Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Shoshone County - Seattle / Beechcraft Bonanza A36 (N3759W) / IFR

So I decided to fly back to Seattle from Shoshone County, but in a Bonanza that I had teleported to the airport for my convenience. This time I filed IFR. Of course, given the way my luck runs, the weather turned out to be very nice and clear for almost the entire trip.

I flew one of my Bonanzas. I haven't flown a Bonanza in months. It was a nice change. A Bonanza is in roughly the same performance class as a Cessna 182, only slightly better—and the Bonanza isn't assembled out of spit and baling wire, the way the Cessna is. It's a luxurious little airplane. I have nice avionics on it, almost the same set as I have in the Baron. The one thing missing is the ST3400, but the Bonanza has weather radar, which can come in handy. The GPS is smaller (a GNS430 instead of a GNS530), but I upgraded the autopilot and some other stuff. It's very comfy to fly.

Anyway, off I went from Shoshone County, flying airway V2 for most of the way, at an altitude of 8000, meaning I had to sniff oxygen all the way (I don't like to take chances). I found some virtual locals who needed a lift to Seattle, so I took them along.

The weather was nice. My route looked different from 8000 feet, but I recognized the way I had come earlier in the day in the Baron. ATC, which shined by its absence throughout most of the flight, as they say in French, suddenly materialized as I turned to final for 34L at SeaTac and called me up. I wasn't about to suddenly start talking to ATC during a critical phase of flight after two hours with nothing on the air, so I just disconnected and finished the flight offline, taxiing over to the ramp on the north side of the tower.

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