Alive! And Flying!
Yes, I’m alive. I’ve been pretty busy lately and just plain negligent in writing about my exploits.
The good news is I’ve been doing plenty of flying!
Back in August my parents came up from Florida for a visit to see my new daughter (who is now almost 12 weeks old), and Mark got me up in the 172 again with my Dad in the back seat for some “loaded 172” practice. After that, my Dad and I took a 152 out to Stoughton, WI (just SE of Madison) to look at the recent hurricane damage. It was devastating. Got some practice working with Madison ATC to keep watch on some other planes in the area.
A few days later I fly my Mom and Dad up to Oshkosh, WI, to visit the Aviation Museum there. It is a very nice museum, with tons of vintage and experimental planes and some wonderful WWII exhibits. This was my first real “trip” in a 172 and we had a great time.
Last week I took a 152 (with Spencer in tow) back to Madison for the first time in a very long time. We landed, taxied to Wisconsin Aviation, shut down, then negotiated with Clearance, Ground, Tower, and Departure, and somehow I managed to remember everything I had to do. Spencer got a kick out of it too. As we were heading inbound for landing Approach gave us vectors to avoid two F-16s that were scrambing. That was cool.
Finally, this past week Spencer and I went back up to take pictures of his property, which is a mere 4NM NW of Madison, well inside their airspace. I worked with ATC who asked us how long we were planning on remaining in the area, and at what altitude. I asked for about 10 minutes, with two different altitudes. I got to practice my steep turns while Spencer took pictures. When we were done I asked for a touch-and-go, since we were so close. It ended up being a full-stop and hold short, so I got a good chance to remember all that stuff, and it went well.
It was such a beautiful day I decided to head up to Baraboo for a touch and go there, and then another at Sauk City (just to show off at this point, since Spencer hadn’t seen how tiny the runway was there). Finally, we came home, my well-needed flying fix in check.