In the previous post I described the journey from Fort Collins, CO down to College Station, TX. In this post, I’ll cover the return trip.

Weather

I had a meeting and lunch appointment in College Station on Tuesday and the Prog charts were showing some key information for the afternoon and evening of that day:

• on Tuesday afternoon and evening the weather in Texas was excellent (although hot) with VFR conditions widespread up through central Texas and the panhandle
• hot weather in Colorado was causing thunderstorm buildups which I really didn’t like the look of, especially as the afternoon went on
• by the time I got to the very north of Texas, it was very likely that thunderstorms in Colorado would prevent further progress
• the prog chart for early Wednesday morning showed truly perfect conditions for continuing on home

Where to stop overnight?

On the basis of all of that, I looked at good airfields with well-reviewed FBOs and a hotel nearby. Liberal is a small city in south-east Kansas and it’s airport met the criteria. It is also only about 3 miles extra compared to the direct route from College Station to Fort Collins.

The trip

The folks I was lunching with were kind enough to drop me at Easterwood Airport in College Station after lunch. The dream of flying myself on business trips became reality as I walked into the airport; I went to the Customer Service Rep at Astin Aviation and said that, although I had originally intended to stay for two nights, my plans had changed and I asked that they pull the plane out of the hangar so I could get on my way. I went into the restroom and changed into shorts, t-shirt and runners (better attire for flying!); then I spent a few minutes reviewing weather and selecting KLBL as my stopping point for the night. About 20 mins after speaking with the CSR she told me the plane was ready. I walked over to the plane and loaded my stuff; it is slightly surreal putting my suitcase and laptop bag into the back seat of the plane instead of an overhead bin!

Leg 1: KCLL-KLBL

I started up, reviewed the airport diagram and saw that I’d have a simple taxi for Runway 35 which was in-use for departing traffic. After taking off and departing the KCLL area I did a normal climb (25”, 2400 rpm) right on up to 10,500 which put me above the cloud tops in smooth, cooler air. I settled in for the cruise to KLBL.

I passed overhead Waco but did not spot The Waco Kid:

Once I got past the Dallas/Fort Worth metro area the volume of traffic noticably declined. When I was handed over to Sheppard Approach I had an interesting experience when I asked if the SHEPPARD 1 MOA was active. The controller I was speaking with said it was hot so I said I’d divert left (to the west a little) to avoid entering it. Almost immediately, another controller on the same frequency said “no you’re good - proceed into the MOA and I’ll keep an eye on you.” When I was in there I could see very fast-moving targets on the ADS-B; they also exhibited truly staggering rates of climb and descent; safe to assume these weren’t other GA pilots in Cessnas or Bonanzas! One in particular was 2 miles dead-ahead of me and at the same altitude and the controller alerted me; I said “looking for traffic” and started to sweep the sky ahead of me but wasn’t able to see anything. After maybe 20 second of looking, I looked down at the G1000 PFD to learn that he was now several miles off to my left and several thousand feet higher! I never did see them which would have been cool.

The weather was great the whole way - basically clear except for the occasional lonely cloud:

I arrived into KLBL a few minutes after a United regional flight, but it was otherwise quiet. The FBO there, Lyddon Aero Center, was really excellent. The line guy who met me when I landed was friendly and efficient - he got me refueled within a few minutes of landing.

When I asked the CSR if there were Ubers operating in Liberal she said I could take a courtesy car as I was returning first thing the next morning. I laughed when I saw it but it did the job and got me to and from the hotel!

Leg 2: KLBL-KFNL

I was back at the airport a few minutes before sunrise the next morning and did my checks before departing for Fort Collins. It was a beautiful, cool, still morning and, after a 2h14m trip, I was on the ground in Fort Collins. Ten minutes later, the plane was back in the hangar and I was on the way home for breakfast.