More Chronicles of 21Y

More adventures of the cute yellow Cub, in pictures! I don't want to turn this into a tale of my exploits, and detract from the goal of this blog, but I feel these pictures give you a good view into what makes me me, and also shows what's been keeping me from my regular updates.

Visiting Stanton Airfield with my roommate Robyn! Stanton Airfield is a really cool historic airport north of Mankato--check out their website at http://stantonairfield.com/

The original hangar, control tower, and classroom/office building

21Y hanging out at the gas pumps, looking pretty

Hank showed us the Sport Cubs . . . the one in front is his, which he leases to the flight school for LSA training, tailwheel endorsements, and Cub Crafters check outs

It's a sight different than 21Y's panel!

A BEAUTIFUL Pietenpol that calls Stanton home

A Super Cub and the flight school's PA-11

The flight school's Cessna 150, which has been training pilots at Stanton since its birth in 1968!

Gliders hanging in the original, main hangar

Link trainer in the main building

Glass bottle soda machine

Glider towing


Flight team fundraiser--we washed one of our faculty member's Cubs at his house. 10 people and one Cub equals a quick wash and wax!

Ryan: "No photos, please!"



Scott looking rather important



21Y's one-week visit turned into three weeks due to a combination of bad weather, and good weather for giving all those rides I had promised. Finally, on May 10th, it was time to head home. A delightfully smooth flight ensued, with great company in the form of my friend Todd and his Luscombe 8F.

Flying to Stanton one last time to get gas!


Rushford, MN: Skinniest pavement runway I've ever landed on--somehow made a sweet landing!


Cool planes!

Luscombe and the neighbors: cows! (I contemplated landing on the side of the runway in the grass if I wasn't comfortable--as you can see, it's not much of an option!)


Todd in the Luscombe


Some cool light by the Mississippi


The view from up here!


The office!

Some dork who likes those little yellow airplanes an awful lot . . . (at this time, I think I could still feel my fingers)


Sweet view. I LOOOVE this picture!


Flying down the runway at HXF



Photos of Cubs in dandelions at HXF (Jim Koepnick of EAA shot some remote photos of myself and Steve flying around as well, which was quite cool!)







Also, I got a ride in a Taylorcraft BC-12D! Neat airplane, but the wheels instead of sticks weirded me out at first.



So that's what I've been up to recently . . . I'm focusing on getting my Sport Pilot CFI in the next two weeks. I passed the Fundamentals of Instruction test last Friday with 100% and am now working on the sport pilot-specific knowledge test. I'm super excited about it, and I'm looking forward to paying it forward, and helping others pursue their dreams of flying. More on that later--just wanted to let you all know I haven't forgotten about this!

--Amy

Reasons to Smile or: The Adventures of 21Y

My sincerest apologies for neglecting this blog as of late. I'm still recovering from a two-hour statistics final so my brain's somewhat on the fried side. Here's a bit of what's been going on that has kept me from updating on schedule.

WAI MSU Northern Lights Chapter's 2nd Annual Pilot Panel: This our Women in Aviation chapter's yearly outreach event. We invite a variety of aviation professionals and active promoters in to talk about their career or niche in aviation and to answer questions. I was on the planning committee for this event and contacted speakers and coordinated several other efforts including contacting the local EAA chapter (which worked out wonderfully, I may add!). Here's a picture of this year's panel (L-R: Steve Krog, Dick Keyt, Joe Coraggio. Not pictured: Dr. Nihad Daidzic).


MSU Aviation Banquet: I got roped into helping plan this year aviation department banquet. Despite all the headaches, it really wasn't so bad, and things went quite well!


To backtrack: Misfortune befell Steve's car while he was here in Mankato and he was unable to drive it back home (the fuel pump croaked). He hitched a ride home with a friend of mine and flew back on Wednesday with a new fuel pump. On account of having done this before (and being part of the reason he got stranded in the first place), I helped replace it. We went out to grab lunch before Steve set off Hartford-bound and talked about flying and jobs and careers and life in general. As we bade each other goodbye, Steve paused a moment. "They have hangar space here in Mankato?" he asked.

"Yes," I replied. "The FBO rents space and the city has hangars for lease I think."

"Well, check into that . . . maybe you could commute in a Cub for a week."

My heart flipped a few times before settling. For real? Fly a Cub cross-country, low & slow, across Wisconsin to keep in Mankato with me, pretending it was mine for a week, hopping rides like a starving barnstormer? NO WAY!

I'll spare you the boring details of finding a hangar . . . but it worked! On Friday, April 17th, Adam and I set off from Hartford, WI, to Mankato, MN, via Wisconsin Dells and Dodge Center. Here are a few highlights of the trip:

En route!


The light was just sweet at Dodge Center (KTOB) . . . it demanded a picture of 21Y.



Of course, this light demanded the heroic "Girl and Her Cub" shot . . .



The next Wednesday we rendezvoused with a local Luscombe pilot who showed us around some super cool private strips!



I thought this was a cool picture of Ken's 8E . . . it was taken in 2009 but could've been taken just about anywhere in the last 50 years or so.



Giving Kim a ride!



More adventures to come . . . I'm out of hard drive space and can't offload any more pictures :(

Also more updates soon, but wanted to give you an idea of what's been happening with me recently . . . it turns out if you put a yellow airplane in front of me, my priorities get ALL switched around!

--Amy