We (Aaron and myself) departed M54 just before noon, Checked out of the hotel, Ubered to the airport, filled the plane with 100LL (I like to watch ’em do it to make sure I don’t get filled with Jet-A, as that is a Bad Thing….) I did complain that they charged us a parking fee even though we bought fuel, which is usually waived if one buys a minimum of fuel (and we bought 80 gallons), we did a weather briefing (1-800-WxBrief) ,filed a flight plan on ForeFlight, hit the head, preflighted the plane, closed the door, taxiied, did the runup, called Nashville Clearance on the cell phone for our IFR clearance and squawk code, lined up  announced on the CTAF and took off. Climbed out (and, weirdly, I got vertigo Big Time for a few seconds on the climb….wanted to correct for a nonexistent right turn) in IMC after about 600 ft. Got back on the instruments, stopped trying to turn left (nstead of flying straight), shook off the vertigo, called Departure and got assigned an intermediate heading for the climb,..kept the climb to 3000 ft, then got cleared On-Course and cleared to 7000 ft…then up to 9K. We cleared the clouds at 2500 ft more or less, then cruise climbed up to our filed 9000 ft at about 155 knots.

Once at 9K, we set the cruise power to 70%….30 inches of manifold pressure and 2350 rpm at 17 gph per side. 189 knots or so. Closed the cowl flaps and gained a knot or two. We didn’t get the Cylinder Head Temps too high, but they did climb. What with the tailwind we were pushing 220 knots ground speed at times..(yes, I actually flew somewhere and got a tailwind….!)

2.3 hours to KPTK. An approach to 9R via the RNAV, (but it was visual inside of 10 miles) lots of crosswind, Approach wanted 170 knots or better to the initial approach fix…which we did. But then we hadda slow down….which is actually hard in the 340…. I went low, then high, then found the glideslope and followed it down. Winds were—challenging: 160 at 10 ish so a pretty good crosswind…..plus some turbulence on the short final.   Not my best landing, not my worst. Aaron learned what I meant then about getting the 340 slowed down to the proper airspeed for the final approach (we were carrying a LOT of energy from the high speed approach to the initial fix), but we got slowed down, dropped flaps, gear, and flaps…. and landed…As I said, not my best landing, but it was OK.

Unloaded Aaron and his luggage, fueled, hit the head again, filed a flight plan for 10K, and off I went home. While we were doing that some REALLY rich Saudis showed up in a custom 737 . (Aaron has the details at the end of his post)

Flight home was silky smooth until I was descended by ATC over South Bend, Michigan City and such… then it got really turbulent, so much so that I decelerated from 175 down to 130 knots. Dangerously sharp turbulence for a bit. Winds were straight from the south., so I got the RNAV for the correct runway direct to the FAF ((YOPHU)  and settled into a slow descent to 2200…Wind speeds were 18 gusting 34…..made for a bit of crosswind and a LOT of gust correction and gust factor. I ended up crossing the numbers  (20) at 90 knots airspeed but 60 knots groundspeed. The crosswind was fun as the gusts were sharp and ever changing.

Ran it out to the end and then taxiied slowly (to give the turbos a chance to cool) to the hangar.

Was, over all, a really good trip with Aaron and a fun weekend.

And stayed in their lane and out of stuff they shouldn’t be in….

And if maybe they didn’t screw up so much and waste so much money….

Then perhaps the states, both Liberal and Conservative, might not have such a huge number of citizens that want to secede 

Nikki Haley “suspends” campaign. Essentially ceding nomination to Trump.

She just wasn’t getting the votes. Duh.

In my opinion, she was really there to damage Trump. Plus, remember, even a candidate makes Big Money when running, what with all the ways to siphon money…advertising buys, print media, etc that enrich the candidates and their families. And those donations were dwindling…

Good Riddance though

Go here to see what I am talking about.

But hey, follow the herd : “Stand With Ukraine”.

When your own government brings ’em over without any security precautions what so ever via airplane? 

You heard that right: The Biden Administration flew illegals (“Newcomers”) from the originating countries directly to the United States.

On your dime.

They flew people, without any vetting, to “undisclosed locations” .

The foolish ones do the whole Migrant Caravan/Border Wall Crossing. The smart ones get FLOWN IN BY THE US GOVERNMENT

Think about that. They are afraid to tell you where the destinations of these people that they are brining in …on Taxpayer money, these hundreds of thousands (but we really don’t know the exact number) of alien persons without a visa, without an application for citizenship even.

The Democrats have been wanting to let millions of non citizens into our country since I was born….and they are succeeding in doing so.

But think about this: Thousands of US CBP and other personnel are following orders and aiding and abetting this crime. They just did what they were told and kept quiet about it. Nearly half a million people that bypassed all that border security, all that vetting, and were helped into the country….secretly. Ask yourself……WHY?

Elon Musk says it is more sinister than that

CBS This Morning just admitted that the demographic that is causing all the new rules and curfews in Miami Beach during Spring Break….(and yes, they actually used the term) ….

Black people.

It’s not like we all didn’t know, and if you are surprised by that, (and you are older than 6) then you may be the most clueless person out there.

