Night Approach to Downtown St. Paul
I had a nice Thanksgiving Eve flight over the Twin Cities last night. A big thanks to local builder Mike Behnke who let me borrow his Emag and Pmag for a trip to grandma's while mine are getting the SB performed.
I was pleasantly shocked to see 100LL had dipped down to $2.51 at the home airport, so I filled up and went out after dark to see how my re-aimed HID landing light would perform. It was a crisp 28 degF, clear,calm, and visability 1,000,000........
Here is a GoogleEarth/APRS depiction of the fun: (Image looking SOUTH)
The approach to RWY 14 at Downtown St. Paul is difficult to capture in words and a
must see on a clear night, as you fly right by the state Capitol, the St. Paul Cathedral and nearly right over the tall bulidings in the business district. As I approached the runway, I was pleased with the redirected HID. No more excuses for missing the flare.
KSTP tower was great, they told me the airport was all mine and cleared me for left traffic and 2 T&G on 14 and a 3rd on 13. These all provided great views of the city. After pattern work at STP, I headed back home to Anoka for more T&G's on 36 and 27. It was rush hour there, and I was twice asked to do 270's for spacing due to slower traffic.
In the end, I landed long on 27 and taxied back to the barn. 0.5 on the hobbs, and only 6 bux in 100LL, Great fun! Tomorrow, we will hopefully get some air to air shots of Bernie Weiss' new -7A...