After spending a couple of days in St. Louis, we continued our Thanksgiving weekend in Indianapolis. We left St. Louis around noon and it took us approximately 1.5 hours to get to Indianapolis. It was a short flight with views of Missouri and Indiana enroute. As we approached Indianapolis, the view of the large airport was exciting. Coming in to land, we realized this was a major FedEx hub with large FedEx planes parked on the side.

We pulled up and parked at the Million Air FBO. As I pulled up, the lineman mentioned that there was an odd smell from the brakes but it had dissipated by the time I got out of the plane. As there was nothing visible, I assumed I might have braked too hard and didn’t think much about it.

We had rented a car from Turo and the car was ready for me by the time I had signed in at the FBO. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown. We visited the Soldiers and Sailors monument, as that is a must-see. We found really good food in the area as well. Moar Tea had good poke bowl and Bodhi had a good variety of different options.

Our plan was to work remotely on Monday morning and then head back home in the afternoon. Unfortunately, clouds had rolled in so we could not leave on Monday. Similar weather was there on Tuesday as well, so we had to delay our departure further. Since I was not Instrument rated yet, I could not legally fly through clouds. We extended our stay at the same hotel and asked the Turo host to extend our car rental as well. Since we were able to work remotely, at least we were not burning PTO.

On Wednesday, the weather was clear and we were ready to head out. We checked out of the hotel, and the Turo host picked up the car from us when we reached the airport. We cleared our parking fees at the FBO and after I had done my preflight, I started up the plane. As soon as I started rolling out, I noticed the brakes were not working! After testing it a few times, I was sure I could not take off since I would not be able to brake at runway departure and also could not brake when landing.

I slowly drove the plane back to the FBO and parked it. I asked the maintenance staff working there to help me out. As it turned out, they only work with Cessna and not Piper airplanes. They referred me to another maintenance facility a few miles away. I called them but most of their staff was out for lunch. After a few repeated calls over the next couple of hours, I was able to find out that they don’t have capacity to send anyone until a week!

I reached out to another maintenance facility further out. The manager looked into it and offered that he can spare a couple of mechanics and send them out my way. It was already late afternoon by then, so we borrowed a courtesy car from the FBO and we went to grab lunch nearby. By the time the mechanics showed up, it was already evening. After an hour of opening the brakes and wheels, they found out that the brake pads and some other parts needed to be replaced. One of the parts they needed was not handy with them and since it was late in the day, the parts shop was also closed for the day. This meant I would need to push out my return by another day! We just took an Uber back to the same hotel downtown and walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner.

The next day, the mechanic brought the replacement part and started working on the repair early morning. By afternoon, the plane was ready to go! Fortunately, the weather had stayed clear for another day. We headed back to the airport and we were finally ready to leave Indianapolis.

During my stops at St. Louis and Indianapolis, I fueled up the minimum fuel (10 and 15 gal) which could get my parking fees waived. The fuel at those major airports is usually much higher priced than smaller airports. The club’s reimbursement policy is that they reimburse fuel expense based on the fuel price at Crystal, irrespective of how much the renter needed to pay for it. Since this was a long journey, I needed a full tank on the way back, the price difference would have added up significantly. Therefore, we stopped at Kentland Municipal Airport (50I) in Indiana.

This was the cheapest fuel stop in the Midwest, and it was directly on the way for us. This also gave me some experience with stopping at an airport where everything was self-serve. There was no staff at the airport. We pulled up the plane, fueled it, used the restroom, and headed out of there. The airport was very well-kept with nice facilities.

As we headed back to Crystal, it was dusk. By the time we entered the Minneapolis area, it was completely dark. This gave us some very beautiful views of the city night lights.