I love dogs, duh... (Rescue Flight #3)

Alright, you all probably know this, but I love dogs.  Dogs of all kinds.  Labs, Bassets, Weiners, Basenji's, etc.  In fact, aside from my Shar Pei/Lab mix Bo, the Basenji and Shiba Inu are my two new favorites.   BUT, that is not what I am writing about.  I'm writing to tell you about my most recent flight in support of PilotsNPaws, a non-profit organization that helps dog, cat Wand all animal rescue organizations connect with pilots to move these dogs to safety.  I've done three rescue flights, and this is about the third one.  I'll give a summary first, and if you have the same attention span I do, then you can skip the commentary later on.
Route: KEYE -> KJVY -> KEYE -> HAI -> KEYE
Passengers:
KEYE - KJVY - KEYE - Annie
KJVY - KEYE - KHAI - Mason, Honey (Collie Mixes) and Rufus (Australian Shepherd)
KEYE - KHAI - KEYE - Bobby and Ann (not Annie)
Weather - Clear and beautiful.  A little bumpy on the final legs.
Airplane: N146K a Cessna 172P

The Details:
I took off from KEYE with Annie.  We headed out to the Shelbyville VOR to try to get away from the KIND Class Charlie Airspace and to avoid the MOA and restricted airspace near Camp Atterbury.
The flight down was uneventful.  The FBO at JVY was nice and super friendly.  They let Annie and I hang out while we waiting for Barb to bring the pups up from further south in Kentucky.  She was unable to fly because of fog in the morning, but it cleared up by the time we departed.

We packed Honey and Mason in their own crates and put a harness on Rufus.  They were all super sweet and barely cried at all when we were flying.  We leveled off at 4500' after a 300 fpm climb.  Annie was enjoying herself, which was awesome because I was nervous about her flying.  Rufus was a sweet heart and just laid down in the back as soon as we leveled off.

We landed at KEYE uneventfully and let the dogs out to go to the bathroom.  Annie decided she was done and I took Ann and Bobby up for the rest of the flight.  We were about 100 lbs shy of the gross limit on the C172 with the 180HP engine, and I could tell it was a hot day.  We were climbing pretty slowly.

The flight to KHAI was pretty nice.  A little bumpy down at lower altitudes because the ground was heating up quite a bit.  It wasn't terrible, and no where near what can be felt in late July on a partly cloudy day.  We dropped off the pups with the rescue and wished them good bye.  They had been great, probably my quietest transport so far.  We made it back to KEYE without any issues monitoring KIND approach to hear who was coming in.  I don't always get flight following, but I almost always listen to approach to see who else is around.

I've attached a few photos above, but here are some more.  Those pups are darn cute.
Thanks to Barb, Ann, Bobby and Toni for the photos.

My Girlfriend and My Dog

I went for a really great flight yesterday. Probably the best one I had in a long time. Probably the best one since I flew at night for the first time. While the actual flight was uneventful, the experience was fantastic. Annie, Bo (the dog) and I went up to Muncie (MIE) from Eagle Creek (EYE). Bo and Annie were both kind of nervous at first but the both settled in. Bo took a nap after looking out the windows for a while. He wasn't happy to stay in the plane when Annie and I ate dinner at Kacy J's on the field at Muncie, but he was rewarded with a slice of pizza when we got back to the plane.

The flight back was at night, and Annie was loving it. She took a little nap on the way there like Bo, but played on the iPhone on the way back. It was good for her to be a little bit more relaxed. We landed without any issue, fueled up and taxied back to the hanger. A good flight, 1.5 on the hobbs and a good meal in the stomach.

Now, despite what you may think, this is not what I wanted to post about here. I want to discuss a great organization called Pilots-n-Paws. Any pilots, even just volunteers, can go to their website and sign up on the forums. I've done two rescue flights for PilotsNPaws. One was a rescue flight of 9 little puppies. The photos are at the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/pilotsnpaws.lauer.magadanz/101109FirstPilotsNPawsMission

The second rescue was basset hound named Bo. Not the same Bo that I have, that's pictured above and is half Shar-Pei and half Yellow Lab, but another Bo. This Bo was huge. About 85 lbs. He had yeast infections in his ears and smelly smelly farts. None the less, he was being rescued. I flew him from Eagle Creek to Hopkinsville, KY. His new owner/best friend was there to meet us. He was an older guy clearly looking for a good friend. I knew immediately it was a good match.

I really want to do some more rescues this summer, and I'm sure I will. Until them, I urge every reader to check out the website and sign up for the forums. You won't regret it!

October Wrap Up and November Plans

Guess who hasn’t updated in a while? ME!

I got the physical license about 5 weeks ago. Yeah, it had my last name printed incorrectly. Horray. I called the FAA and they sent me a new one in about a week. Efficient for Government work!

I haven’t been flying a lot, here is the list of flights I’ve made in the last month:
- I flew over to Muncie to pick up Erika Haskins and we went up to Rochester, IN for dinner at a Mexican restaurant. That was a fun flight. The way back was almost all at night and it was beautiful.
- I did the pilotnpaws flight mentioned below and saved 9 cute little puppies.
- I flew from EYE to SKY (Sandusky, OH) with 3 passengers to go to Cedar Point. Jonathan, Christine, Ann and I went up for a day riding roller coasters. It was really fun. On the way back we kept turning on the lights of airports with the pilot controlled lighting. Ahhh…tax payer dollars at work. In all reality, it is really nice to be able to do that and confirm where you are.
- After the Cedar Point trip on the 19th, I have only flown one other time. That was to take Kevin McCluskey and Jim Grady up for a ride. We flew over to Mt. Comfort, had them switch seats and then fly back. It was a good time. It was only about .7 hours on the Tach, but they both got a big kick out of it.

I have a couple of big flights planned for this month too. On Annie’s birthday I think I am going to fly up to the Muncie airport for dinner. There is a nice restaurant on the field there so it should be fun.

I’m flying down to Evansville during Thanksgiving week in order to hang out with my grandparents and take my grandpa up flying over his land and such. I think he will love it. At least, I hope he loves it. He was my main motivation for getting in to flying again. I wanted to be able to fly down for thanksgiving and go up with them. Maybe we will fly over to Henderson, KY or something. We’ll see…