Satefy pilot, then under the hood again

Today Tom and I took his C-172 up for some practice instrument approaches. I was safety pilot for the first half of the trip. Tom shot a couple of VOR-based approaches at Franklin, KFKN, and then the NDB approach into Wakefield.

During this time I was busy looking for traffic and admiring the severe clear air. We had thunderstorms that morning, but they were out of the way for out 10:15 AM lift off time. I expected them to leave behind some choppiness in the air - instead they just took the haze away.

There was some haze to be found though, well, really it was smog I guess. Franklin has some sort of processing plant just east of the airport. It was churning a nice cloud of white up into the westerly wind. From there the smog was drifting across the 9/27 runway. It didn't affect visibility too badly but the smell was quite noticeable each time we made a low pass of the field.

After Tom landed us at Wakefield we switched drivers and it was my chance to get some time in under the hood - or foggles as it were. I took us straight back to the processing plant area to shoot the same approaches Tom had just finished. I guess I just couldn't get enough of those fumes. The sun was out now and the thermals and chop started up a little bit. They contributed to a few altitude and heading excursions (yes, that's it - couldn't have been me that contributed - no way).

After the two low passes at FKN we pointed north to meet up with the Harcum VOR. A quick 180 degree turn and we were heading back down to JGG for a circle-to-land on runway 31.

I landed a bit long so we had some taxiing to do to get back to the parking spot. After parking we watched a P-51 do a really low pass over the runway and then come back to land. As he landed, the P-51's engine was growling and spitting - little backfires sounding like it was just daring you to screw with it.

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