, but in our planes... well, we usually see speeds somewhere closer to 100 Knots across the ground or 200km an hour. We should go twice as fast as the average highway guy! Instead of a four hour journey to the border, we were now facing a four hour journey just to get to our halfway point of Fargo! This slow going was going to force us down for fuel... so Fargo was going to become a stop for us.

The turnaround at the Fargo Jet Center was relatively quick. We all loaded up on free Cappacianos and Coffee, updated our arrival time with CANPASS and Customs, and then winged our way towards Piney for Customs clearing.

Clearing Customs in Piney was uneventful, but COLD! We were subjected to a temperature of -20 Celcius on landing. When one considers that the day before departing New Tribes we had temperatures of +32 Celcius, we had encoutered a temperature variation of over 50C! This is halfway from freezing to boiling water!

The takeoff from Piney was filled with excitement and anticipation. We were less than 40 Minutes from our own beds!!! As we approached Steinbach, familiar landmarks slid into view. "The Bend" in Highway 12... The Steinbach Radio Tower, the Water Tower, and THE FIELD!!!

After touching down, a cheer erupted from our airplane... we had succeeded in completing an awesome but exhausting trip! Rick leaped from his plane and hugged the ground... Steinbach!

Now all that is left to do is the final bits of paperwork and what not. There are also a lot of thankyous to say... and we will be taking the time to do that tomorrow night... for now, a little more rest is in order...

Stay tuned!