In order to get back home before dark, we decided to get back to the airport and get airborne before 4 PM. After getting the rental car turned back in to the airport attendant, we settled up for the fuel and got all loaded up for the return trip home.
The air was bit bumpy at lower altitudes but I found it to be quite smooth at 5500 feet so we cruised home up there above the haze.
As a bonus we got a bit of a tailwind so we had a ground-speed of 140 miles
per hour at 55% power sipping only 7 gallons per hour.
The return trip was just under 2 hours. I did find that I would like to have an autopilot some day. I kept drifting off course and off altitude and bringing it back. The autopilot would most definitely reduce the pilot workload and fatigue.
Finally - back home and on final approach for Shade Tree (our home
airport):
Well that's it - we all had a great time, made possible with our Bearhawk. As I said previously, the same trip in a car would have meant 15 hours total drive time (round-trip). With the Bearhawk, we did it in all about 5 hours total flight time round trip and that's with an unscheduled pit stop on the way up.