Yesterday was just one of those days that turns out better than if you had tried to plan it. Got up early and took GA newbie George Johnson to York PA with me for our first 2008 EAA 240 fly out. George got to fly Cirrus chase from the back of the '8 by following Mike, Jim, Jeff and Harv in the spaceship one Cirrus. That sucker is loaded but it kept up with the '8 fine in cruise. Below you can see the star wars panel making it too easy for Mike to line up his strafing run on the unsuspecting farm house located off the end of runway 31 at York. Mike pretended to overshoot the runway to achieve this optimal angle of attack.
I'm pretty sure that's what they said because if anyone knew how much processing power that plane had they'd never believe anyone flying it could ever fly a less than perfect pattern. No way. After a filling breakfast and dropping George off at New Garden, I flew to Wilmington and snuggled the '8 into Rich Zeidman's toasty hangar where Matt Noto, Rich and I did some progressive conditional inspection checks on his RV-7 and my RV-8. My cylinder leak check results were good and no one get whacked by a runaway blade in the process. Later that evening it was on to Media to meet Rich and Pat for dinner and drinks.
1 comment:
Guilty - the pattern I flew was not good, and all my fault despite the extensive equipment to-hand. Weight was certainly a factor (there were four of us aboard), but I was also a little fast (overcompensating for the impact of weight on the stall speed), the proximity hill/mountain to the right of the downwind-leg......I can think of lots of excuses. At the end of the day I could have done better! But that's why I love flying - always learning. Mike.
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