The day’s mission was to get me and my A36 Bonanza from Virginia to Wichita, Kansas, with a stop in Columbus, Ohio, to pick up some fuel and a pilot-rated passenger going to the same multi-day meeting I was attending. The first leg was solo and uneventful, and soon my passenger and I were winging our way west, crossing Indiana, Illinois and Missouri. We flew over the St. Louis Class B airspace, so the Tracon there couldn’t mess with us, and soon had crossed into Kansas and were letting down for what everyone expected to be an uneventful arrival.
Along the way, my passenger and I got reacquainted and traded war stories about flying as well as the industry in which we were involved, plus its various personalities. The weather was benign, and I had little to do except monitor the autopilot, respond to ATC, change frequencies and keep up my end of the conversation.
