Nothing to special about this flight except that I find it enjoyable and even somewhat exciting to go up with an experienced guy and shake the rust off and do things I don't do normally. We started off with some semi-steep turns, the first few were rough on altitude hold, yup, the good ole scan was degraded. A few of those and I was able to get up to speed again. After that came stalls. This is one of the things that I know I get rusty on, especially departure stalls. I am not always comfortable with the high pitch angles associated with departure stalls. Today was some great practice though and I was definately more comfortable with them when done. I dont think I have what it takes though to be an acro pilot. The 9A is definately the right choice of plane for me. I like to sit back and enjoy the roses. I get my kicks from trying to fly as precise as possible anyway. I get mad at myself if I am 50' off of my desired altitude.
Anyway, we then continued the flight to our local ball busting airport, Clearview Airpark 2W2. This is one of those airports where you cant be anything but on glideslope and at the right speed. Its a really lovely airfield, and pretty massive at 1840' x 30', of course you have to take 250' of that away for the displaced threshold, but thats only because its surrounded by trees. Its ok, though it would be better if it was flat. The runway has a nifty dip in it so as you are rounding out to start your flair it falls away from you. All this at the end of a 7 degree glideslope. No matter how you cut it, it can be a very challenging place to set down in. Its great fun though. I logged 4 landings there, 3 on the challenging approach, and one on the easier approach where you get a normal glideslope and the full length of the runway. Its great to do that and not have too much difficulty. I operate out of a 100' X 5000' runway so I dont regularly get to land on such a small strip. Great change of pace
After that it was hood time from the climb out all the way to short final to my home airport. Once I got the scan going again though it all came together. All in all a great experience that was both educational and remedial. Its good to see what I am strong in and even better to see what I am weak in.
Keep the dirty side down and git flying boys ..
-- Spike