Flew to Sporty's Today

Finally cleared up over the weekend... I decided to take a quick trip to
Batavia Ohio and check out Sporty's Pilot Shop... My neighbor and I got
to the airport a little before 11:00 am and started the pre-flight...

It is freakn' cold here today.... 10 degrees when I was pre-flighting...
Everything checks out OK so I help my Neighbor Bob (he's 77) into the
Sports car like Mooney... Even though we were plugged in the prop was
turning SLOW... I had visions of not getting her to start and having to
pay the fifty bucks for a jump... But, the third time was the charm and
the 200 HP Lycoming jumped to life... Thank you God!! Taxied out and
departed with a 13 knot X-wind... Turned to the southeast and were soon
at 6500 thanks to the 1500 fpm climb...

Thanks to the wind out of the northwest we were making 220 mph over the
ground!! I know we'd pay for that on the way back but I was going to
enjoy the speed in the meantime... After 30 minutes or so we were
descending looking for the airport... I have a heck of a time finding
airports in the winter and this was no different.. Finally found the
airport and made nice landing on 22...

Sporty's is a very nice, modern complex with a museum, snackbar and of
course store... Got a bite to eat and looked around at the store... I
decided to purchase a couple of sweatshirts for Kellie and myself...
They embroidered the Triple43Hotel's number while I waited...

Departed after a couple of hours and like I said paid for the tailwind
on the way out with a pretty decent headwind on the way back... We we
doing 180 mph on the way back... Got back to Indy Exec and I was high
and fast.. Just where I don't want to be... I came over the fence 20 mph
too fast and experienced my first bounced landing in the Mooney.. I was
able to straighten everything out after the third bounce and made it
back to the hanger... All in all a good time was had by all... I love
flying!!

Jon Kraus
PP-ASEL-IA
'79 Mooney 201 Triple43Hotel