But for once, a liberal News service has actually admitted where the problem lies. (Of course, they couched it in the “fear of discrimination”),

This is actually a big step, if you think about it. Unless (and until) someone admits the issues….tells the truth, rather than pretending that it is “everybody” causing the crime and social misbehavior, you aren’t gonna fix the issues.

ETA: Aaron points out in comments that the issue is being reported elsewhere too. Perhaps things might actually change when we start addressing behavior of certain groups.

The Con itself was, as any gathering of that kind of people….interesting. It was held in a too-small hotel with not enough meeting spaces, but we, as a group, loudly and boldly took over much of the common area.  (There are few shrinking violets at this sort of gathering).

The fellowship was fun, (some of) the panels were well done, (others were chaired by people who, to be honest, simply could not keep their own, less- well-informed opinions separated from facts)….(and for once in my life I simply smiled and didn’t correct their most obvious mistakes or pointy out when they pontificated upon falsehoods. I did walk away once before I said anything, but for the most part I simply kept my mouth shut…..) …but the good stuff  way outweighed the bad even there.

One nice thing is that there were few liberal nutball types there. There were no men playing at being women, no women playing at being men…or if they were, they were fully immersed and it was done so well no one noticed (we likely wouldn’t care, mind you)…but no one was playing the “I’m a gender whatever look at me!” game. People were very real….like ’em or not, that’s what you got. Which was kinda nice.

The Con was both more, and less, than I expected. Lots of authors, lots of like-minded people, lots of loud talking and LOTS of fun. Fellowship with people of your tribe, even those that you have just met, is always good.

So the Supremes Unanimously agreed that the argument that Donald Trump is ineligible for president because of the 14th Amendment is so much bullshit.

9 to zero. So the Left cannot complain about partisanship.

Just gonna have to swallow the fact that their lies about Jan 6th are so much bullshit, and everyone knows it.

‘Twas a nice try, if somewhat desperate. Shows that they know they don’t have a viable candidate….so they had to resort to chicanery to have a chance rather…..to remove their opponent rather than win by actual policy and leadership.

But being liberals, like women, they won’t accept their loss, won’t admit they are wrong. They’ll just keep whining and trying something else.

Or not, really…

Fired up the 340 and flew to KPTK (about an hour) to pick up Aaron for a trip to Mike Williamson’ s “Confinement Con“. outside of Nashville TN. Aaron convinced me that it would be a good time (he was right) and I didn’t have anything else going on that weekend….

Weather for the leg from my home to KPTK was beautiful, 9000 ft clear and smooth.

Left KPTK after loading Aaron and his luggage (and some fuel) and we filed a flight plan and flew south at 14,000 ft. 200-ish knots TAS at 65% power,

From KPTK to M54 (Lebanon TN) was great for the first 2 hours. Smooth, some IMC, (of course a headwind) but nice. A tiny bit of rime ice here and there, but nothing to worry about….in an out of the soup.

Aaron, being a pilot, was very helpful in the cockpit, but honestly, once you are set at cruise, the only thing to do is monitor things, keep fine tuning your altitude (the 40 year old autopilot is wonky about that sometimes) and monitor ATC.

Weather at Lebanon was Marginal VFR, 1500 broken, 4 statute miles. Very doable.

Until it wasn’t .

At about 60 miles out, things changed…Suddenly, M54 airport was Low IFR….300ft  or even less…and less that 1 mile visibility. Which sucked as that is well below the minimums for the RNAV approach. We slowed down and hoped for the best. Encountered a bit of ice here and there on the descent, but again, nothing to worry about. Didn’t even need to use the boots. We kept monitoring the conditions at Lebanon airport as we descended……

It wasn’t getting better. At 30 miles out it was 400 ft  but less than a mile visibility.. Still not good enough. I made the call to divert.

We called ATC and told ’em we were diverting to our alternate…. KBNA (Nashville), about 20 miles west of Lebanon. ATC was very helpful in all of this, vectoring us to our new approach and working to slot us into traffic. We continued to monitor the weather at M54 though.

We actually were set up to arrive for the ILS approach on RWY 20L at KBNA for a while, but then about 15 miles out, the weather cleared just a little bit at Lebanon and I asked Nashville approach of we could try for Lebanon RNAV 19 as it was right at minimums now.

“You can try” was the reply. He vectored us around and we commenced to do the approach from about 8 miles out. Weather was 400 ft but 2 miles, just at minimums…..so we gave it a shot. Winds were slight, like 4 knots more or less right down the runway heading.

And I flew it right down to 50′ above minimums before breaking out of the clouds.

It’s always neat on an IFR approach when the airport appears out of the clouds right where it is supposed to be, This time I was on the localizer, on glide slope, and on speed ….50 feet above the minimums. It may be the closest-to-minimums actual IFR approach I have ever done.

Aaron didn’t even scream once during the approach. He was a helpful cockpit resource, looking and keeping an eye on things… watching the altitude and such while I flew the needles while he looked for the runway environment and he took the above photo as we broke out.

Landed nicely, and taxiied to the FBO, tied the plane down, and called an Uber to take us to the hotel for the Con.