Right Hand Pattern

Weathered in this past weekend, I was very anxious to get into the air again. Monday proved to be just too busy, so I hoped to get any early morning start on Tuesday. Fog and mist prevented that. As I waited for the heat to dissipate the haze, I noted a line of storms moving in from the west. As soon as the local area reported Marginal VFR I was on my way out to the airport.

Original plan to venture a few minutes south to KPTW was scrapped in favor of staying in the pattern at home. Though I fly from the right seat, my right hand pattern needed some work. I tend to cut the crosswind a bit short, leaving me a bit high and fast turning base to final. My sight picture is now adjusted to have the wing tip fly down the runway instead of the gas cap. It made for a much nicer approach.

5 full stop landings and one missed in 0.5 hours. Probably about an hour total from door step to door step...not bad.

Disappointment

I wanted to go. I REALLY wanted to go. It would be my first ever meeting with the NE Flyers, back to some 'home turf' at Poughkeepsie's Duchess County (KPOU) to celebrate the opening of a new on field restaurant. The airplane was fueled, no gripes. Everything was pushing me to go...except:

KXLL - Allentown Queen City Municipal AirNav
Allentown, PA
Reported at: 7:35am EDT
Wind: 170° true at 7 kt
Visibility: 10 sm
Clouds: scattered 1300 ft AGL, broken 2100 ft AGL
overcast 6000 ft AGL
Temp: 22° C, Dewpoint: 20° C

 ...and similar reports from other local airports. My midway point, Sussex (KFWN) was reporting clouds broken 1900 ft AGL. Poughkeepsie was solid VFR, but the weather at home wasn't. I sat in the car, watching the low clouds drift by wondering if I should take the covers off. Forecast called for improving weather, with thunderstorms later in the day. If I was IFR current, and if the airplane was IFR certified I would be gone.

But, we aren't.

KDYL

A family reunion at Butter Valley

I had the engine burped by 7:30am. I wanted to test the air before the sun had a chance to produce some convective turbulence, and was rewarded with glass. The airplane ride was so much smoother than the drive to airport. Morning mist still filled some of the Pennsylvania valleys and the radio crackled only occasionally.

Off in the distance I could see what used to be NAS Willow Grove (Now listed as NXX, Horsham Police), so very large compared to all other airports in the vicinity. Pennridge didn't have any jumpers in the air, but even so I kept my eyes outside looking for any falling bodies.

There was just one departing Doylestown and he favored RWY 5, so I lined up for an extended left base. Another early riser in a low wing (Piper?) and I saw each other and raised a wing to let each know we were aware of the others position. I turned final with "red over white" and made a smooth, comfortable landing. I could have easily turned midfield, but that taxiway had a yellow 'x' so I let her roll down to the next exit. As I taxied back for takeoff, I saw another pilot checking the engine on his plane as part of his preflight ritual.

Checklist complete I was back in the air climbing to 1200' before my turn on course back to 7N8. Just beautiful. Total time was less than an hour, but what a great flight.

7N8 was busy, good weather brought out a lot of folks looking for a good Sunday breakfast. A pretty white and blue Luscombe was already on the ramp, and after breakfast two Cubs and a few Cessnas came in from Brandywine (OQN). We took a look at the cockpit, felt nostalgic, but decided we loved the modern seats and instruments in the PiperSport.

KMQS

Headset holder works well

 Overslept. We had planned to get up with the sun to take advantage of smooth air for the 30 min flight down to Chester County. Too many hits to the snooze alarm changed all that. We got to 674PS about 9:00am and were airborne after a thorough preflight.

The sky was clear following a weak cold front, a bit of haze and a few bumps. We got a good jolt after leveling 2500' that rocked the wings about 45 degrees. A few more bumps sent us up to 3500'. She was suffering from a bit of motion sickness so I opted for an extended base to nice long, broad runway. Taxi and shutdown were normal followed by a short walk across the ramp to the restaurant
.

Departing 7N8 to the SouthWest

The food was great. The small stack was two huge pancakes, and my country ham with eggs was outstanding. We had a nice view of the runway and ramp as we relaxed with our meal. Cessnas, (a beautiful 195 among others), Pipers, a Kolibar and a Sting Sport all arrived as we watched, and a very pretty Columbia took off just before we did.

