The events of the prior evening and this morning having taken their toll on the IFR Pilot and MS, we amended our destination from Nash-Vagas to the Home Base. Hey, vacation isn't always about the quantity of time, but the quality of what you make out of the time you have. And believe you me, we packed enough trouble -- literally -- into 36 hours to last a lifetime.
The flight back was uneventful, except for the last 20 minutes. Weather was mostly scattered in Lexington and we filed for 7000, which put us on top for the entire trip home. Just south of Mansfield, we were descended to 5000, which put us in the thick of it. Water was flying all over the cowl -- and into '78S itself. Such are the quirks of owning a 40-year old flying machine.
MS and the IFR Pilot were a bit concerned, as the OAT was barely a bit over freezing. We asked for and immediately got a descent to 4000 from Akron Approach, looking for warmer air. It helped a bit, but not enough. We wanted 3000, which happens to be the same altitude for the initial leg of the GPS 2 into 3G3. CAK denied us 3000, as there was other traffic at that altitude. Plus, there was another aircraft inbound to 3G3 on the VOR-DME approach. This, of course, caused the IFR Pilot a bit of silent concern -- are we actually going to be asked to hold, in actual conditions? Heaven forbid, we don't need this kind of workout, that's for sure. That turned out to be for naught, however, as we appeared to be ahead of him.
Soon enough, we got our descent to 3000. At 3500, we started to see the ground, and by 3000, we were VFR. A final descent to 2500 and we cancelled IFR, broke off the approach, and headed for the Home Base.
We chased the Apache in, and landed after 2.3 hours of fun in the sun, having benefited from the tailwind.
Let's hope the next Boys Weekend isn't quite as eventful.... Y'all don't forget to set your clocks forward an hour tonight, here?
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