Two Pilots & an LSW: Detroit

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Detroit

Also known as De-toilet.

Actually it was kind of nice. It was a warm, bright, sunny, clear day, not a cloud in the sky, and wandering around Detroit a bit I didn't end up on the wrong side of town, the bullet-proof glass at cashier stations at McDonald's or bars on the outside of windows areas, and never did I feel like I was gonna get mugged, raped or shot. So, it was a better experience than the last time I was in Detroit. ;)

I ended up getting an arrival into Detroit, and they made me Descend Via, which is my least favorite, most rife for mess ups. But I was only on it for about 60 seconds before even at 235 knots I was too slow for them and they moved me off the arrival. lol I wanted to take photos of the area as it looked pretty cool, as DTW is a huge airport, like 12 runways, 4 different ground frequencies, etc., but I was too busy. Then they had me switch runways on less than a 2 mile final, and I was just kept hopping to make sure I didn't goof something up in there. :)

On the ground I grabbed one of their crew cars to wander around. I found a place to eat that looked interesting, but it was a little off the beaten path and small, and I decided to stick with the main drag, and ended up at Red Robin instead. ;)

Drove around for awhile and looked at the sights before heading back to the airport. They weren't gone super long, but I had enough time to do that, catch up on the logbook stuff, and do a little reading. When they got back, I got a Departure out of there, and there was an aircraft disabled on the closest runway so there was a lot of taxiing around to get to another runway.

I dropped the guys back off at Delphi, then headed right to Indy Metro. I was supposed to meet 2 guys at 5:30 pm. T and J. Well, nobody showed up until 5:45 or so, and then T walked out and was like "Oh, are you here?" after I'd asked at the desk if he was there. He had another guy with him, but not J. So T and this other guy and I went out to the airplane, and I showed it to them. Other guy took video and photos, then left for dinner. T and I went up for a flight. He has 20 hours solo in one and about 200 hours with J in one. I let him fly from the right seat, and he hit buttons and flew the plane and did an approach just to make sure all the systems worked and such. He landed and it was dusk. J who was supposed to be there by 6 now, wasn't going to land until 6:45. T left for dinner and I was left sitting in the FBO waiting on J who was flying in from Tennessee. The FBO closes at 7. At 6:55 I text J that they are closing up and I'm going to have to wait outside by the plane. He shows up, and decides he doesn't want to fly it because T already did and it's dark and he's tired. Fine by me. I show him the plane on the ground, and we both leave. I fly back to Frankfort and have to put it away, and then drive on home. I got home late, and was tired, went to bed around 11, slept until 7:30, so not too shabby.

I also texted my Cirrus instructor and asked for clarification on a lot of things. He said Morgan was done with the regular Cirrus as of yesterday, but didn't say that of me. He told me we needed a turbo transition course and I couldn't find one. He didn't tell Morgan that, but he did say there was a required icing course. It's $159. I know a lot about ice, I don't need more of that. So I asked about all that and a few other things. I AM done with the regular, still have to fly the turbo, the icing training IS required, so I went and found and did that today, which took a ton of time. It was good in the end because it's part of the POH that it's required every 24 months, and it did go over Cirrus stuff too, not just icing in general. Etc. So I do still have to find the SR22T differences course and do that, and then the light at the end of the tunnel is the 20th, if the weather permits me to actually go flying that day in the turbo...