Pretty much a straight shot back, lot's of traffic on the radio, but we didn't see anything along the way. All systems on the airplane (except the landing light) are working well. ...and our coordination doing the preflight and post flight has improved tremendously.

Nice airport, FBO & restaurant

This was a great way to spend a Saturday morning. We are working our way through the FLY2LUNCH website for nearby places to eat.

Practice Precautionary Emergency Landing.

Practice, practice, practice!

A beautiful day to go flying. I checked on the minor repairs made and all seemed to working as planned. The plane handled well and the gorgeous smooth air was just a joy. So time for an easy test. While the picture only show the approach from the west, I did try one from the other direction with similar results.

It was fun.

N40

Crowd watching us depart at 7N8

Good place for breakfast, busy on Sunday

Beautiful blue sky before 10:00AM, but lots of chop and gusts after noon. We  had tried this "$100 Hamburger" run before but aborted due to turbulence.  But we had started later in the day, this time we should be home before the thermals started in the afternoon heat.

Crossing back into PA

Final Approach to Rwy 34 at 7N8

A Citabria parked near us and my acquaintance from Beltzville (14N) stopped by to talk about airplanes. He had been an instructor in Slatington (69N) when I was just starting out. Still has the original seat cushion from the Champ I had trained in.

We completed the preflight and started her up. Saw the crowd in the parking lot as I lined up on the runway. (Not use to having an audience, but I was in the right seat and could blame any embarrassment on her.) It was a smooth normal take off and we immediately picked up the purple line and climbed to 2500'. I engaged the autopilot, did my cruise checks and generally 'cleaned up my office' for the flight out of the state.

Sky Manor is a pleasant little airport just past the Delaware river in NJ. There was a Cessna departing as we entered the pattern, and just a mild wind, pretty much down the center line as I rolled onto final. The Place was really busy on a beautiful Sunday morning. Many folks sat in lawn chairs watching the runway as we landed. Nice breakfast as we watched a helicopter student learning to maneuver. At least 3 folks stopped us to ask questions during the preflight to leave...one was particularly interested in a transition due to a medical condition. (An interesting discussion on FB: should pilots have the option of "self approval" and will this be abused and lead to LSA accidents? Time will tell.)

We excused ourselves from the conversations and climbed in for the return trip. The heat was starting to churn the air and we encountered light chop most of the way home. Disconnected the autopilot over Pennsberg and headed toward the reservoir to set up for a long straight-in to Rnwy 34 at Butter Valley. 

I kept it a little high knowing that once past the 'big ugly tree' she sinks pretty quickly over the grass. Cross wind from the left kept me busy in the round out and a few extra knots helped me cushion the flare, but it was a good workout keeping everything going in the right direction.

Overall a very nice trip, one I hope can be repeated often.

A little work with Harry

The 'todo' list had been building up:

1. Oil change; she was now at 80 hrs (Hobbs)
2. HS34: replacement unit from Dynon
3. Fuel line reroute: Donato had sent me some pictures on how to move the line up, away from the engine.
4. LOA: I needed Harry to sign the letter saying he would do the work to install the night lighting package
5. Landing light: intermittent, but mostly just couldn't turn it on (switch spring loaded to off)

We decided in the time available to him, we could do 2-5 and save #1 for next week. We took the cowling off, disconnected the battery and started with the fuel line. It was a straight forward change, but Harry explained why it was important to dress the line properly to avoid any possible kinking or future damage to the hose.

Next up, the landing light. VOM showed the battery was good but no voltage was coming into the light. Time to take off the  pilot side instrument panel to check the switch. This is really a CB with a toggle on it and turns out the CB failed. I ordered a new one from Aircraft Spruce.

Next, the HS34. This small box allows the navigation systems to talk to the autopilot. It was an easy swap, just one cable on the back and a long screw to hold it on the instrument panel. It probably took more time to button up the panel then to change out the box.

Last, I gave Harry the documents for the Letter of Authorization (LOA) to review. That has been filed and we are waiting for CSA to approve.

We've had two test flights since (just short hops) and all appears to be working well.