Wet, Bumpy, and Cold

Ha! I bet you thought that this was going to be some porn spam.
Well...perhaps not after the "Cold" bit grin.

I'd a very nice "getting feet wet" flight today. I was in the clouds for
roughly half the brief (two hour) (CDW-SWF-CDW) flight, I was in wet clouds
watching the thermostat drop, and some of those clouds hid *bumps*.

A good IFR practice run, and a lot of fun. I cannot remember the last time
I was solo with that much IMC. I even got a loggable hold (spinning around
IGN for a while) and approach out of it.

I wasn't even planning on IFRing. My original plans, based upon long range
weather, was to practice the commercial maneuvers I've recently learned.
I'd a club airplane scheduled for this purpose.

But I got bumped from the club airplane as maintenance (an avionics upgrade)
took longer than predicted (I'm guessing that this isn't an unusual
occurance {8^). As soon as I was notified of the bump, because I get antsy
if I don't get in enough airtime, I scheduled my "used to be usual"
airplane at the FBO.

This turned out to be a Good Thing, as I'd not take the club airplane into
IMC. I've flown it but once, and that before the not-yet-completed
upgrade. For single pilot IFR, I feel that one's fingers should know where
to find each knob w/o looking. In the club airplane, this is still far
from true.

So I'd likely have scrubbed the flight had I not been bumped.

BTW, this was the first time I'd ever asked for an altitude change due to
icing (the possibility; I never saw any). I wasn't too uncomfortable as I
knew that the tops were - at most - 2000 feet above me. But the controller
dropped me 1000 feet...still wet, but no longer that cold.

A few weeks ago, I landed with a tailwind. I was astonished at the runway
this used up. Today, I'd a stiff headwind on landing. I felt like a
helicopter.

- Andrew