Fly like you train and train like you fly. The last weekend in September I had the opportunity to fly my cherokee, N8260Y, out to SAW in the very upper peninsula of Michigan. Sawyer International is an old NORAD outpost where they launched B-52s and F-101 VooDoo interceptors for protection against the Soviets.  See the flight tracks on http://flightaware.com/live/flight/N8260Y during our trip out to Marquette,MI and back.

Counting just flight time, we were in the air for 6 hours 47 minutes westbound and 7 hours 46 minutes back home eastbound. Thats unusual time, as there is normally a strong headwind going westbound. We were pleased to get direct routing initially, but I realized (after accepting) that it would involve a 50nm water crossing. No can do with four folks and a gross weight cherokee. I rejected the water crossing, and suffered through a number of diversions just to stay over land.

Even with the diversion, we did so well that we skipped our planned fuel stop and went ILG - MBS(Saginaw). Cancelled our room and car at MBS, and continued from Saginaw north to SAW.

All that effort to manage risk, and I still dropped the ball. I did a small water crossing at the top of Lake Michigan, jumping to an island airport and then back to land withing gliding distance the entire time. Minimal risk anyway. Once over land and on course to SAW over land, I am VFR and notice that its solid trees. No houses, no cars, no roads, no clear areas. Click 'Nearest' for the next airport and listen to the electronic silence......   Two airports within 25nm.....  That ain't gonna work. I accepted that risk by default, and now know not to do that again. No way I'd do that route at night. I'd cross the water at the same place, but follow the coast to Escanaba and then north to SAW. When its dark up here; there is no light from the surface at all.

Service at SAW was excellent. They were all very nice to us, and arranged a car automatically when they noticed we were coming in unplanned. Long landing was approved on the 12,500' runway. Wow!

The weather was excellent during our visit. We enjoyed the reception, wedding, and walking about town. The folks up there were congenial, austere, and polite. As is often the case, I had more fun than I expected to.

Coming home was more exciting for me though. IFR was indicated down both the Wisconsin side to the west, and Michigan side to the east. Storms were forecast midway, and were more probable at the end of our trip.

I really wanted to go down the east side for speed, but forced myself to minimize risk to my passengers where I could. The weather observations and forecasts over the shorter route down Michigan were in the 600' range, whereas they were 800' to VFR down the Wisconsin side. Tops were at 3000' in all quadrants, so the risk I was managing was really due to an engine failure or similar contingency that would have me landing unexpectedly.

Down the Michigan side was easy. I had nothing to do with the autopilot flying in VFR on top, so I kept busy for awhile by always having a nearby approach ready for that engine contingency. I got bored with that fairly soon, however, and I settled for having the correct bound approach book at the ready for the state I was flying over. Electronic charts would be helpful here, but expensive.

About 100nm north of Chicago, I was informed that my route down the coast would not work today. Thus we started a series of vectors, new routes, negotions and corner cutting to get me to Valparaiso, Indiana (VPZ). With all the communications going back and forth, the controllers made mistakes that threatened to send me in the wrong direction. At one point, I was given a routing 50nm beyond my fuel stop with vectors back. I really bitched about that one. I was IFR now in an IMC layer, so I couldn't just cancel. I got direct to VPZ for the  third time, only be told to expedite a climb from 3000' for 4000' only 14nm out. This was for traffic, which I could not see under the layer. I think the controller just forgot about me and brought me too close.

My DUATs filed flight plans were lost, so I refiled before I launched. Service from wx briefers was EXCELLENT. RC from Raleigh - Thanks!

Next leg to Wheeling, West Virginia went better. I thought it was cool to have an airport up on a ridge with drop-offs in all directions. I was getting tired by now though. I planned a route along the southern PA border, but the controllers redirected my north to TON VOR in Pennsylvania. I growled and explained about the storms over Penn State, but they told me I'd need to use the route they laid out and divert as necessary. I trusted them, and they knew my concerns, so off we went.

By this time, we knew that storms were blocking our way home to ILG and to our home airport, 33N. I planned on landing short at Capital City, Harrisburg if the slow moving storms didn't move. We enjoyed a serious and up close view of the the big ones around state college, but had VFR conditions around the storm cells, and stayed a safe distance from them.

Around the State College storms, we did the home stretch for Wilmington, and watched the storms lingering in the area. Forecasts and actual measurements for Wilmington and Dover were looking good as we got closer. It was around 8:30 and dark, and I'd been traveling since getting up at 8:30. I was tired. I took a physcological hit when they cleared me direct PADRE for my trip to Wilmington. I do that alot, but normally when I'm 15nm away. This evening I was cleared from 80nm out, and it felt like I wasn't moving after awhile.

Closing on ILG, the NEXRAD showed a blue flag for VFR. The ATIS at ILG and Dover indicated night VFR as well. I relaxed and congratulated myself on excellent weather planning, but when I arrived, I realized the weather forecasts were seriously wrong at the worst possible time (night IMC after flying all day). We were led to expect visual landings at both places, based on observations and forecasts, but instead we needed to fly the ILS 1 into Wilmington in night IMC; followed by the GPS 27 into Delaware Airpark in the same low conditions.

The last approach was the most difficult, but it was also the very coolest. Steph's husband was approaching the airport when the runway lights clicked on. He actually saw them minutes before we did. I had Steph lean forward and watch for the runway, whose lights I had turned on, with Bev in the back narrating to her what was happening. All very comfortable. All very very cool. I told Dover I'd be cancelling on the ground, broke out well past the FAF and pretty low. Steph got to see darkness turn to a well lit runway in an instant. She probably didn't appreciate it, but the landing was smooth, so it didn't matter.

My step weld broke on the last leg with a SNAP. I'll get that fixed this week when the new lights are put on. All else went very well.  (it was fixed during the following week, when the new wing tip lights were installed).

Frank