West Michigan Flying – July 2009

In July of 2009 the Frey Family took a trip to West Michigan to see friends and family.  I hadn’t had any good rental options over the previous few months as my plane (N9526J) had been totaled by a pilot flying the plane that I used to rent (N41568).  I took the opportunity on the trip to West Michigan to fly some of the planes at Dodgen Aircraft in Allegan, MI where Lori’s family lives.  The owner of Dodgen is Jason Blair who is a National Association of Flight Instructors Master CFI. I had heard about Jason from flying in Allegan and he recently was teaching on a video blog that I have been following presented by the EAA.  Here is a link:  Earning My Wings

I contacted Jason and we met on the Monday morning of our vacation. I used the opportunity to not only get checked out but to complete a Biennial Flight Review (BFR).  I was a bit nervous and studied for a few things prior to the review.  When I met with Jason the nervousness went away.  We went for a beautiful flight in a Piper Warrior up the coast of Lake Michigan and did a few procedures and returned back to Allegan.  The ground portion was also very laid back and I easily got signed off to rent their planes and my BFR completed.

The next day I offered to take Kathy (Lori’s Mom) and Hannah flying.  Kathy is originally from Muskegon so we decided to fly there (KMKG).  We had a very nice flight again up the coast of Lake Michigan.  I even let Kathy take the controls for a bit and she did very well.  I think she was nervous when I was reviewing charts and pretending to look away but I still kept an eye on things.  We had a very nice lunch at the airport in Muskegon and returned home.  Kathy even let me do some steep turns and she enjoyed them.

 

 

I was determined to get a bunch of flying in so the following day I rented another Piper Warrior from Dodgen and flew up to Saginaw, MI (KMBS).  My friend Bob was teaching summer school up there and we met up for about an hour just to catch up.  It was a good excuse to get up and fly for a couple of hours (as if I needed one).  I logged almost 6 hours of flying in the 3 days.  I also believe that this week gave me the bug again and that is why only a couple of weeks later I made an offer on another plane that I now own.

Click this link to view more pictures of the flights

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