Breakfast Run!

Finally some flying!  Thanks to my brother Joe the kitchen floor was completed yesterday with just the stair nose remaining for install.  Joe's wife Janice also helped out when she checked in on us and brought us lunch. Mary and I owe you guys a nice dinner out at the club, we could not have done it with out you.

This morning I got up and finished the stairs to the kitchen from the family room. I'll stain the steps this week once I can round up the cats and lock them up, leaving the windows open to help with the paint smell while we are both at work.

On to the flight.  Mike and I traded text messages Friday afternoon and this morning. I advised I would be good to go around 10am and Mike agreed. I cleaned up the mess I made inside and out in the garage. Once showered and dressed I was heading out to the SUV and calling in my fuel order.  A quick text to Mike and he was ready to go.

I had the pre-flight completed and was parking my truck when Mike pulled in. We got 08Romeo started and while the oil temps came up we picked a breakfast destination. Mike would fly left seat on the first leg and we decided on Easton, KESN.

Once in the air we could not seem to control the temps due to a strong breeze blowing in the cockpit. We each checked our doors again  and then I reached back to check the back seat vents, they were closed. Baggage door was closed and locked with Mike doing a second walk around as an abbreviated pre-flight. I unbuckled and checked the baggage are vents and although I could not reach them I could clearly see they were wide open.  As a side note the temp at takeoff was 42 degrees. Mike decided on making a stop just south of the canal at Summit airport, KEVY. We mixed with traffic and once on the ground taxied to the ramp.  We didn't bother to shut down, instead I tried to reach the vents but couldn't fit between the seats or reach for that matter. We swapped control of the plane and Mike wiggled back and managed to shut both vents.

Once again we were in the air and headed to Easton. Mike shot the GPS RWY 33 approach reporting the TUKIE final approach fix as directed. Mike made a firm landing ;) that he beat himself up over, but got us to the terminal ramp in one piece. We enjoyed a great breakfast and chat at Sugarbuns then saddled up for my left seat time. We got the fan turning and cranked up the heat while I planed my leg of the flight. My plan was to make the short hop to Cambridge, KCGE and shoot the GPS RWY 34 approach. I was a bit rusty and my altitude varied more than I like and I too beat myself up. Mike got me back as he role played ATC for my approach noting 08Romeo verify current altitude 2,700 - maintain 2,500. Dang, that hurts. 

Ok, crossing the field and turning outbound on the 155 heading then making my turn to intercept the 335 heading. I was slow to loose altitude but worked my way to 1800 then the MAP of 560 which was wrong because I used the on field altimeter setting so I should have descended to 480 say 500 feet. I was allowed to raise the foggles at 1.5 miles and 560 to find myself in perfect position to land. Only two notches of flaps followed by a nice landing and immediate roll for takeoff.

We headed for home, I was enjoying the flight and Mike was working with his recent iPad Foreflight geo-reference upgrade. We were leaving the sunshine and flying north to the overcast at 5000 ceiling. We scooted along at 3000 and eventually cleared to enter left base runway three two. Another smooth long landing and we taxi to Red Eagle. Mike ended up with 1.2 and I had 1.6 for the day. We each had an approach to log so that was worth the flight time.