Day 32 - Pontiac to Muskegon

Tony Cacciarelli • July 16, 2020

Pontiac, MI (KPTK) to

Muskegon, MI (KMKG) - July 16, 2019

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Dawn patrol

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Toast n Jam

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Original Instagram Post

Up at 5am, at the airport by 6 and in the air by 6:45. The sun was just rising as I pulled the plane out. Winds were calm on the ground but 20+ knots once I was up in the air, which meant the 128 mile trip was going to take over 2 hours. Really putting the SLOW in ‘low and slow’ 😒

Despite the headwind, the ride was smooth for the first hour but the weather was changing as I got closer to Muskegon so I started getting bumped around. Visibility was still good and the ceiling was high enough that I didn't have to descend, but my destination airport was showing low clouds down to 600 feet, which meant I couldn't land there. I had to divert to Grand Haven (3GM), a small airport just 15 miles south of Muskegon. The conditions there weren't bad at all, so I landed and waited it out.

After about 30-40 minutes things cleared up enough that I was able to make the short hop over to Muskegon and get the A5 in for maintenance at Executive Air. I got checked into the hotel and had a late breakfast @toastnjamsmkg. It's a cool little place stuck in an otherwise empty strip mall. Weird, but the food and service were great!

While the A5 is getting a once-over, I have a flight lesson booked for tomorrow afternoon and another on Thursday. I’ll use the time to get some instrument instruction. Even though I’m not instrument rated, and neither is the A5, it’s always good to get some practice just in case you ever get into a situation where all you have are the instruments.

😀👍🏼

I was up and out very early. The forecast was showing some thunderstorms developing in the late morning along the western coast of Michigan, so I was anticipating having to change my plans as I got closer. I'd say this was the second worst weather day of the trip. It was similar to the Ithaca day as I was racing to get to my destination before the weather turned.

I lost this race as well, thanks to the 20 knot headwinds. It was so bad I was only getting a ground speed of 60 knots and cars were passing me on the freeway below.

Since I diverted, I got to spend a little time at Grand Haven airport talking with the airport manager there. He was dealing with an issue with a construction crew that had put up a crane right on the approach path of one of the runways. He also mentioned there was some pressure for them to close one of the runways at the airport. Coincidentally, it was the runway I'd just landed on. His point was that there are times when the winds favor the other runway and they're the only airport in the vicinity with a runway oriented in that direction. He was going to use my situation as an example in the next meeting.

Coming out of Grand Haven and into Muskegon I barely climbed above 1000 feet. The weather had cleared up just enough for me to make it. There were clouds just above me but it was such a short flight there wouldn't have been any point in going higher even if I could.

I was staying at a motel in an industrial part of town, but I had a rental car so I explored around for places to eat and anything else that looked interesting.

As I said before, I didn't spend a lot of time pre-planning restaurants or sight-seeing. I wanted to figure it out once I was there. There's a risk of missing some 'major' attraction, but I've had pretty good luck with this method in the past. I ended up finding some great spots.

This was actually the halfway point of the trip, although I didn't know it at the time. I'd originally planned for eight weeks but events were coming up in the near future that would change that.