Well, it's been a lousy few weeks for flying. Density altitude is up, temperature and humidity are up, the only thing that's not up is something marked Cessna with my fat butt in the left seat! To top it all off, I haven't had a whole lot of time to do much of anything!. Work, work, and work have pretty much been the dominant factor in my life. Add the home life to it, and I've just been out of time. All of this has given me a little bandwidth to think. Here are just a few of the thoughts I am having.
What a weekend it was. Saturday evening was quite honestly one of the most incredible evenings I have ever had at any airport. Temperature were sitting at the 70 degree mark, winds were supposedly pushing at 7 knots, but it seemed still to me... and what little wind I detected seemed to be blowing straight down runway 6. Air was like glass. It was the kind of day any pilot craves. Making things even better was the fact that I was alone! Yes, I enjoy a passenger and often welcome folks into the airplane for a quick "hop around the patch", but there are times when it seems quiet time with the equipment is just the way to go. This evening, it was just me and N6026S, a G1000 equipped Cessna 172 I rented from a local flight school.
The original plan was three takeoff's, followed by three landings. It seemed every landing was better than the last, and I just couldn't miss Charlie taxiway every time. Five landings later, I had to consider making it six, but figured that the concept of "too much of a good thing" may actually be reality. Besides, I had plans to take my friend David up on Sunday. That in mind, I rolled the aircraft back onto the ramp and tied the bird down.