A chilly but fun local flight…
Joey Hemming is my friend, cousin and fellow aviation nut. His passion for all things that fly has always been an inspiration. Joey joined me for my first flight after earning my pilot certificate and has joined me on several adventures in the air.
Joey next to 810SA, a 2003 Cessna Skyhawk SP
On Sunday, it turned out that it had been nearly three months since Joey’s last flight with me. Heck. We couldn’t let that stand!
Information Mike, the San Antonio ATIS, gave us a green light for a chilly but gorgeous day in the air: “Wind 070 @ 11, Visibility 10 miles, 25,000 Broken, Temperature 2, Dewpoint -10, Altimeter 30.57”
Skyhawk 810SA was eager - she sped down the runway and into the crisp, cold air with a vengeance. We were climbing out at more than 1,000 feet per minute. As we leveled off and marveled at our ground speed of 130 miles per hour, we heard ATC talking to a Cessna Centurion that was also bound for our destination - San Marcos Municipal Airport.
Soon the Centurion was in sight - above us at our two o’clock. We watched as it smoked us in the air and only minutes later was announcing that it was clear of Runway 4 at HYI. A few minutes (ok…more than a few) later we had landed into northerly winds gusting to 16 knots.
We hopped out and admired some really cool planes on the tarmac. We then realized we had lost feeling in our ears from the blustery cold wind and decided to check out the warm confines of the airport terminal.
After a snack and a chance to defrost, we hopped back in our waiting air stallion and soon became aware of a literal traffic jam in the skies above. Pilots were using both Runway 35 and Runway 4 and the patterns of each runway had traffic. As we lined up for Runway 4 we watched an airplane in the pattern for Runway 35 alter his flight path to clear the way for our departure.
As we took off, the Surecheck Micro (TPAS) was solid red and we had our eyes peeled in every direction. Just about that time we heard the pilot of one of the four aircraft circling the field say, “Gentlemen, let’s decide on a Runway to make things easier. How about Runway 4?” - the other pilots obliged and once again the safety of flight at an uncontrolled field was assured by the common sense of a few good men (there were literally no women flying in the traffic pattern so that’s not a sexist comment!).
Joey wanted to do some maneuvers so we headed west and did some steep turns over Canyon Lake. We picked up and received flight following from San Antonio Approach and they helped to keep us aware of potential conflicts. This included a “Traffic Alert” caused by a Mooney that was heading west below us. We saw the traffic a few seconds before we got the warning from ATC.
Canyon Lake from 2,500 feet MSL
We decided that it was probably a good time to call it a day and headed back to San Antonio International Airport where we ended yet another fun flight.
