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Flying when you must

The previous post was titled "Flying when you can." Today the weather was so nice that there was no question about whether or not I'd go up. Today is Saturday, and if you have weather this nice on the weekend, at this time of year, you can't not go flying if it's at all possible. I'll probably go tomorrow, too. I hope so.

With the work that was done during and after the annual inspection, my plane is finally fully functional. As far as I know, everything on it works. The intercom is even behaving itself, with a distinct lack of loud static during the last couple of flights. The shop didn't say if they did anything specific to fix it but either they did when I last asked them to take a look at it, or it's somehow sorted itself out. Hopefully it will work just fine, at least until I decide to replace the audio panel with one that has the intercom built in.

As noted above, the weather today was absolutely gorgeous. I flew north out of Harvey Field up past Bayview and then out east into the hills around Mount Baker. I was listening to Bellingham Tower, and they were reporting winds at 19 knots, with gusts to 28. They were also reporting wind shear of at least 10 knots, and it was confirmed by a couple of aircraft that landed. So I decided not to go there but just fly around for a while and enjoy the scenery. One of these days I need to go somewhere and spend some time there, such as for a stereotypical $100 hamburger.

Although I did run into some bumps and minor turbulence when flying over the valleys, it wasn’t at all unusual. I made sure not to get too deep into the hills but did manage to get some pretty spectacular views of Mount Baker. I spend most of my time cruising between 5500 and 7500 feet and visibility was to infinity. As you would expect, the plane loved the nice dense air and performed well. The engine continues to run strong.

When I came back and landed, I decided to go around the pattern a couple more times for good measure. My landings ranged from acceptable to pretty darn good, so it seems I’m making some progress in that department. I'm still refining my technique but the advice about how a good landing depends on a good approach is clearly truth. In this plane especially, approach speed is of almost paramount importance.

Here are some photos I took during today's flight:









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