I'm writing this from gate H2 at Chicago's O'Hare Airport as I wait to board a flight to Kalamazoo, Michigan to pick up a Cessna 182. N601SF is a 1979 model that's sitting in a hangar at Kirsch Municipal Airport in Sturgis.

N601SF

A few weeks ago I wrote Flying the Cessna 182 Skylane: My Checkout Story and mentioned the airplane waiting to be picked up. After numerous weather delays and cancellations (this is the third "attempt"), it looks like things will be clear enough to make the journey.

WBT-201 GPS Our tentative plan is to set out from Sturgis on Friday morning, aiming to fly as far southwest as we can before dark. Hopefully we'll make it to Tulsa, Witchita, or somewhere in that vicinity. On Saturday, I like to shoot for the south end of the Rocky Mountains, hopefully ending up somewhere near Flagstaff. Then on Sunday, we should have a fairly easy ride back to San Jose,

Back in April of 2006, we had an adventure bringing Citabria N5156X back to California from Texas. This journey is going to be quite a bit colder and hopefully a bit less "interesting" (in a Chinese proverb sort of way).

Anyway, I'll try to post updates: GPS traces each day and photos. I brought along my new Wintec WBT-201 GPS data logger. So I should have some fun geo data to play with. I've experimented with it driving around and hacked together stuff like this so far. More to come.

So far the weather is looking like it'll mostly cooperate. Let's hope it stays that way. :-)

Posted by jzawodn at December 13, 2007 01:22 PM

Reader Comments
# joe said:

Ha! You live less than 5 minutes from me. We even have the same commute path, but I'm near 237 and Great America.

on December 13, 2007 02:04 PM
# Katrina said:

That Cessna 182 looks too cool!

on December 13, 2007 03:23 PM
# Jeffrey Friedl said:

Hi Jeremy. What's the benefit of the Wintec GPS thing over a normal gps unit that accepts memory cards? I threw a $20 card into my Garmin handheld and now it can log a point every second, continuously, for more than a year ( http://regex.info/blog/2007-08-09/539 ). It produces standard GPX files that can interface with all kinds of things...

Have a safe trip...

on December 13, 2007 06:13 PM
# Jeremy Johnstone said:

I'd recommend Wichita, but I am biased a bit. If you recommendations on places to stay, eat, drink, or need driving directions there let me know.

on December 13, 2007 06:59 PM
# Alexis Kauffmann - como aparecer em primeiro lugar no Yahoo! said:

Those Cessnas's are charming to chore... (SIGH!)

on December 13, 2007 09:00 PM
# Jamie McCarthy said:

Greetings from chilly, overcast Kalamazoo. Your flight path into my city goes a few miles south of my home, but if I see you out my window, I'll wave.

on December 14, 2007 10:02 AM
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