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Skycatcher Cross Country

I had a long journey in the air the other day. It all started off going the wrong way. For those of you who have flown on the airlines, you know what I am talking about. My final destination was LaGuardia in New York. I took off out of Manistee, MI and headed west to Milwaukee, WI. Then finally the airlines got it right and flew me east out to NYC. It’s funny, it would have been faster if I had flow the Skycatcher directly to NYC.

Once in New York, I jumped into a car that took me to Lincoln Park Airport, which was west of NYC. It was a quick trip mainly due to the fact that I slept the whole way. I arrived at the Lincoln Park Cessna Service Station, received a solid weather briefing and preflighted the Skycatcher. Everything looked good except for a couple thunderstorms that were scattered along my route. I made my GO decision and hopped in the plane with a water bottle, charts (just incase), and a half eaten deli sandwich.

With three shots of prime, the engine fired right up and I was on my way. I took off out of N07 and headed for KDUH. The weather was awesome and the plane was performing just as it did the first time I flew it. I looked at the little wind indicator on the PFD and it was somewhere around 25kts almost directly on my nose. So I kept climbing and I got up to 3500ft and the wind kept picking up, so I told ATC I was going to go down to 2500ft where I stayed for the majority of the adventure.

I love flying long distances at a low altitude. Again, it brings back the “Cub” feeling. When I received my pilot license about ten years ago all I wanted to do was to fly faster to get to the destination as quick as possible. This all changed when I began flying the family Cub back and forth between KDUH (Toledo Suburban) and KCAD (Wexford Co. Airport) twice a year. This is when I realized how much fun it is to fly low and see the countryside first hand. It is an amazing spectacle that is extremely different than driving across the country. It’s not billboard after billboard, it is lake, after deer, after bald eagle, and the list goes on. This is America at its best, VFR flight with the freedom of class E airspace. All of these things that I have explained are awesome, but as I have said before it is so advanced due to the addition of the G300. Flying the Skycatcher is like eating ice cream, it tastes great and it is fun to eat. Now, flying the Skycatcher with the addition of the G300 it is like eating a banana split with a big ole cherry on top.

I had about five hours to mess around with the G300 on my flight back from N07. I knew that there was some weather along my route, but it was around the middle of the flight. So, I was flying along pushing buttons when I realized what the weather feature had to offer. IT IS AMAIZING! It shows the fronts, and also it will show what is called “animated weather” which is like the loop feature on radar charts.

The G300 is an outstanding tool that fits in today’s world like apples in a pie. (I think I am a little hungry with all of these food references) Be advised that there is a gradual learning curve involved with the “buttonology” on the G300. I took me the whole flight and I still was doing one thing consistently wrong. I kept trying to push the enter button on the bottom right corner, but it is not there on the G300, it is right under the cursor at the top right of both screens.  That was honestly the one difficulty I had learning the G300. Everything else was “Garmin friendly” (which button to push and when to push it). The G300 is something anyone who has used a GPS, especially a Garmin, can learn with ease.

Finally, I made it to Toledo Suburban and watched the sun come down. It was a full day of aviation. I would do it all over again tomorrow if I was given the chance. The Skycatcher is a great little plane to fly. There are more blogs to come, next I explain my experience flying it with 50 different students, renters, possible owners, and friends.

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