Those things go how fast?

The next day was much better weather-wise, so after spending the morning doing a 10 mile run around Lake Hefner, I decided to spend the afternoon checking out a few new airports. 

This should kill an afternoon.  :)

When I got to the airport, Mitch had already pulled the plane out of the hangar and topped it off, so I was able to get off the ground pretty fast. First stop: Halliburton/ Duncan (KDUC).

The clouds were a bit higher today and visibility was pretty nice. This road stretched on forever.

Left crosswind for Runway 17 at Duncan. Almost every runway around here is north/south because of the prevailing winds...and for good reason. It's not uncommon for it to be gusting into the 30s.

There was only one other plane in the pattern doing touch and goes, so it was really easy to get into the pattern. I did a full stop landing, taxied back around, set up the GPS for my next stop, and got back in the air.

For the most part, flying around Oklahoma means looking at lots of fields and the occasional small town. I did at least get to fly over a decent sized lake on the way to Pauls Valley.

Left crosswind for Runway 17 at Pauls Valley (KPVJ). Gee, that sounds familiar!

Pauls Valley was a little unique since it had a crosswind runway, but there was absolutely nobody around when I landed. I bumbled along the taxiways and eventually made it back to the end of the runway (via a good bit of taxiing on the crosswind runway), and hopped right back in the air.

I did a little IFR flying along the way: I Follow Roads. That's I-35. I didn't realize it at the time, but this wound up being almost exactly the site of one of the proposed obstacles we studied in class!

I-35 eventually led me to 3O3: Purcell Municipal. This is on wide downwind for, you guessed it, Runway 17. There is a golf course and a lake just off the end of the runway on the right side of the picture and man, those trees get big fast!

3O3 was just as hopping as Pauls Valley, so I backtaxied, set up the GPS, and took off again. There were a whole bunch of antennas to the south, so I played Dodge Antenna as I climbed up a couple thousand feet. I only had one stop left before returning to Chickasha (KCHK):

1K2: Lindsay Municipal. (Wide upwind for...Runway 19. Fooled you!)

After finding the last two airports completely dead, I wasn't expecting too much from 1K2...until I got a little closer and saw something small and white buzzing around the runway and realized that someone was flying RC planes! I initially decided to just skip the landing and head back to CHK so I wouldn't interrupt them, but then I figured screw it...I decided to see what they were up to. I made a radio call for crosswind and by the time I made my downwind call one of the guys called me to say that all the RCs were on the ground. I landed and they guided me to the parking area, and after shutting down I hopped out to go say hi.

They had RCs lined up all over the place!!

There were probably a dozen guys there with their planes lined up all along the taxiway; it was pretty funny to see two normal sized planes (one of which was the C150) and about a dozen RC planes. It was awesome to get to see them up close; several of them were jets with actual jet engines. They sounded just like a full size jet when they spooled up, and since they burn Jet-A they smelled just like them, too. One guy had a mini Extra and was doing all sorts of crazy aerobatics with it.

Everyone was really nice and told me all about their planes. These guys let me walk out to the runway with them and watch as the jet zipped back and forth. Turns out these things can go upwards of 200mph! I had no idea they could go so fast, but I know if I had tried to race that jet down the runway with the C150 it would have beaten the crap out of me.

I would have loved to stay longer but I had to get the plane back and do a few chores at my apartment so I said goodbye, fired up the C150, waggled my wings goodbye as I took off, and aimed for CHK.

Left downwind for Runway 17 at CHK.

Altogether I managed to fly 2.5 hours and made it to 4 new airports...not bad for a Sunday afternoon!    :)