__The 2004 fourth of July fell on a Sunday, so I had the added benefit of a Monday off from work. My wife and I had planned our trip to Toledo, Ohio, a couple of weeks earlier to catch up with some old friends. This was a perfect-length trip for a single-engine airplane and one of the reasons we had purchased our Piper Arrow. Driving wasn’t an option, and in only 2½ hours we’d be landing 72T at a small, single-runway airport perfectly situated three miles from our friends’ house. We had recharged the battery in the Arrow overnight and our plan was simple: reinstall the battery and test to see if the engine would crank before we loaded the bags. Smart, I thought. The airplane did start, so I shut the engine down, called for a top-off and began loading the bags. It’s surprising how many bags you bring on a two-day trip.
I finished loading the bags and, while waiting for my wife to return from parking the car, I called clearance delivery on my handheld. Efficient, right? I copied our route and told them we’d be ready to taxi in 10 minutes.
