2013 Aviation Update

I look forward to this point every year where I can look back on the flying that I did throughout the year.  It is fun to look in the logbook, remember the adventures and tally up all the hours I flew.  I was again fortunate enough to be able to exceed my yearly goal of flying over 100 hours.  I also barely exceeded 700 hours of total time which is a goal that I set for myself this year.  The plane and newly rebuilt engine are doing well and I look forward to exploring the airports of Virginia next year as we have just recently relocated to Richmond, VA.  As I review the logbook, 2013 was another great year of flying and family adventures!  Here is a summary of 2013:

2013 Hours: 106.7

Total Hours: 700.1

2013 Approximate Mileage: >10,500 miles.

New Airports: 21 – KMGY, C56, K96, KHTS, KBKW, KDET, 2V3 (First Grass Strip), KDTW, KUNU, KOSH (AirVenture!), KUMP, KPPO, KMKC, 2IL9, M97, KFCI, 0I8, KDWU, KAKQ, KPTD, KXSA

Map of all the flights made in 2013:

2013 Flights
New States:  No new states added in 2013.  I would like to add the New England States so that will be the goal over the next couple of years.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Notable flights: As you can see from the flight map we definitely got good use out of the plane this year.  January and February flying was just relatively local flights from Champaign with trips to West Layfayette, Indianapolis and the Chicago area.  In March Hannah and Lori went out to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary for the week so Bryan and I decided to fly to Dayton for a couple of days to see the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson Air Force Base.  Bryan and I even flew up to the Chicago area to pickup Hannah & Lori after their trip.  Surprisingly the only flight in April that I took was a flight with my friend Jeff B. up the Chicago skyline and to Schaumberg to meet our other friend Jeff P. for dinner.  In May I made a couple of local flights and the family took an overnight trip up to Allegan, MI to see Lori’s family.  In early June the family flew to the Outer Banks of North Carolina to meet with Jeff’s parents and grandparents for the week.  On this trip Bryan and I took my parents on a flight tour of the Outer Banks.  We flew all the way down to Ocracoke Island and as far north as Currituck.  We even made a stop a KFFA (First Flight Airport) and walked up to the Wright Monument.  In July I made two trips to Detroit in two weeks.  The first was a quick day trip with Bryan and our friends Jay and Caden G. to see a Detroit Tiger game.  We flew up in the morning, met with my friend Bob for the game and then flew back in the evening.  It was really fun to go up there with the boys.  A couple of weeks later the family flew up to Detroit for Jeff’s 20 Year High School Reunion and actually kept the plane at KDTW (Detroit Metro Airport).  Probably the biggest aviation adventure yet was mine & Bryan’s trip to Oshkosh for AirVenture 2013 at the end of July.  Bryan and I flew in and camped for a few days, enjoyed the unbelievable show and met up with old & new friends.  Right after we got back from Oshkosh, Lori and I flew over to Indy for the night to see Maroon 5 in concert.  I then flew Lori’s Mom back to Allegan, MI as she stayed with the kids while we were at the show.  In September Jeff and his friend Jay went on another adventure to see the Detroit Tigers play in Kansas City for the weekend.  The two spent the weekend in Kansas City, went to 2 baseball games and enjoyed exploring a new city.  In October we flew to Richmond, VA to house hunt for our new home.  After returning to Illinois I put the plane in annual and my next trip would be in late November to relocate the plane to its new home at KFCI (Richmond Executive Airport) in Chesterfield, VA.  The new airport is only about 10 minutes from our new house!  Finally, I was able to take a couple of flights in late December in Virginia.  One was to meetup with a good friend – Gary M. – and fly with a new friend Scott A.  We met for breakfast in Cambridge, MD.

So even though there were some breaks in my flying this year due to weather and relocating to Virginia I was still able to accumulate a good amount of hours on some really big cross countries this year.  I’m so happy that I get the opportunity to fly and I hope that I can continue to utilize this great form of travel!  I’m looking forward to a productive 2014!

Here is more data for my pilot friends (2013/Total):

Cross-country: 94.3/463.2

Night: 6.4/58.4 (Not enough – need to increase in 2014!)

IMC: 13.1/42 (Some really good IFR experience this year!)

Landings: 88/947

Click here to last years update:  2012 Aviation Update

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Comments

2013 was a year to be proud of, Jeff! You had some truly great experiences! Looking forward to next year’s adventures!

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