All the way to KLNK and back in a day pt 1

Very nearly 850 miles…in a straight line.

I left the house about 7:10, having already gotten a briefing via telephone while getting ready to leave.

Opened the hangar doors at 7:48

Filed my flight plan while holding the “open” button for the doors ….Preflight was done the evening before.

Pulled the 340 out and fired up at 8:02. Listened to the ASOS, got the winds and barometer/altimeter setting while the engine oil warmed, was taxiing at 8:10, did the runup at the end of the taxiway, called Clearance, got my clearance, pulled to the Hold Short line, called and told ’em “number one, ready for departure”, and waited…and waited…and waited…. for 9 minutes, called ’em again, finally got released for takeoff, switched to the CTAF frequency, called that I was taking the runway and advanced the throttles.

The turbos spooled up and in less than 2000 feet I was wheels up and retracting the gear and climbing out. (just me and a full load of fuel, so the 340 was pretty light and the air was pretty cool yet, so the initial rate of climb was pretty good)

Went to 3000, then 5000 on a heading of 200, , then was directed straight south to a fix called ZORRO (45 miles out of my way, (likely for Midway airport traffic)) then they climbed me to 10,000 direct Lincoln, Nebraska, where I had an appointment to look at another MU-2 Marquise.

Soon, Chicago Approach gave me clearance to my final altitude of 16,000 feet and I flew for 2.2 hours at an airspeed of 200+ knots.

From the Indiana state line to most of the way to Nebraska is …..flat. Mostly once prairie-now farmland gridded into 1 mile squares by roads, cut with the occasional river, railroad, and the sparse towns. ATC handed me off sector by sector and the 340 simply ate the miles up.

It was interesting (and amusing , in a sad way) listening to all the folks flying to Oshkosh for AirVenture….many of them probably only fly more than 50 miles from their home airport only once a year. most never going cross country the rest of the time…and their radio work, and airmanship, shows it. But while they kept the different controllers on their toes, the controllers did a great job with them.

ATC did a nice job of stepping me down to the airport, altitude wise. No screaming dives at the last minute (like what Chicago is known for), just a steady descent at about 500 FPM…

Sadly, I was too busy in the descent to take photos of the approach to Lincoln (KLNK) airport. It was hazy and I had trouble finding the airport, never having been there before, so picking it out of the terrain was difficult.

But find it I did, executed a nice visual approach to runway 17 (their ATIS warns that there is a long wide runway to the west (Runway 18) and a short skinny runway to the east (runway 17)…apparently folks have issues with landing on the right runway).

I found the correct runway and did a nice, if not perfect, approach and landing in a gusty environment.

Taxiied in, parked myself  at Atlantic FBO (no marshallers showed up, so after waiting,I simply parked. ) and shut down the plane.

Got out, was met by the agent selling the MU-2, and we went down the way to look at it. This one is nice, no obvious issues…and while it does not have the interior that I want, it can easily be modified to have it….and I think this one will pass a pre-buy inspection, which the other planes I have looked at might well not have…

It is, of course, priced a bit high, but negotiations can and might well happen…..

The return flight in another post.

 

 

 

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