Getting going today was a lot easier today than yesterday, since I didn’t have the time pressures from yesterday.

Climbing out of Denton, which is just north of Dallas/Ft. Worth International, was an interesting experience. As I made my way to the east, towards Alexandria, Louisiana, the air traffic density was intense, almost as bad as when I tried to pick my way under the edges of the Chicago airspace a decade before. Just as importantly, though, the radio frequencies were incredibly congested, to the point that getting a word in edgewise was almost impossible.

It was pretty interesting looking straight down the final approach corridor to the main runway at DFW as all the planes queued up for landing. I could see four of them strung out in the distance, and three more between me and the runway.

Another interesting sight near Dallas were all the tracts of new homes that have sprung up all over the place. They are easily recognizable, if for not other reason than they are almost completely devoid of trees. I can understand why they might have been cut down during construction, but I am at a loss why none were replanted, especially given the brutal heat of a Texan summer.

As I left Dallas’ airspace, I was faced with the decision about how high to climb. There were no appreciable winds below 9,000’, so that wasn’t a motivation. If I went higher, though, the air was likely to be cooler and smoother, but I wouldn’t be able to see the places on the ground as well, either.

In this case, it was the bugs that made me go higher. I had almost forgotten about the bugs in the Midwest and southeast, when one of them decided to come to an abrupt stop smack in the middle of my canopy. I quickly climbed higher to avoid the worst of them, but once I got to my destination, it took me 20 minutes to scrub them off. I will need to remember to plan for this time at all my stops on the rest of the trip here east of the Rockies.

Another issue is that of fuel burn. In my plane, with its big engine, I can burn as much as 14.5 gallons per hour by staying low and using full throttle. Two years ago, however, I purchased a fuel flow gage, and it has continued to repay for itself many times over. For example, today, while trolling along at 7,500’, I found that if I leaned the engine out to it normal cruise position, I would burn about 8.5 gallons per hour. If, however, I pulled back the mixture just a little more, the temperatures in the exhausts stayed well within limits, I slowed down about one knot (less than 0.5%), yet I saved 0.8 gallons per hour. Given current fuel costs, this means that I am saving about $4.20 per hour by having this device installed.

The good news is that devices such as the fuel flow meter, moving maps, GPS, and other devices all make my life safer and more economical, and they enhance my overall situational awareness. At the same time, though, they encourage me to spend too much time with my head inside the cockpit, instead of looking outside at the countryside and for other airplanes.

I happened to look up today and notice one reminder of just how much fun and freedom we can have in the US by flying under visual flight rules. Overhead was the jet airway that follows th Gulf Coast. I could see a series of planes exactly in trail with each other, their contrails overlapping. Just as Ernie Gann prophesized, there are now “Highways in the Sky”. In my tiny prop plane, though, I am free to go pretty much whenever and wherever I want, so I almost never have to fly in my neighbor’s wake.

Once I landed at Louisiana Regional Airport in Gonzales, I met up with Rhett and Ann McMahon, some friends that I met via the internet almost a dozen years ago. We first met face-to-face when they came to watch me perform at the airshow in Omaha, Nebraska back in 1996, and today was the first time I had seen them since.

It was good to get re-acquainted, chatting about airplane techniques, places to visit, friends we have seen, and modifications we would like to make in the future. After the airport and running a few errands (I had to get some stitches taken out), we headed back to their house where I met their two Great Danes. Now, I thought my dogs were big, but you haven’t seen big until you’ve stared eye-to-eye with a great Dane. They were fun, lovable pups.

Some statistics for the day:

Day’s Total Distance Covered: 370 nm

Day’s Total Flight Time: 2 hours 24 minutes

Day’s average groundspeed: 154.2 knots

Day’s Flight legs: 1

Day’s Highest Altitude reached: 7,500

Day’s Highest Groundspeed attained: 173 knots

Total Trip Distance Covered: 1,901 nm

Total Trip Flight Time: 11 hours, 51 minutes

Total Trip average groundspeed: 160.4 knots

Food consumed: 2 20-oz bottles of Gatorade, 1 packet of cheese peanut butter crackers, 1 packet of Fig Newtons

Other planes seen (outside of the terminal area): 0