Rusty, Rusty, Rusty + Free Flyin'...followup to: Pilot Withdrawl and Micellaneous Ramblings

Well...
Interesting Day!!

Winds were 190-210 @ 12G23 today, on a 7-25 runway at LPR, Lorain
County OH. My wife declined to go with me due to the winds. WX
otherwise clear; temp/dp 10/2 C

So...I went up by myself for some solo pattern work. First time
around I blew thru pattern altitude by 300' ! You can bet THAT
didn't happen again! Got bounced around pretty good with the winds,
but landings not too shabby. 11 landings...LONGEST landing was
down -n- stopped in 1500'...most 900-1100'.

Somedays I am AMAZED how far I have come since Sep '04!

Also went to practice area for steep turns, lazy 8's, chandelles.
Sloppy, but I knew WHY and WHERE they were sloppy.
'S'not bad for not doing 'em since 11/1 when I got my commercial.

Ya know, I have not been up SOLO since 8/23...That's almost 4 months!
Always has been CFI or my lovely (and brave) wife Sara.
Gotta do more of that, eh?

Back on the ground; a fellow private pilot/instrument student invited
me and another student pilot to ride along on an X-C to time build.
He wasn't totally comfortable yet with ATC comms and was going to fly
an uncontrolled route...our CFI and I convinced him to do a
round-robin of 3 towered airports, including the Cleveland Class B.
To his credit, he handled ALL the comms, with a few suggestions from
me. I found out I wanted to talk 'too much' ,,,lesson learned for CFI
wannabe! Gotta let 'em go if they're not killing anyone, right?

Nice 2.5 hour ride... handled the radio tuning and the xpdr codes,
the student(almost-pilot) back-seater verified our route, looked up
freqs & airport info, & caught most of the traffic. Most of this was
after dark, so good night practice for all of us!

KEEP FLYIN'!!!

--Don



Don Byrer
Commercial Pilot / CFI Student
Electronics Technician, RADAR/Data/Comm @ CLE
Amateur Radio KJ5KB

"I have slipped the surly bonds of earth; now if I can just land without bending the gear..."
"I know what it sounds like....when doves cry"

Ya know, I have not been up SOLO since 8/23...That's almost 4 months!

Wait'll your wife gets her ticket.

I can't even remember the last time I flew solo. I think it was an
after-oil-change flight last summer?
--
Jay Honeck
Iowa City, IA
Pathfinder N56993
www.AlexisParkInn.com
"Your Aviation Destination"