Flitting about here and there...

Sunday morning started out as a real nice, sunny and bright morning. It wasn't too warm at first, about 45 degrees, but the sun warmed things up nicely. That is until about 10 O'clock when the clouds started rolling in. I had planned to arrive at the airport around noonish, but when the clouds came in I was wondering if it would be worth the 45 mile trip just to find out it's raining. Of course, I wanted to fly, and I had to tinker with a few things, so I found justification to at least visit the airport and my trusty MX.

On the way to Fort Deposit, I ran in to a bit of a mist, but after a mile or so, it quit. When I got to the airport, the clouds were still hanging out, but the windsock was limp. There were two layers of clouds, one high, thin layer that blocked out the sun and then the puffy cumulus clouds here and there. If the higher layer wasn't present, It would have been a sunny, blue sky with puffy white clouds. I installed a new antenna, an old Emergency Locator Transmitter antenna which I had lengthened to suit the frequencies that I use. I also investigated how difficult it would be to shield my ignition system to allow for clearer radio reception and transmission. I decided that it was a bigger job than I wanted to tackle at the moment, and I decided to go flying.

I did a thorough preflight, noted a few items that will need attention sometime in the future and warmed up the engine. It started on the first pull. I thought it might be warm enough to leave my snowmobile suit in the car, but I put on a sweatshirt and decided to do one takeoff/landing pattern without any additional clothing, just to check the temperature. I didn't even make it to the runway when I decided to turn around and dress heavier! I shut off the engine, grabbed my radio, goggles, headset, GPS and of course, the camera... and put them on the airplane. I put on the snowmobile suit and strapped into the seat. I love my new 3-point harness. It looks cool and really gives me a secure feeling.

After announcing my intentions on the radio, (I'm still not all that confident with my radio procedure, but this particular callout sounded like a pro!) I taxied out onto the runway and to the downwind end, before turning around and taking off into the wind. Takeoff was non-eventful and the air seemed to be very calm. After two left-hand turns, I cut across the runway at about 500 feet AGL and took a picture of the view. I spent a few minutes in the local area taking a few pictures. I had originally picked a destination about 20 miles away, but because of the weather, I was hesitant to go there. Turns out that it would have been just fine, but better err to the side of caution than to wish you had! I decided just to fly around the same old places and take pictures for my web log, which is what I did.

The air was the calmest it had been in the middle of the day so far this year. I was just out flying around taking pictures of some of the familiar sights in the area which I mostly fly. I get bored of flying around the same old places, but today it was great just to be out flying around. There was only so much I could do in one little area, so about 45 minutes in the air, I headed back. I took a picture of my hangar, and landed as usual. I was glad to be flying after a couple of weeks. It felt good. I feel some cross-country flights coming up this summer!