Brian Austin
En-Route
Friday, March 10th, around 8:45am, in a Cessna 172S out of Deer Valley Airport, North Phoenix.
Weather was gorgeous. No clouds to speak of. Very light winds at about 3,000AGL but the slight bumps didn't bother Mom in the least. This is her second flight with me as well as in a small plane.
Our initial plan was to look for some big fields of wildflowers for a driving trip the next day. What we found, however, was that with the lush green backdrop on the desert floor right now (thanks to LOTS of rain), yellow, orange and some purple flowers really don't show up that well without some low and slow work. And most of the area is laced with power lines and houses, so low and slow was pretty much out.
We still saw some nice scenery. The reservoirs are filling up (Saguaro Lake, attached pic, is pretty much full), the desert and mountains are VERY green, and the air fairly clear. Temps were in the mid-70's when we landed but warming up to the mid-80's later in the day.
We managed to get a Class B VFR transition from south to north, passing right over Sky Harbor on our way back to Deer Valley. I always try to get it with out-of-town visitors but clearance varies with traffic.
Everything was great up until my landing. My first flight with Mom ended with a beautiful greaser. This time it was easily my worst landing in over a year. I flared too high and recognized it as soon as we dropped about a couple of feet. We bounced. I just killed the power and held the nosewheel back for the 'second' landing since we weren't in danger of porpoising. Blah. I apologized and she didn't think it was a big deal. Aren't Moms great?
Weather was gorgeous. No clouds to speak of. Very light winds at about 3,000AGL but the slight bumps didn't bother Mom in the least. This is her second flight with me as well as in a small plane.
Our initial plan was to look for some big fields of wildflowers for a driving trip the next day. What we found, however, was that with the lush green backdrop on the desert floor right now (thanks to LOTS of rain), yellow, orange and some purple flowers really don't show up that well without some low and slow work. And most of the area is laced with power lines and houses, so low and slow was pretty much out.
We still saw some nice scenery. The reservoirs are filling up (Saguaro Lake, attached pic, is pretty much full), the desert and mountains are VERY green, and the air fairly clear. Temps were in the mid-70's when we landed but warming up to the mid-80's later in the day.
We managed to get a Class B VFR transition from south to north, passing right over Sky Harbor on our way back to Deer Valley. I always try to get it with out-of-town visitors but clearance varies with traffic.
Everything was great up until my landing. My first flight with Mom ended with a beautiful greaser. This time it was easily my worst landing in over a year. I flared too high and recognized it as soon as we dropped about a couple of feet. We bounced. I just killed the power and held the nosewheel back for the 'second' landing since we weren't in danger of porpoising. Blah. I apologized and she didn't think it was a big deal. Aren't Moms great?
