Rich's Quest For Flight

KRYV 271857Z AUTO 15007KT 10SM CLR 25/21 A2988 RMK AO2

The long layoff is over, and I hope I don't go that long between flights again.

I had a really messed up travel day yesterday, resulting being stuck in Charlotte for over 7 hours. Fortunately I had my ASA Prep stuff with me, so I was able to knock out a good chunk of it. I only have one more chapter of that product to do. I'll get caught up on the Jeppesen stuff, then I'll take the practice tests. So I think I'm still on track for getting the written test out of the way by the end of June.

First time I've talked to Adam since he was married, he said everything was very nice. It had been raining for quite some time leading up to wedding day, but things cleared up just in time. Had a look at his wedding band, it had a set of wings on it.

It was warm and humid today, and once we were airborne it was quickly evident that conditions in the sky were quite different on the ground. There was quite a bit of haze, cutting visibility well below advertised. Plus, we rain through some raindrops at several points during the flight. But, all in all, my expected rustiness never surfaced. It felt really good up there today. We ran through the regular maneuvers: slow flight dirty, slow flight clean, power off stalls, power on stalls, steep turns left and right. Nothing perfect, but nothing really drastically wrong, either.

Then it was landing practice on Runway 20 at Dodge County (UNU). Short field takeoff, soft field landing, then soft field takeoff followed by a touch and go. Then it was back to Watertown, but a simulated engine failure came first. Worked through the checklist and recovered. Did one touch and go on Runway 11, went around the pattern then landed and parked.

A very quick 1.3 hours. And it felt really good. The rough edges are less rough, and outside of one final approach that was a little too slow, there were no major faults. I have one more chance to fly (on Monday) then the plane goes in for its annual. Adam advised me to sign up for a ground session in the meantime, so I'll do that Wednesday.

After we were done, I hung out on the ramp for a few minutes, watching some of the transient traffic heading back out after (presumably) having their $100 hamburgers. And the single major thought running through my head? Damn! I want a plane!