Vectors To Final

Today I got the chance to take my sister and Dad on a quick flight over to Petersburg, VA. The goal was to spot a few civil war battlefields. We took off around 3:20 on runway 13 with light winds. We turned due south for noise abatement, but exited the pattern in a non-standard direction to avoid some inbound traffic. Turning the long way around to a heading of 275 we were on course for KPTB. Upon reaching 3,000 feet I hand flew the airplane for a bit and then turned on the autopilot. That lets me get into a very thorough traffic scan without having to worry too much about nailing altitude. I pointed out the sights as we motored on to KPTB (a 27 minute trip). We saw various landmarks that my Dad and sister drove by to come up for the visit, as well as other local sights like ferry vessels, the ghost fleet, and my neighborhood. Approaching KPTB we cross midfield and entered downwind for 05. A few radio calls later and we were on the runway. We taxied back, waited on an Extra to ...

This morning Maciek and I flew over to Newport News for a quick touch and go and then toured the area NW of Williamsburg. We had a good time; the cool air was very stable and traffic was relatively light. We had to spend a bit of time clearing the frost off the wings before takeoff. The flight school owner had already sprayed de-icing fluid on it (and preheated the engine) which made it a simple matter of moving the slush off the wing and control surfaces with a rag. He told us a little story about a flight instructor who only cleared off the leading edges one morning and made it about 2 miles before crashing. Needless to say, we made double-sure the wing (and tail section) was clear of any frost. I made a great landing at Newport News but made up for it with a "plop in" (my term for a landing where I stall a foot or so too high) back at Williamsburg. Maciek plans to take an intro/discovery flight with an instructor sometime soon, so I guess today's flight didn't ...