Another Chance To Fly

 Finally a beautiful sunny, warm 74 deg. day with the wind down runway 23 at 5 knots. I checked the winds at 3,000 feet, Light and Variable.  It sounded perfect to me.  I took off just before 5pm today, and headed east. The pictures were taken while east bound, looking North, West and South.

I got to our house at Lake Louisa in about 10 minutes but it was so bumpy I gave up and wandered back to the airport.  The sun was still high enough on such a clear day that we had plenty of thermal activity.

I flew for a half hour and made a nice landing so I'm glad I went.  I'll try again tomorrow.

Finally A Nice Day For Flying

 We finally had a nice day.  It got into the low 60's with a gentle breeze from the southwest.  It was 5 pm when I finally took off so I just stayed in the traffic pattern, going around the airport for 30 minutes.  The wind at 3,000 feet was 16 knots from 290° so I expected a little turbulence do to the wind coming over Merry Mountain.  It wasn't much until I got to the south end of the airport.  About 5:30 I was still going to fly a little more but it had gotten turbulent enough there that I gave up and landed.  The overcast looks lower than it was.  The AWOS was reporting clear below 12,000 feet.

There was an end to the overcast about 30 miles to the north.

Looking southwest the airport is in front of the wires.

Looking at Southwest Mountain from the upwind for runway 23.

Beside the airport heading southwest, upwind for 23.

Looking over Merry Mountain (1,100 feet) we had very good visibility to the Blue Ridge Mountains, 30+ miles.

A nice evening flight.

1/2 Hour Flying - Beautiful Cool Afternoon

 

Went flying about 4pm this afternoon.  It was cool, 60 degrees, crystal clear, with a 5 mph breeze straight down runway 23. Cruising at 77mph, and 2100 RPM, the CHT was about 345 degrees F.

Heading ESE that's Lake Anna straight ahead and Lake Louisa, where I live, to the right.

When I turned at Lake Louisa I headed SW so I would be south of Gordonsville Airport  to enter the downwind for 23.  Bad plan, I was flying  straight into the setting sun.  Visibility forward was awful.

I also should have flown another 20 minutes so the sun would be better hidden while landing, couldn't see the trees below me turning final.  They weren't close but it was not comfortable.  Then bounced the landing a little, but had fun overall.

Nice Warn Afternoon Flight

 I had to get something from the hangar, for my son, so I went early and had a nice late afternoon flight, for almost 1 hour.  It was about 70 degrees with a gentle breeze down the runway.  I left the traffic pattern for a while and flew around south of the airport.

Coming back I noticed this pipeline running north, east of the airport.  They keep a wide path clear so they're easy to find and follow.  They're also shown on the sectional charts.  Them, high power line clearings and expressways are great navigation aids when traveling in these tree covered states down south.

The airport is between me and Merry Mountain.

Here's a closeup of the white book warehouse north of the airport. If you zoom in and look in front of the strut, and above the spreader bar, you can see Orange County Airport.  It's not the white buildings just above the bar but the tiny ones above then.  OK, I know what I'm looking for.  It's about 6 miles north.

I mentioned the mountains on the west side of the traffic pattern the other day.  Here's what Merry Mountain looks like at traffic pattern altitude on the crosswind for runway 5.

This is it after turning downwind for runway 5.

Looking south was hazy from smoke that came from somewhere way  south of us.

Looking north over the runway, with the sun behind me, you don't even see the haze.

Cool Evening Flight

 Yesterday I went for a nice evening flight. It was a cool 55 deg. I wore my fleece vest under my leather jacket, which kept my shoulders warm.  I should have also worn a sweater, my left arm got very cold, but it was fun anyway.  The wind was 8 knots from a little left of runway 23.  Once in the air it was very smooth.  I didn't leave the traffic pattern, I only had 40 minutes until sunset, so I just went around the airport.

Looking NE from the left downwind for 23.

Looking East, we're well past peak fall colors, very brown.  We mostly have yellow and brown at best.

Looking North, the white building is a book warehouse.  It's an easily spotted reference, except when it snows, which isn't often.

Looking West, the airport is in the lower left corner. Fred's hangar/house/terminal is the white building just by the left edge of the picture.  Merry Mountain is behind the spreader bar.  Scott Mountain is just to the left of the cabane strut, behind Scott is Chicken Mountain.  Gibson Mountain is hiding behind the strut.  Way in the back are the Blue Ridge Mountains. The airport is at 454 feet and the top of Merry Mountain is just over 1,100 feet right next to the downwind for Runway 5.  It looks really close  when you take off on 5 and turn left toward it.  The Downwind for 5 is halfway between it and the runway so it actually is close.  At the point you make your turn from the runway you're still not above it.

Finally Back To Flying

 We had a beautiful evening, more like late afternoon without Daylight Time.  I flew for half an hour and everything worked fine except my camera.  I think the memory card is full.  I have not solved the Cylinder Head Temperature problem, it's still running hotter than it should.  I had fun.  

When I did my BFR I rented a friends C172.  It does not fly like the Fly Baby.  It took a while to work out the traffic pattern positions, but we got there.  The first landing I was almost stopped when we realized the nose tire had gone flat.  We got it on a creeper and carefully dragged it back to the hangar. A piece of safety wire had poked a tiny hole into the tube.

It's supposed to be nice tomorrow so maybe I can take some pictures.

Airplane Ready To Fly

 On March 16th I finally had everything back together and taxied the plane for about 10 minutes.  Everything was fine, except for a slight miss on the left magneto.  Back in the hangar.

On March 18th we had a fly-in to celebrate the reopening of the runway.  The winds at 3000 feet were 26 knots but we had a good turnout anyway

Today I had time and 72 degree weather to work on the small misfire.  I stared by pulling the lower plugs and cleaning them to assure there was not any oil fouling one of them.  I also rechecked the gaps, all good.

When I removed the lead to the lower plug on cylinder 4 the insulator fell off the wire, problem found.  I had cable tied the wire to keep it clear of the exhaust pipe and accidentally pulled it so tight I pulled the lead almost out of the insulator.  I reinstalled the insulator and was more careful how I tied it up.  It's running here before taxiing it for about 10 minutes.  I did 2 mag checks with no misfire.

With it nice and warm I did the compression check.  All cylinders were 75/80psi - 76/80psi., very good.

The annual Condition Inspection is now signed off.  We're ready to go flying to see if I've improved the motor cooling with the grills removed.  Yea!