N10

I looked up from my computer to see a flight of three ultra lights flying northbound. We listened on the handheld radio to the variety of traffic calls (and missed calls) so decided we might need a closer look. Kathy and I went over to Butter Valley on Aviation Day to see what was going on. We found an interesting mix of airplanes and were pleased to see the parking two deep on the east side of the parking area. Our own little (unannounced) Fly-in! The restaurant was crowded, even for a Sunday. A good day at 7n8. 

Thunderstorms swept through the area in the evening and kept up all day Monday. The cold front pushed through and left us with a misty foggy morning with temperatures in the low 60's. By lunchtime the visibility had improved enough to do some local flying.

Harry's hangar door was open so I stopped by to say hello. A Cheetah was doing his run up. He didn't like something because it was taking him a long time to prepare for the take off. Finally, after a long idle he took the runway, added power and departed to the west. I still like the Grumman product line.

Normal preflight (57 pulls), taxi and run up. There really wasn't any wind so I had my choice of runways. I took off to  he north and departed to the east.  A Cessna was off my right wing slightly below as I continued my climb to 2500'. It looked like he might be heading into  Quakertown, my plan was to go over to Pennridge. I thought it might be fun to stop in and see the airport manager who had shown an interest in LSA. However, the CTAF at KCKZ is not 122.8 and the voice I had recognized was on that frequency. Then I remembered he always used Perkiomen in his announcement. I selected the nearest function  on my 696 to find another airport and pulled up N10 at Collegeville.

I flew over at 2000' to check for winds and decided to use rwy 9. I entered downwind all alone and turned base a little deep to allow me to make adjustments if necessary. There is a BIG tree on final and I added a bit of power to insure I didn't get any leaves caught in my brakes. Otherwise a normal landing followed by a back taxi and take off. 

I departed to the north and climbed back to the west on course to Butter Valley. I picked out the airport at about 7 miles (it is a little airport) and decided to enter on a downwind for rwy 16. Sally doesn't like to descend close to the ridges on the far side of Rt100 (or the power lines close by) and kept reminding me of the terrain.  I made a nice approach and landed on the grass just north of the asphalt and taxied straight ahead to go back to the barn.