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Bucking the trend

The local METARs were MVFR this morning. But the TAF for Paine Field forecast that it would improve in the early afternoon. At about 12:30, I looked outside, saw that it was indeed getting better, and decided today would be a good day to go flying.

And indeed it was. By the time I took off, the weather had improved to full VFR. While I was in the air, the ceiling pretty much disappeared, with only scattered clouds at about four or five thousand feet. It was a lovely flight, and I'm really glad I went up today.

I stayed relatively close to Harvey Field. I flew out the Snoqualmie River valley to Fall City and Snoqualmie Falls. I flew back and then basically buzzed around the sky at 3000' for a while. After that, I headed back in to Harvey Field, descending to pattern altitude to enter the 45 for runway 15.

As I was entering the 45, another plane (possibly a student pilot, as the plane belongs to the flight school) kind of cut in front of me. I could probably have made room but I decided to do a 360 just to make sure. I got back on the 45 and headed toward the downwind.

While I was circling, a black Cub had taken off and remained in the pattern. I entered the downwind behind him but quickly realized there was no way he'd have time to land and get off the runway by the time I caught up to him so I extended my downwind. I actually underestimated his speed and almost caught up to him on the downwind. When I saw him turn cross wind, I realized that he was only about five hundred feet away and a bit below me. By maintaining altitude to extend the downwind, I had kept distance between us. After that, I came in and landed. It was an okay landing; I floated a bit but got it down relatively gently. I decided to do a couple more trips around the pattern so I went back to the end of the runway and took off again.

On the first attempt of the next landing, I did something I was really hoping I'd never do: I touched down first on the nose gear and porpoised. After the first bounce I immediately opened the throttle and went around. The Musketeer line has a reputation for this. I think it's not so much that you're more likely to get into this situation in the first place, but rather that the suspension makes it harder to recover from if you don't go around. When I bought the plane, the seller told me it is a "go around early plane," and I've flown it that way.

My second attempt went better. Again, it floated a bit but I held it and landed decently. I went around again for a third landing, which went pretty much as well as the second. After that, I was done, so I taxied back to the hanger, and put the plane away.

Every time I fly this plane, it seems I learn something new. Which is great! That's what you want. You don't ever want to stop learning, to stop becoming a better pilot. I figured this plane would be a good teacher, and so far, she has been exactly that.

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