The Saturday That Didn't Go As Planned (but still worked)

Saturday dawned cold, ray, cloudy, windy and rainy. Not exactly pretty weather in which to fly or enjoy an amusement park. Steve was taking a young man on an IFR cross-country for training, and his family decided to make a day of it, so we did too. The original plan was to go Saturday morning early, spend Saturday at Cedar Point, OH's Amusement Park, spend the night in a nice hotel right there at the park, go back to the park for awhile Sunday, then fly home Sunday evening. But Mother Nature didn't cooperate very well, and we collectively decided that riding roller coasters in 50 degree temps with wind and showers just wouldn't be that much fun, so we waited until Saturday afternoon to take off and head over.

Steve and three others flew over in the 172SP, and Kaylee and I packed up the Bellanca with our stuff for the day and flew over together. It was IFR most of the way, but we did end up breaking out on top of the clouds-barely. We were skimming the tops of the clouds, and it was clear skies above. Very pretty. Kaylee loved it. She even took a little nap with my map covering her. When I got to Sandusky, it was still IFR there, and I had to shoot the VOR approach in, over Lake Erie. One of the few times I had to shoot a full approach instead of getting vectors in, which is I suppose good practice. :) Anyway, I broke out of the clouds over the water, and Kaylee looked down and said "Okay, NOW I'm nervous." I said "why?" She said "Because I feel like we're going to land in the water and I can't swim very good yet!" I said "Trust me, I'm not landing in the water." Her response was "I'm still nervous. I can't really swim!" At this point I had to tell her we'd discuss it later, because it was also rather windy up there and coming in to land isn't the best time to have a conversation. :)

I had left before Steve by a good hour, and it took the 172 about half an hour longer to get there than it did me, so Kaylee and I had plenty of time to sit at the airport and hang out and wait. The rest of the group drove over in a van, and it was going to take them about 5 hours. Kaylee and I had a drink and a snack, and a conversation about flying. I asked her if there were things that concerned her that she wanted to talk about with flying. She immediately asked about turbulence. I explained what that was and told her it wasn't going to hurt her, and she used her left hand to make a fist and her right hand to make an airplane, and she said, "It's like the plane is going to hit the bump like this, then go up and upside down and crash." So I explained how the wings flew and why the plane wouldn't do that. Then she said "What if the engine quits and we crash in the water or the ground?" I explained what happens when the engine quits, and in more detail of the air flow over the wings and how the plane can still fly without the engine and how you'll descend, but you can control it and choose where to land, etc. She said "Okay, but what if the engine quits AND your wings break?" I had to reply honestly with "If that happened, the airplane couldn't fly any more. BUT..." and I went into the maintenance and how the wings are checked for safety, and how on a preflight we make sure everything's okay before we go fly, etc. Then I said "Do you have any other questions, things that bother you about flying?" and she said "Yes I do! What if you're flying, and the door comes open, and you're turning that way? Will I fall out?" I mentioned her seat belt, so she added "What if my seat belt is off?" I explained how she'd have to push against the door and all that wind is pushing the door closed, not open, and I would quit turning right away, and I'd grab her, and she could grab her seat, and hang on, etc. She was satisfied at that point, ate her snack, and all was well, but she had more questions than I figured after all this time of being in planes. :)

Steve and Mitch (and crew) arrived in the 172 shortly thereafter, right at the same time that Mike and Pam arrived in the van, and we were off to the hotel to check in and eat dinner. You could see the roller coasters from the airport runway, and our hotel was on park property, walking distance from the gate. We went over to a TGIFriday's, where I had some very good Mahi Mahi and a vanilla bean cheesecake for dessert. This hotel where the TGIF was had a really cool Halloween set-up. They had portraits along the walls that looked like old-day sepia family photos, but as you walked past them, they were really holograms, and they'd turn into monsters. It made for a Stephen King-like "The Shining" style hotel corridor, and it would be creepy if you were alone at night or something.

After our late dinner, during which Kaylee *literally* fell asleep sitting in the booth leaned against Steve, we all went back to the hotel and crashed for the night, stuffed and tired.