Put-In-Bay

Last Saturday, I took my brother Sam for a short cross-country trip in the Cessna. For the past few weeks, I had heard this constant mantra. "Yeah, airplanes are fun, but BOATS......now BOATS are fun." Then, he usually launches into his favorite quote from Kenneth Graham's The Wind in The Willows: "There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats." Well, I had my work cut out for me. Here I was, a typical airplane geek, with a fresh PPL certificate in my hand, going to beat my boat-loving brother (Ratty) over the head with all the similarities between boats and aircraft, and then take him to a for a ride somewhere in an airplane. I called him up on Friday evening:

"Hey, Sam.....are you interested in flying tomorrow?"

"YEAH!"

"How about we fly up to Lake Erie - Kelley's Island, maybe?"

"That would be great!"

"Let's meet at the airport at 6:30AM."

(silence)....."Uh, how about 7:00AM?"

"7 it is. See you there!"

So, with the goal of converting a boat-lover to an airplane-lover, I started planning a flight to Kelley's Island. You know, combine the best of both worlds - aeronautical and nautical. However, the Airnav listing for Kelley's Island (89D) showed that the 2200ft runway was in poor condition, faded with cracks. Hmmmm...2200ft - that's definitely a shortfield landing. I took a look over to South Bass Island (3W2), and their runway was in much better shape, and 700ft longer! Put-in-Bay was the destination!

Saturday morning came, and the air was clear and calm. We took off in the Cessna and headed north. For better viewing, I flew along at 2500ft, so that Sam could get the best use out of his new digital camera. There was not a lick of turbulence on the whole trip up, and as we got towards the lake, the excitement started. There's the lake! There's Cedar Point! Look that marina!

Cedar Point - America's Amusement Park - Best Roller Coasters Ever!

Looking towards South Bass, Rattlesnake, and Middle Bass Island from over Sandusky, OH

As we headed over the short lake, I informed Sam of the evacuation procedures in case of a forced water landing. However, judging from the literally hundreds of small boats littering the water north of Sandusky on a clear summer's day, I don't think that rescue and recovery would be an issue. I think that executing a forced water landing without taking out a fisherman would be the greater challenge! We quickly entered the pattern at South Bass, and turned quickly to avoid Perry's Monument (only 200ft below pattern altitude!).

Perry's Monument from the base leg of runway 21 at Put-In-Bay

Final for Runwasy 21 at Put-In-Bay - Big thresholds on both ends!

Upon landing, we tied the airplane down, checked the fuel (9-10gals/hr fuel burn with the new powerflow exhaust!), noted the hundreds of mayflies littered on a brand-new Cirrus, and paid our $10 landing fee. Well, once on the ground, our tummies started growling, and we started the 1 mile trek into town. Once into town, we headed over to Perry's Peace Monument, and had speaks with a Beretta-toting NPS ranger about the repairs to the monument. Apparently, a 500lb chunk of granite had fallen recently, and the top of the monument was closed. I decided to help out and put a little piece back. It was right about that time that Sam spotted some boats, and we were headed over to the Marina to ogle and drool. Sam began to educate me on the various differences and relative merits of one yacht over another. I got the feeling that this is how non-aviators feel when I'm arguing for the differences between a Cirrus SR22 and a Diamond DA42. Still, I could see why Sam was so jazzed about boats - some of these boats were dang nice! We zeroed in on the nicest sloop in the slip and drooled from a distance. A 68ft SeaRay sport yacht....check out the seating area....totally beautiful. I can't imagine how many gals/hr this puppy burns...probably twin diesels.

Well, it was enough dreaming, and while I don't think that we had a full conversion from boat-lover to airplane-lover, I think that Sam gained a little more appreciation for the mobility that traveling by air gives you. The smile says it all...