Winter flying, 300 landings and counting....

Time this flight: 1.3
Total Time: 93.4
Landings: 300

(These totals take into account a flight which I took in the middle of November which I didn't submit as a blog entry.)

Today was my first winter flight, and it was just as it should be. No blowing snow, clean runways, blue skies and calm winds. A friend from work joined for what was intended to be a cross country flight up to Lansing and back. When we arrived over Howell (KOZW Livingston County airport) I tried to pick up Lansing's ATIS (weather info) with no luck. Tried calling approach on the radio, no luck. Started a left 360 to remain clear of their airspace while I diagnosed the radio issues. Switched to radio #2, nothing. Stayed on COM2 which seemed to work better than radio #1, and landed at Howell.

Decided to call it a day and headed back to Mettetal where I landed for the 300th time. The landing was good, but I will remember it more for the approach which my passenger remarked that it reminded him of the "Space Shuttle" landing. Let's just say the 152 in front of me was slow, which forced me to adjust my pattern. This resulted in a steep, full flap, side slipping approach to short final. All while juggling radio calls through the "Mr. Microphone" having long since abandoned the push to talk switch on the yoke.

The continued lack of maintenance on the aircraft at Mettetal (and other factors) has made it easy to decide to join a flying club. Stay tuned.