For the 7 years we have been together, Nicole and I have not made a trip to see her dad and step mom in eastern TN. On a beautiful mid September day we jumped in the Ruff-Air Mooney with kiddo and set course for Crossville, TN 300 miles away. What would be a 6 hour drive could be traveled in about 2.5 hours by air. The trip was glass smooth until we were about 40mi from Crossville. ATC notified us of a Thunderstorm in the vicinity of the airport containing moderate to severe precipitation. I quickly glanced at the map and found a close airport 8 miles to our right. We landed at Cookeville and checked what the storm was doing. This was the only storm in the area….lucky us.
After 20 minutes the rain was dissipating and we finished the trip to KCSV. We were greeted by a beautiful rainbow that ended right on the airport! Her dad Mike has always told us that the Cumberland Plateau where they live has it’s own quirky weather. One side of town will be a downpour while the other is sunny and dry.
We had a nice visit and caught up on a lot of things over pizza. It was good to see them and get a tour of the house I had heard about but never saw before. What makes it unique is their community is geared towards the owners of RVs and each house has a tall, deep garage attached to it to store them. Eventually, it was time for the trip home. We had a full schedule the next day, including a flight lesson, and needed to get back in time to rest. We said goodbye as Ruff-Air was filled with 25 gallons of fuel.
The flight back was quiet and I sometimes wondered if ATC forgot about us until they handed us off to the next center or approach control. Maddie even dozed off in the back seat. 5 miles from home base I performed the pre-landing checklist and used the radio to turn up the runway lights….no change seen. We overflew the airport and turned to look back. Finally the line of runway lights were visible…still on low. I again tried to raise the intensity but to no avail. After 2 landing attempts, I turned down my cabin lights to better judge height over the runway and was rewarded with the squeak-squeak of the mains gliding on.
While the arrival could have gone smoother, I was happy with how well the Ruff-Air Mooney performs on these cross country flights. The best part is our ability to visit distant family and friends with a one day round trip instead of enduring a multi day trek by car. I have flown Ruff-Air nearly 50 hours since bringing it home in July. Time for an oil change, preventative maintenance and some TLC. #flysafe #mooney