October 28, 2005:  "Breakfast Boondoggle to Coldwater, MI"

We launched from South Haven at 9:00 am that morning, bound for Jackson, MI.  Dave and Kent were in the Decathlon and I had Kristy and Yit-Yian with me in the Warrior.  Jackson was my favorite breakfast destination in southern Michigan and I had not been yet in 2005.  With the Decathlon in sight 1-2 miles ahead, we each contacted the tower at Jackson and announced our intentions to land.

The tower was BUSY that morning, juggling an unusually high number of departures and arrivals.  Despite this, the controller had the situation well in-hand and I had no worries about getting in.  ATC suggested to the most recent arrival that the ramp was nearly full, but that there was plenty of parking on the grass.  This prompted one of the airborne pilots to ask, "is there an event of some kind today?"

"No, just people coming in for breakfast," came the reply.  Evidently, every private pilot in southern Michigan (and maybe northern Ohio and Indiana) had the same idea we did.  With that many airplanes on the ground, we knew that it would be a long wait for food.  Dave contacted the tower and cancelled his landing request.  I followed suit and soon we were both en route to Coldwater, MI -- our previously agreed-upon backup plan.

As we taxied onto the green field that served as airplane parking for the Coldwater restaurant, two things struck me as odd.  The first was that we were the only aircraft there on a nice weekend morning.  Almost immediately thereafter, I noted that the sign outside the restaurant proudly proclaimed "Los Mariachis".  That didn't sound like the kind of place that would be open for breakfast and, once out of the airplane, we learned that it wasn't.

So, we returned to South Haven.  After 2.1 hours of flying over a significant portion of southern Michigan, we put the airplanes away and had a noontime "breakfast" at Cousin's restaurant a short drive from our home airport. 

March 11, 2007:  On the ground at Dansville, NY.  I had just logged my 500th flight hour.  Statistically, this means that I was less likely to prang the airplane than just a week earlier.

On my way into Dansville, there were three aircraft converging on the airport from different directions.  This required some moderate negotiation on the radio, but presented no real difficulty.  On the ground, I was admiring a Naval N3N biplane parked inside Dansville's large hangar when one of the pilots approached me and asked in a neutral tone if I had been flying the Warrior.

"Yes..."  I was a little uncertain on where this conversation was about to take me.

"You have great radio presence!  Do you instruct out of this airport?"

"No," I blushed.  "Just looking for a restroom."  Only took me 500 hours, but I finally seem to have figured out how to use my radio.

On my 500th hour (336 of them in N21481), my logbook indicated 1270 take offs and landings and 188 hours of cross country time.  I had logged landings at 54 different airports and flown the Warrior as far north as Torchport, MI; as far east as Saranac Lake in the Adirondack mountains of New York; as far west as Guthrie, OK; and as far south as Fort Myers, FL.

April 16, 2008:  A rare photo of N21481 with her O-320 hanging out for all the world to see.  This year I finally found time to do an owner-assisted annual.

July 25, 2008:  Thanks to the internet, I was already aware of the short, sloping runway at Penn's Cave Airport (N74) in Centre Hall, PA.  Despite this prior knowledge, the landing was not one of my best, though I think this had more to do with the downdraft I experienced on final than any upslope of the runway.  Fortunately, I did not leave any Warrior parts on the pavement.  We parked in this field for the afternoon, which gave some visitors to Penn's Cave Wildlife Park the opportunity to gawk at us during our preparations to depart.  Penn's Cave is a short ten minute walk southwest of the airport.