Sunday, February 26, 2012

08Romeo Air Time

Mary is home recovering from from another health scare. Not exactly like the last two, this time it's very unstable walking with balance issues and very tired.  Mary can do a lap around the inside of the house but is dragging tail feathers afterwards. My Bride settled in and got some sleep and I headed to the airport to get some much needed flight time.
Cape May - Bay shore line
08Romeo was ready to go, like catching up to a long lost friend and picking up where we left off.  I carefully carried out my pre-flight, checking my list and confirming everything was in order. When I climbed in and went to fire up, 08Romeo barely cranked over. A few slowly turning blades then nothing. I pulled one of the batteries and hooked up my jumpers, less then ten minutes for removal.  After twenty minutes I reinstalled and 08Romeo cranked over.
Vince joined me today and we were soon headed south east bound for Millville. Millville traffic/radio was excellent today.  Yes, I typed that, they were perfect. I did not get the wx, NOTAMS, or traffic in the area, not once.  I was free to announce my traffic positions uninterrupted.  I made my calls and acknowledged the traffic that started to taxi for three two.  Base to final and the last bit of power pulled along with the last notch of flaps, a sweet soft landing. Not bad for no flying the last three weeks.
Power full, flaps retracted we are on the roll. 08Romeo is in the air and we are headed to Cape May, KWWD.  I transfer control to Vince and he does some very nice flying as we position for a midfield cross wind to enter the left base for two eight. Another nice landing followed by a turn off to taxi back for departure. We made a quick turn and departed for home, dealing with the winds while climbing to three thousand. Vince was perfect on the radio and did a real nice job holding altitude and heading.
Wilmington had us enter and report a three mile left base for two seven. We acknowledged and ended the day with another nice landing despite some gusty winds.

2 comments:

Chris said...

Man, is it ever nice to get back in the air after a dry spell. I'm always interested in seeing what I do well and what I don't do so well after a few weeks (I'm usually surprised by what falls into both categories).

Hopefully the battery holds that charge for the next trip out. I've been paranoid about mine; I put it in the airplane seven years ago when I bought it. Every cranking has been strong this winter, though, and I've had a couple of three week dry spells, too.

Gary said...

My Gill G-35's are 5 years old so it may be time. This is the second time it gave me a problem.

It felt great to be back flying and honestly I was worried about my landings. Decided on wide runways vs the short narrows I like to practice at.

I physically went to my checklists prior to start, run up, take off, cruise and landing. My normal procedure is perfrom the task and review the check list, I just wanted to be extra safe.