I watched the Formula 1 race and then decided to go fly….It was Severe Clear…..,so I  kidnapped invited MC, stuffed her in the 340A and we flew to KMCD…Mackinac Island, Michigan.

The flight up was pretty much uneventful.  A bit hazy, but VFR all the way. We cruised north up at 9500 as that was the best for fuel and speed….Higher burns more fuel in the climb, but less fuel at cruise, but more fuel due to the headwind component….. sometimes a bit difficult finding the best combination for speed and fuel burn………

But off we went about 11 AM. …South Bend Approach was pretty busy, but then the next controller, Great Lakes Approach, was really quiet…Then Minneapolis Approach took us all the way to Mackinac…he was pretty busy.

South Bend did ask us to deviate north right after takeoff to avoid some skydivers…..(I hate ’em, they get caught in the wings, unbalance the  the props, and  as MC says “They won’t stop screaming!” )  but then it was straight o the destination. 1 hour 26 minutes later we had the island airport in sight. Followed a TBM in the pattern and landed. Short runway (3500 feet) , but the 340 can, if I am on my game, land in less than 1600 ft, so it wasn’t a big deal. we made the 2200 foot turnoff with room to spare and parked right next to the TBM 700.

Walked the 3 or so miles to the downtown…past the Grand Hotel, and just wandered around for a while.

We ate at the Yankee Rebel Tavern, I think it was…Fresh pan fried walleye over smashed taters with green beans…Damn, that was good. MC had the prime rib sammich.

Then, of course, being Mackinac Island, we had to buy some fudge…and then we decided that it was time to go because there was possible weather at home….

Decided on a cab (horse drawn, of course, but dispatched via telephone) because I didn’t want to walk back (it’s all uphill to the airport)…But that took longer than if we had walked….

Ended up at the airport, got someone to let us in (we forgot to get the gate code from the ranger that runs the airport) and preflighted the plane. Waited for two other, slower airplanes to take off and get clear, then did a short field takeoff I didn’t really need to do, but hey, practice, right? and turned south… Had to climb hard as BOTH of the other two airplanes were down low but right on our course, but passed over them at well over a thousand feet separation…we were talking to each other all the time, so no big deal….Called Minneapolis Approach and got flight following and then set an economy cruise at about 185 knots at 10,500….I calculated that we would have about an hour’s fuel at the end , but if we had headwinds or something we could always stop along the way as there are lots of airports in Michigam….there is NO FUEL of any kind available at Mackinac Island.

Turned out I was right, we landed with about 30 gallons left in the main tanks… but the aux tanks were bone dry. So an hour of fuel left. The landing was…..firm…. Definitely not my best. Hey, it happens. Unlike Aaron, whose landing are always like butter, I sometimes demonstrate how NOT to do it. (Someone’s gotta be the Bad Example)…But we CAN use the plane again. (Guess I’m gonna have to spend an hour or two working on my landings.)

There were thunderstorms about 40 miles to the south of our airport, but nothing for us to worry about.

So 1.6 (VFR) each way and 2 landings, and damned nice afternoon.

Sorry no pictures. I was enjoying myself too much on the island, and there wasn’t much to see but hazy blue skies on the trip out (and back) over Michigan. The Mackinac bridge was pretty to see, but I was too busy preparing for landing to take a pic.

Lots of miles this weekend…370 on Saturday and 580 on Sunday…plus I was a passenger in Aaron’s plane for another 160 or so miles. Al told I flew for about 7 and a half hours between both days. 1100 miles or so.

That would have been about 28 hours of driving. This way I had time for fun and still home each night.