Unfortunately it took a month-and-a-half before my schedule and the weather would cooperate enough for me to fly in 2010. Fortunately, this past weekend, I was able to have my first flight of 2010…and man, was it great to get back in the sky. Last weekend, my wife and I went up Kohler, WI for a pre-Valentine’s Day spa getaway, so on actual Valentine’s Day we were taking it easy and staying home. My wife was making us an awesome dinner so she urged me to take a few hours to practice and fly on such a beautiful day. I’m glad I found the time!
The weather was indeed clear and crisp and the plane performed great. The colder/thicker air certainly helps the propeller cut into it more! I did a couple laps around the pattern at Westosha, then down to Campbell Airport (C81) in Grayslake for a change of scenery. Along the way, I flew by our house and my wife came out and waved…it was pretty cool, the first time she saw me actually IN flight from the ground. I was happily surprised when my landings were nice and smooth, even with the moderate cross-wind that day.
After 4 greaser landings between the 2 airports, I jolted back home and spent the rest of V-Day with my awesome wife. This flight I logged 0.8 hours of flight time. Let’s hope 2010 brings a LOT more time in the air!
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Last night I went on my first Chicago lakefront / skyline flight. We had our first real taste of Spring yesterday with temperatures reaching up into the mid 60′s, and clear skies and little wind all day, so I couldn’t resist going up with my wife for a flight. I figured visibility would be incredible, but unfortunately there was a little bit of haze once we got up into the sky. That being said, once we were fairly close to downtown, everything was visible just fine to the naked eye. However, photographs still were affected by the haze and the dusk light. We tried our best though and posted pictures here. We got some neat pictures of downtown, Navy Pier, and even a controlled brush fire in (I’m guessing) Mundelein on our way back.
The flight itself was fairly uneventful and super smooth as the winds were calm. I departed Westosha and headed direct to Campbell (C81) to avoid Kenosha and Waukegan airspace. From there I headed East-Northeast to the shoreline and just followed that down. I cruised around 2,400 feet the whole trip to give myself plenty of vertical buffer (600 feet to be exact) from the 3,000 lower edge of O’Hare’s Class B airspace. The flight was surprisingly quick to get to downtown, about 34 minutes after takeoff. If only travel by car could be so efficient! And oh how awesome it would have been if Miegs Field was still open… darn! darn! darn!
Overall it was a great flight and a good change to give me more experience for when I take more guests up to fly. I’ll have to try it during broad daylight and a full night flight too eventually. I logged 1.2 hours of flight time.
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