Good flight report Sam.  I'm surprised the B2 hangars are all in a nice straight line.  Is to make it easy to bomb them all in one pass?

Time to get back to flying!

Mike Dwyer

YouTube Videos:  https://www.youtube.com/user/FlyMeAirplane/playlists

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On Sun, Mar 21, 2021 at 5:16 PM Sam Hoskins <sam.hoskins@...> wrote:

After a crazy cold winter it was about time to get in the air again. So I made a day-trip from Carbondale, IL, KMDH to Topeka Billard, KTOP. A gorgeous day, for the 355 mile trip. A nice little tailwind made me scoot along so I made the trip in just two hours. Groundspeed was usually around 180+ kts. I had a great visit with my daughter, grand and great grand kids, then it was back to the airport, all too soon. 

One interesting thing about the route of flight, it takes me directly over Whiteman AFB, the primary base for B-2 bombers. Whiteman is kind of in the middle of Missouri. According to the sectional, the top of their controlled airspace is just 3,400 feet, so going west I was at 4,500 feet and east was 5,500 feet. On one trip I saw a couple of B-2s on the ramp, a few F-16s and some helicopters, but today it was completely empty. It always make me wonder who's watching as I fly over at such a low altitude.   In the photo, you can see the row of the 14 or so B-2 hangars. I try to not make any deviations as I pass over.

The winds on departure at KTOP were around 20 kts, but the takeoff was just fine. Of course with every tailwind there is a corresponding headwind.  Fortunately, the winds aloft had shifted more out of the south and it wasn't too bad, I was still able to make a little better than 150 kts groundspeed and I got back in less than two and a half hours.  There was barely any wind at Carbondale, which I hate. 
I'm not very current and if the guy in the tower was watching, he might have been amused by the number of bounces I made. 

Great trip and it was nice to be back the same day, in time for a couple of cocktails with Sandy.

Sam Hoskins
Q-200