Last Flight of 2007

As 2007 comes to a close, I started looking over my log book and was not very pleased with my flight training progress. My job has had me traveling way too much and that in turn has meant that I flew very little this year. What do I do? Well, for starters, I quit my job. That isn't the only reason but it does mean that I am going to make a concerted effort to fly more in the new year. I won't have traveling as an excuse anymore.

We have had fantastic weather here the past couple of days. So I started looking to see if any of the airplanes were available. I wasn't the only one who had these feelings. All of the club airplanes were reserved all weekend. That happens when you only have 1 of the 2 172s in service. Our 160 hp 172 is still out. It was supposed to be down for a month but it won't return to service until Jan 18. 2 1/2 months to rebuild the engine, replace the windshield and rebuild the carburettor, put a new dash cover on and rewire the tail marker light. Finally on Saturday night I was checking to see if any plane might have miraculously opened up and there was a block in the morning open. I emailed my instructor to see if he would be available but got busy and didn't see his reply until midnight. He said for me to call him at 7 AM if I still wanted to go. So I set my alarm for 6:30 and went to bed.

We left at 7:30 AM and it was a beautiful day. Winds were calm, the temp and dew point were 3 degrees C apart so we had a light frost and the temp was about 37 degrees. A great day for flying. As I started the preflight, I did find frost on the parts of the airplane that were not in direct sunlight. After the usual checklist was completed, we pulled the airplane out and pointed the windshield at the sun and soon the frost was gone. I rechecked all of the surfaces and the frost was gone from them too. It didn't take much. As soon as I got the plane started, the air from the prop would have melted a lot of it also. I did have a heck of a time getting the engine started. I have never had to use the primer but this time I did. It took a good 10 minutes for the oil temp to budge a little. I was surprised that during the run up, I was able to get 2200 RPM on a static test.

I finally got my takeoff clearance and we did a simulated soft field takeoff. In this beast, 10 degrees of flaps, shove the throttle to the firewall and it will jump into the sky. We did some soft field landings, short field landings and approaches over an obstacle. I just got clearance for the option and after we were on the ground, Richard said for me to turn off on taxiway C. He jumped out and told me to go play for a while and that he would be at the FBO drinking coffee. He also told me not to crash the airplane. So I went up and did 3 dead center "normal" landings and taxied back to parking. I went through my post flight checklist, met Richard for a cup of coffee and then headed for home.

This was absolutely the best day of flying I have ever had. All of my landings were as good as I have ever done, the sky was clear, my kind of temperature, very smooth air and a grin you couldn't knock off with a sledge hammer. I finished the year with 21.2 hours. I'll do much better in the coming year.

My E-Logbook

Getting Ready For Christmas

Since I haven't had the time to fly like I want, my wife suggested that we do some decorating for Christmas. She shocked me when she suggested we buy an inflatable Santa in an airplane. I was game for it so we went to Big Lots and found one on sale. It's pretty cool. It uses the air from the fan to inflate it but it also has holes in the end of the prop so that the prop turns too. I had to add my own touch to it so we took some white outdoor lights and made a runway for Santa's airplane.

We took a couple of pictures so we could show everyone just how goofy we really are (I think I'm getting a little stir crazy).

Anna wants to help but seems a little tired.

Finally finished getting the airplane tied down.
All of the "runway" lights are done.