A Good View

Sally and I have been able to make a few local flights just to enjoy getting in the air. We've been up and down the Butter Valley, practiced landings over at Quakertown and wandered into the Lehigh Valley between Reading and Allentown. The farmers are working hard preparing the fields for the next set of crops. We still have the light yellow-green of early Spring and the temperatures haven't risen much above 60°F.

Yesterday I drove out to 7N8 to prepare to meet Tom over at KUKT. I was excited to be able to show another pilot an LSA and talk about their advantages and limitations. As I came down the entrance road I noticed a lot of activity around the runway. The irrigation team is still installing piping and I could clearly see disturbed earth on either side of the asphalt runway. That couldn't be good. I parked the car in the lot and walked down to inspect the damage. While they had sliced a portion of the runway to lay the pipes, the repair work was excellent. Evidently they had removed portions of the asphalt, done their excavation, then replaced the asphalt puzzle pieces keeping the work flush with the rest of the runway. I scraped my shoe across the intersection and hardly noticed the new joint. I'll have to inspect this periodically to insure it doesn't sink but for now I'm quite impressed with the workmanship.

Tom and I had a lot of fun giving Sally some exercise. I think he has a good perspective on how an LSA handles as compared to the Cessna he used for training. He appreciated the light touch. While the technology is impressive I think the one thing that always amazes people is the truly outstanding view that most LSAs afford.

Video Notes:

1. I've been experimenting with the placement of the exterior camera. After creating Where We Live I was disappointed with oscillation. It occurred to me that I had stuck the camera mount too close to the fuel tank and perhaps the sloshing fuel was part of the problem.
2. Garmin support recommended I remove the adhesive mount by using dental floss in a "sawing action" between the glue and the metal. That didn't work for me. Using a pair of pliers I was able to twist the mount off with no damage to the underside of my wing.
3. I repositioned the mount further out, just on the wingtip. While it is a definite improvement I will have to play with it a bit to get the camera level. As it is now it looks like I'm in a constant right bank.