inav8r
Line Up and Wait
Well, it's been since June since I've had the time and money to fly, so this weekend I decided that it was time to get up in the air and get in some much needed practice.
Saturday afternoon I looked out my window and the sun was shining as far as the eye could see, the winds were calm and the plane wasn't booked. I made a reservation and called the airport and had the lineman bring my trusty bird up from the hangar to the ramp and headed to the airport.
During the 15 min drive to the airport I noticed that this omniscient looking front had miracously appeared out of my car window and it looked as if it was on a collision course with the airport. Sure enough by the time I got to the airport the near calm winds were 15G20 and I could see lightning off in the distance. I tipped my lineman and apologized for not checking the weather better and had him drag the plane back to the hanger. So much for flying on Saturday. I changed my reservation to Sunday morning.
I woke up on Sunday morning to the AWOS reporting 1/2 mile vis and 100 ft overcast with mist. Yes, you guessed it, FOG. And it was really bad. I called FS and they advised that it should be burning off in the next hour or so. I pushed back my reservation and went back to bed. I woke up an hour later to calm winds and blue skies as far as the eye can see. I called up the lineman to have him bring the plane back to the ramp for me and let him know I was on my way. He asked, "Are you nuts? I can't even see the control tower the fog is so thick here". I just shook my head - where I was it was beautiful and clear. I reassured him that it would burn off soon and headed for the airport.
But the time I got there 20 minutes or so later the fog had burned off and it was beautiful! The controller in our tower remarked how that was the fastest he's ever seen the fog clear! Lucky for me, it was time to fly.
After getting up into the air, I knew I needed TO & LDG practice - so I did just that. Every kind of TO & LDG I could think of. Short field, soft field, no flaps, full flaps, 1/2 flaps, go arounds. After a while I decided to depart the pattern and head to my favorite non-controlled field so I could practice slow flight, steep turns and stalls on the way over. I did more T&G landings there before finally calling it a day and heading back home. It was a good confidence booster day for me, that's for sure.
Monday morning I looked out the window to beautiful skies and more good weather, so I decided to play hooky and head back to the airport and mess w/ our Garming 296. We recently upgraded the firmware and aviation database (for the first time since getting it almost 18 months ago). I had noticed the day before it was reset back to its default settings. I spent about an hour re-figuring out how to get the display set up like we had it before. By this time the winds were picking up to about 10G15 and off the RY so I decided to get in some cross wind / gusty winds practice.
I took off and headed to the east to a field about 30 miles away I'd never been to before. As I was climbing out I cursed myself for not remembering to bring my camera and the password sheet for Nick's ConUS challenge. Oh well, at least I was flying! I got in some practice tracking NDB's, pilotage, ded reckoning and VOR tracking as I did a small XC between 2 airports before finally turning back to my home field. There was a line of storms off to my north and east (which was the direction of the winds) and I wanted to get back in case it decided to work its way any closer to my home field.
I got back to some really strong gusty winds 15G20-25 about 40 deg off the RY. I was all over the place on short final - but I managed to stay lined up with the centerline - so I continued on down - until about 30 ft off the ground when the trees and the hangars helped block some of the winds - where it smoothed out just enough for me to make a pretty good landing with no side load! The approach wasn't pretty but the landing was definitely my best for the day.
All and all, it was a great weekend of flying and I sure hope I don't have to put it off again for so long!
Saturday afternoon I looked out my window and the sun was shining as far as the eye could see, the winds were calm and the plane wasn't booked. I made a reservation and called the airport and had the lineman bring my trusty bird up from the hangar to the ramp and headed to the airport.
During the 15 min drive to the airport I noticed that this omniscient looking front had miracously appeared out of my car window and it looked as if it was on a collision course with the airport. Sure enough by the time I got to the airport the near calm winds were 15G20 and I could see lightning off in the distance. I tipped my lineman and apologized for not checking the weather better and had him drag the plane back to the hanger. So much for flying on Saturday. I changed my reservation to Sunday morning.
I woke up on Sunday morning to the AWOS reporting 1/2 mile vis and 100 ft overcast with mist. Yes, you guessed it, FOG. And it was really bad. I called FS and they advised that it should be burning off in the next hour or so. I pushed back my reservation and went back to bed. I woke up an hour later to calm winds and blue skies as far as the eye can see. I called up the lineman to have him bring the plane back to the ramp for me and let him know I was on my way. He asked, "Are you nuts? I can't even see the control tower the fog is so thick here". I just shook my head - where I was it was beautiful and clear. I reassured him that it would burn off soon and headed for the airport.
But the time I got there 20 minutes or so later the fog had burned off and it was beautiful! The controller in our tower remarked how that was the fastest he's ever seen the fog clear! Lucky for me, it was time to fly.
After getting up into the air, I knew I needed TO & LDG practice - so I did just that. Every kind of TO & LDG I could think of. Short field, soft field, no flaps, full flaps, 1/2 flaps, go arounds. After a while I decided to depart the pattern and head to my favorite non-controlled field so I could practice slow flight, steep turns and stalls on the way over. I did more T&G landings there before finally calling it a day and heading back home. It was a good confidence booster day for me, that's for sure.
Monday morning I looked out the window to beautiful skies and more good weather, so I decided to play hooky and head back to the airport and mess w/ our Garming 296. We recently upgraded the firmware and aviation database (for the first time since getting it almost 18 months ago). I had noticed the day before it was reset back to its default settings. I spent about an hour re-figuring out how to get the display set up like we had it before. By this time the winds were picking up to about 10G15 and off the RY so I decided to get in some cross wind / gusty winds practice.
I took off and headed to the east to a field about 30 miles away I'd never been to before. As I was climbing out I cursed myself for not remembering to bring my camera and the password sheet for Nick's ConUS challenge. Oh well, at least I was flying! I got in some practice tracking NDB's, pilotage, ded reckoning and VOR tracking as I did a small XC between 2 airports before finally turning back to my home field. There was a line of storms off to my north and east (which was the direction of the winds) and I wanted to get back in case it decided to work its way any closer to my home field.
I got back to some really strong gusty winds 15G20-25 about 40 deg off the RY. I was all over the place on short final - but I managed to stay lined up with the centerline - so I continued on down - until about 30 ft off the ground when the trees and the hangars helped block some of the winds - where it smoothed out just enough for me to make a pretty good landing with no side load! The approach wasn't pretty but the landing was definitely my best for the day.
All and all, it was a great weekend of flying and I sure hope I don't have to put it off again for so long!
