Golf AND Flying

The Golf
Mary and I got up early and decided on a round of golf today. We played the home course, nine holes. Clayton Park is great for beginners, or so they told us.  Well there are trees, I found a few, and no bunkers, that's always a positive.  What we didn't know was, it is up and down the hills. The 9-hole course at the Clayton Park golf facility in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania features 1,600 yards of golf from the longest tees for a par of 30 . The course rating is 35.5 and it has a slope rating of 113.

The place was packed and we played at a good pace.  By the end my legs were burning, I'm out of shape and really need to pedal the stationary bike more miles.  I did see an older guy, ok, older than me bent over sucking air.  I did ask if he was ok and he said yeah, and I play every other day.  I didn't have the heart to tell him if he quit sucking on that cigarette he might have some oxygen to use.  I shot a 48 on the par 30. I'm happy making progress and this was only our third round.

The Flying
Mike and I traded text messages and he was available to fly. I almost backed out since we were headed out to grab a bite to eat and I needed to shower and change.

 The last text message said no hurry and with that I hit the showers and soon after got moving to the airport.  Mike had started the pre-flight and I helped/got in the way as he finished up. No real plan so we narrowed the choice to Ocean City NJ or Harrisburg PA.  We went west. The plan was for Mike to shoot the ILS 31 into KMDT, then make the short hop VFR to Lancaster, KLNS for fuel.

It was very hazy today and maybe we should have filed but we flew VFR with 7-8 mile visibility. Harrisburg approach was easy to work with and my job as safety pilot was to spot traffic, eyes outside. The left seat was busy with foggles and chugging and plugging on the 496 for wx and the 530 for the approach.

Harrisburg changed things up a bit and wanted us to fly the ILS 13 approach and Mike dialed everything in. We were vectored on a very wide left downwind passing just south of Cap City then turned north to intercept the localizer. We road the rails very nice and concluded the approach with the option for a touch and go.

We climbed out and pointed towards Lancaster for a quick gas and go. Approach handed us off  to the tower and we landed on runway two six. Mike got on himself for floating down the runway and I said it was faster than trying to taxi to turn off, I don't think he bought it.

With a belly full of fuel 08Romeo launched for home. I was busy taking in the view and enjoyed every minute of it. Mike called Philly and requested the GPS 19 approach and they pointed us to JIGUP direct. Another nice approach terminating with a full stop for our taxi to my Red Eagle tie down.  2 hours in the book and a fun flight. Temps at 3.5 to 4.5 were just sixty degrees, it was very comfortable in the plane this afternoon.

Now that I posted this write up I'm going to pour a tall cold glass of tea and munch on some guacamole and Tostitos® Scoops!® .  A few Advil's tossed in and I'll feel great in the morning.