Lander!

Well, when the cowling was finally taken off the engine, after spending the afternoon wondering how long I was going to be in Indiana, the flight instructor/jet pilot who was helping me, immediately said, "Well, there's your problem!"  pointing to a spark plug lead that had unscrewed and was hanging there.  A few quick turns with a wrench, I started Freddy up, switched to the left magnetos and they sounded like normal!  All good to go!  We tightened the other spark plug leads, put the cowling back on and issued Freddy a clean bill of health, my now-buddy, Ted, saying, "That's probably the fastest and cheapest ($0) fix you'll probably ever have!"  I answered with a big smile and many thanks for his willingness to help.  It was too late to fly that evening so I put my sleeping bag and pad on the grass behind Fred and slept a very sound evening in the grass.

 

In the morning I did a short flight south to Kokomo, Indiana (perhaps this is where the beach boys were singing about...) to have breakfast with a Colby friend, Carrie, who I hadn't seen in a long time and then up to Madison, Wisconsin to see Krista, a friend from my first round on the Ice, and her boyfriend, Leith.  It was great to see all these friends that day and the next morning I departed for Wyoming!

Team green!

It was smooth flying for the most part, and some interesting sights below including the Mississippi river.  Some sights were perhaps more scary than interesting.  The picture with the white buildings look like scenes I saw from the movie, Food, Inc.  And the other one of livestock pens...sometimes, often, it's good to eat vegetarian, I am reminded.

I almost made it all the way to Lander, but with fading light I decided to call it early and land in Douglas, Wyoming.  It was a beautiful evening and I bedded down under the wing on the pavement after tying up Freddy.  No one was there, but it was a nice night and I was tired after many hours in the air.  I slept well and was up at 4am to make it to Lander by around 7 Tuesday morning for the NOLS Faculty Summit! 

The faculty summit was great and after doing a few things around Lander, seeing some friends and watching The Avengers, it is time to start heading eastish...tomorrow to Boulder, Colorado if the weather cooperates!  Back into the skies tomorrow!