night flying
i love night flying. it was really enjoyable - smooth as glass and beautiful. unfortunately, it wasn’t much cooler : )
flew over the house (found out later lindsay and big dan saw me buzzing by at 020ft) and hendersonville before heading out lebanon. tonight we were in the 150 - which i really like because of the old school flaps. imagine an huge emergency brake lever like they throw between the two seats in a car… that’s what you pull to add/remove the flaps. when those baby’s are extended, she drops like a rock… which i needed, since i kept shooting my finals high. something about that aircraft, it just wants to climb and does so a bit faster than 6102H (the 152). it made the landings interesting, aside from the fact it was dark! that was a first.
good ‘ol crappy tdot had 40 closed out just beyond M54 so we provided a little entertainment for the folks suffering through stand-still traffic in 90 degree heat (at 9:30pm). we headed back to m33 and von left me fly staight in - not the norm at most non-towered airports but he said i needed the practice since atc throws the standard pattern out the window at times. it was cool watching the papi from 8-10nm out and i shot it pretty well. then came two landing without the landing lights - because they just might not work sometime. i bounced her in on the first one, which i have never done before. not too bad though for landing it basically total darkness for the first time. i went around again, thanks to von, so i could shoot that one again and nail it… which i’m glad to say i did.