Laurie and I decided to take advantage of the good weather to get some flying time and look for furniture. We launched for Kewanee and Good's furniture at about 10 till 1. The conditions were severe clear with calm winds at the surface. Aloft, the winds were a little more brisk. I climbed to 6,500 so we could enjoy the clear conditions and get a better view. The view was gorgeous but came at the price of almost 30 knots ground speed. Winds at that altitude were almost exactly on our nose, varying between 25 and 30 knots. We never saw much above 125 knots ground speed even though we were truing out at a healthy 150 knots.
Our route crossed the Illinois River just NE of Peoria. We could see big chunks of ice in the water. There was quite a bit of snow left in this area as well. It made it tough to spot the airfield as we neared it. All the usual terrain distinctions that sometimes define airport boundaries were covered. It wasn't until we got within about 4 miles that I was able to pick the runways out of the white.
Before I go on, a word or two about radio etiquette. One of the drawbacks to flying on a beautiful day after a bout of bad weather is all the fair weather pilots who don't do a lot of flying during the winter take to the skies. And I don't hold this against them, but they're usually pretty rusty on the radio. Leaving the relatively professional environment of the approach frequency and switching to the CTAF for Kewanee I was greeted by a cacophony of static and interference squeals as everyone and their uncle tried to talk over each other.
In hindsight, had I waited until I was lower, I wouldn't have picked up so many airports, but still, some folks just don't know when to shut up. You've got the guy shooting touch and gos in the pattern somewhere that feels the need to use his entire five character call sign every time he keys the mike. You've got the gal who's flying into another airport and feels she has to unburden herself of every single intention she has at the destination in a single 15 second long transmission. And then, my personal favorite, the good ole boy at another airport who treats CTAF like a chat room and has to greet every familiar voice he hears on frequency. "Chet, that you? What's happenin'? We're just out enjoying the weather." Blah, blah, blah. Meanwhile I'm trying to fire off quick position reports in the middle of it all. Thankfully, I got through, but I had Laurie watching for traffic just in case the Chatty Kathys prevented me from talking to someone who needed to hear from us.
After we finished shopping we headed home about 5. The winds that dogged our progress on the way in were now on our tail. Level at 5,500 we saw a very satisfactory ground speed of 177. On the descent into Champaign I kept the power on and let the airspeed creep up. At one point we were seeing about 166 KTAS and a ground speed of 188. Yeah, it's cool. As the approach controller handed us off to tower, he told me to keep the speed up. As I found out later a Northwest turboprop wasn't far behind us. I held 140 indicated until about a 3 mile final and then started backing off. The arrival was further expedited by opting to land flaps up.I needed the practice and we had the runway to play with. Plus, it's fun.
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