had a good day

killbilly

Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
There's a lot of griping and bickering going on in various threads about the economy, medical stuff, politics, etc...

This is a post about flying.

I'm still a sub-100 hour PPL, but I found myself with nothing to do yesterday, a little money in my flight account, and beautiful weather.

Took off from AUS and headed to Taylor to pick up some gas, and then sat there on the ramp for a few minutes looking at the sectional. Decided to just pick out an airport I'd never been to. Checked weather, took off for LXY (Mexia-Limestone County.) Took it up to 7500' (highest I'd been) and once I got through some bumps got glass-smooth air, trimmed er' out.

And relaxed.

Reflected that I am very lucky to be able to fly. And even though I should be saving money to study for my IR, well...sometimes you just gotta go up. I feel like it's a rare enough treat to go up that I couldn't imagine doing it day in and day out.

It's still sorta magical for me, and I want to prolong that as long as I can.

Central texas is pretty...lots of farms, rivers, and it was nice to just throttle back and cruise. Had a headwind which kept me down to about 90kts GS, but I wasn't in any hurry. Flew a long, gentle descent into LXY, landed, and was greeted by a very sweet mutt as I opened the door on the plane. She woofed quietly and escorted me to the FBO, where I chatted with the guy there for a bit, drank a Dr. Pepper, and watched the beginning of a lovely sunset. Eyeballed a beautiful 182 and wished it was mine. Patted the pup on the head, thanked the FBO guy, and went back to the plane.

Heading back to AUS, I took it up to 8500' (now my highest alt) and watched the sun go down. Had a lot less time, though. Picked up a tailwind and was showing a GS of 125kts at one point. It was a quick return.

AUS approach brought me in, cleared me #2 and I took advantage of the long runway to bring it in just as straight and gentle as possible. Stall horn right at the same time as the mains. Nice.

3.0 logged, access to a nice plane, and a complete psychic reset.

Doesn't get much better. :)
 
You and your nice weather. I havent seen the sun here for days. :banghead:
Just cancelled a flight kinda like that (fly around downtown chicago) a few hours ago for -FZDZSN...

Anyway, sounds like you had fun, and I know the type of flight that you mean. In the warmer months, I love just taking the Cub out in the evening and flying along at 500 feet over the farm land.
 
I had a similar day!

I took it up to 9,500...honestly it feels the same as 5,500 or 6,500.
 
Central texas is pretty...lots of farms, rivers, and it was nice to just throttle back and cruise.
Ain't that the truth! I was up flying with a couple students yesterday over here in Longview, and it was LOVELY!. Was even flying same time as you, because I was up with a private student when the sun went down.
 
Sometimes everything just falls together. A couple months ago I was stranded in Erie, PA for 2 nights waiting for a cold front to pass over my route of flight. That morning, I awoke to beautiful weather and was off the ground around 6:00AM local time. The air was smooth as glass the entire way, and I had a tailwind to boot. I greased the landing back home, and thought to myself what a great flight to end an otherwise bad trip. Of course then I had to go back to work...:(
 
man that's up there for a non-pressurized bird, I think my eyes would start bleeding if I went up that high :D

Heh. I wanted to see just how low I could get the fuel burn and still maintain some good speed. Since I've been trying to fly all XC whenever I fly, I've been paying a lot of attention to winds aloft and seeing where I can capture the good stuff.
 
man that's up there for a non-pressurized bird, I think my eyes would start bleeding if I went up that high :D

Boy oh boy the differences between high-alt ops and "you others". It was regular for me to go to 9500 msl in training in my 172. In the PA-44 we took 'er up above 12.5 but only for less than 30 minutes :D
 
Boy oh boy the differences between high-alt ops and "you others". It was regular for me to go to 9500 msl in training in my 172. In the PA-44 we took 'er up above 12.5 but only for less than 30 minutes :D

I took the sled up to its service cx a couple of times 14,700MSL, but its spooky up there in a small plane. Anything above 5500AGL, and I start to think about if I had a structural failure how long it'd take to hit the ground. Plus, the mountain wave is brutal up there, and will just tear you to pieces if you go through it at the wrong angle.
 
I took the sled up to its service cx a couple of times 14,700MSL, but its spooky up there in a small plane. Anything above 5500AGL, and I start to think about if I had a structural failure how long it'd take to hit the ground. Plus, the mountain wave is brutal up there, and will just tear you to pieces if you go through it at the wrong angle.

