Has it really been 19 months?
It was hard to believe, but there it was, staring me in the face. The last entry in my logbook. 5/25/08. 1.8 hours of sightseeing and maneuvers with Jake getting some stick time too even though he can’t log it. Since then it has either been a case, of no time, no desire, or no money. But the itch to get back in the sky has been getting stronger since the summer. We had a good business year and that means I have some money to spend on flying.
So today I grabbed my instructor, Dan (I’m not legal to fly solo or with a passenger until I get my biennial review), and did an hour of air work. A landing at Orcas for fun. It was a little flat, but soft on the touchdown. Some slow flight, a power on stall (just hate that mushy feeling), some steep turns (fun), and Dan never lets a chance to simulate an engine failure. Broken clouds at 1,400 and some few at 800 made for some fun dodging and climbing around the sky to find enough space to work in, and I had to fly the patterns a little lower than TPA, but even that was a treat. The wind gods were nice to me to with 8 knots, but almost straight down the runway, even at FHR which is rare. Final landing was firm, but nice and flared with the stall horn blaring, just like Dan likes it. I’d grade myself a solid B for the first time back. Post-landing checklist use could really be better.
Maybe with about four to six more hours all the rust will be shaken off and I can start flying Jake back and forth instead of him having to ride the ferry on his trips over, at least when the weather cooperates.
It’s good to be back in the air.
