Passing 100 hours, two wheeling, and checkout flights.

Despite my lack of blogging, I actually did some flying in May. In the early part of the month I flew my last flight in the venerable 95T out of Mettetal. Here is a pic as I wait in line to depart from runway 36. It was on this "hop" that I finally passed 100 hours. At the end of the month, I flew the first of two checkout flights in the club's Warrior.

Just another day at your typical general aviation airfield.



One of the trade-offs I made to get into flying was to sacrifice a portion of one hobby for another. A good chunk of my flight instruction tab was payed for when I sold two of my motorcycles. Thankfully I held onto the first bike I ever purchased, and I've found a (safer than on the street) way to go fast on two wheels...track days! This is me running Grattan in reverse. On the bike, it sure felt like I was leaned over ALOT more than that.

With the checkout complete for the Warrior, my wife and I took the plane up on Father's day. A quick flight out to Jackson was the order of the day, giving me time to get more familiar with the layout of the panel, and the Garmin 430 Nav/Com. It was a NASCAR race weekend, and the teams fly into JXN and get shuttled over to Michigan International Speedway via helicopter. In the picture below, we have just departed to the southwest on a crosswind for a left downwind departure to the northeast. You can see the ramp is crammed full of all sorts of different aircraft and there were three choppers in the mix.

After leaving Jackson, we flew back to Mettetal for the annual pancake breakfast served up by the local EAA chapter. The pattern was busy, the radio chatter was lively, and there were lots of families watching all the planes come and go. It felt a bit strange flying TO Mettetal, since I had previously always flown FROM there. After filling our bellies with pancakes and sausage, we jumped back in the Warrior and returned to Willow Run. I refueled the plane, which brought back all sorts of memories from years past working at the FBO in Erie, PA.

Next up, more flights in the Warrior and a checkout in the Archer.

My Total Time stands at: 104.6
Landings: 333