I feel way more confident being way up high, gives me more time in case the engine quits.
 
I took the sled up to its service cx a couple of times 14,700MSL, but its spooky up there in a small plane. Anything above 5500AGL, and I start to think about if I had a structural failure how long it'd take to hit the ground. Plus, the mountain wave is brutal up there, and will just tear you to pieces if you go through it at the wrong angle.


You know, I never think about structural failure when I'm flying. Not the right time to worry about it.
 
I love having days like the one described by the OP. I'm about 40 hours short of earning my csel, and I'm already a little nervous to transition into the professional pilot career field because I doubt flying for a living is as fun as GA flying.

I like in KC and have had a lot of fun building XC time. Last summer, I vacationed in Denver, Galveston, IL, and Tampa. I gained a ton of valuable experience and became much more comfortable in instrument conditions. It was the most fun I'd ever had.

I have a feeling I will look back for years to come and miss the days of GA flying. I hope I still have the desire to fly for fun even after I start flying for a paycheck.
 
I took the sled up to its service cx a couple of times 14,700MSL, but its spooky up there in a small plane. Anything above 5500AGL, and I start to think about if I had a structural failure how long it'd take to hit the ground. Plus, the mountain wave is brutal up there, and will just tear you to pieces if you go through it at the wrong angle.

heh... 14,700 MSL will barely clear some of the mountains around where I live. In fact if I followed the AIM's advice on when to use oxygen, Id be use it on EVERY single flight and even in the pattern at night. Its quite common for me to go to FL 230 in an unpressurized aircraft (Cirrus) for me take advantage of winds, even without the winds, I have to go to 16000 feet to go most places IFR for terrain.
 
heh... 14,700 MSL will barely clear some of the mountains around where I live. In fact if I followed the AIM's advice on when to use oxygen, Id be use it on EVERY single flight and even in the pattern at night. Its quite common for me to go to FL 230 in an unpressurized aircraft (Cirrus) for me take advantage of winds, even without the winds, I have to go to 16000 feet to go most places IFR for terrain.

The beauty of living in the mountains is that your body is acclimated to the lack of oxygen and can use it more efficiently. I am willing to bet if I went to 14K now (as opposed to when I was in school), I'd be tired as heck.
 
Good to see that you enjoyed the good weather. I have wanted to hit the air something awful bad, but the plane is still down for MX. Hopefully it'll be done on Monday...woohoo!!! Funny, I flew twice last week for the AF, but it just isn't as much fun as going where *I* want to go! :)
 
Good to see that you enjoyed the good weather. I have wanted to hit the air something awful bad, but the plane is still down for MX. Hopefully it'll be done on Monday...woohoo!!! Funny, I flew twice last week for the AF, but it just isn't as much fun as going where *I* want to go! :)

Y'know what's funny...the majority of the fields down here seem to use 122.8 for Unicom. I tend to monitor the freq of the closest airport when I fly just to get an idea of traffic, etc. But I was hearing calls all over the place - was even getting Rockwall (that's up east of Dallas - more than 100nm from where I was.) Most of the transmissions were stepping on each other so it kinda made monitoring pointless. Everyone was up there.

Galaxy - you gotta pop up to AUS and take me for a ride in your Piper. I'll spring for some gas...never been up in one.
 
Great post! GA flying is really a good time. Just go out, find a nice place to land, and off you go. I did a lot of this type of flying last year after I got my private. I now encourage my students to find a nice, out of the way, airport when we do cross countries.
 
Y'know what's funny...the majority of the fields down here seem to use 122.8 for Unicom. I tend to monitor the freq of the closest airport when I fly just to get an idea of traffic, etc. But I was hearing calls all over the place - was even getting Rockwall (that's up east of Dallas - more than 100nm from where I was.) Most of the transmissions were stepping on each other so it kinda made monitoring pointless. Everyone was up there.

Galaxy - you gotta pop up to AUS and take me for a ride in your Piper. I'll spring for some gas...never been up in one.

Most certainly sir! It's on my list of XC places to go 'round these parts. I am hoping to pick up my alternator bracket from the welder today and hopefully will be back up in a few days! Gas is nice and cheap (at least cheaper than it was 2 months ago), so how 'bout you take me for some tasty BBQ instead? I am always on the hunt for good BBQ!!! Wait...new XC location is now coming to mind...Memphis in May!!! :nana2:
 
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