Landing under the setting sun

This evening my Dad and soon-to-be brother-in-law Tom went up for a great flight in the G1000 C172. My dad got some time in at the controls and I built up more glass panel experience. I spent a good bit of time testing the latest version of ForeFlight Checklist and Mobile as well, running them on the new beta version of iPhone OS 3.0.

We flew down I-77 for a bit before pointing the nose to Camden, SC. I did the GPS 6 approach into there and we taxied back to take off again. We saw nary a single other airplane at Camden, though there was some activity to the west at Farifield airport.

On the way home we flew over the lake Wateree house to check it out before making a 30 degree right turn to point back to Rock Hill. The winds aloft were about 3 knots.

As we entered the pattern at Rock Hill the G1000 was showing traffic a few miles to our right at the same altitude. Since it was dusk I lit our airplane up like a Christmas tree and we started looking for a strobe light or anything else that might let us see that other airplane against the city below. We never did find it, even after a good few minutes of searching. I eventually decided it was a "ghost" target - not a valid one - but I'll never know for sure.

As I turned on the base leg for runway 30 my dad was making the radio calls and the sun was half below the horizon. The winds were light and the air was about 65 degrees. It was one of those moments that solidifies why I fly - too amazing to accurately put into words.

I talked about what I was doing as we landed, even all the way down to touchdown. After landing I realized that even though I had been "teaching" during the entire last few minutes of the approach it wasn't overloading my brain. Maybe I could be a CFI after all. :)

Comments

John Kelly said…
I know what you mean. I don't consider myself CFI material either, but whenever I take someone flying, for the first time or not, I find my self "teaching" as I go, just to explain what I'm doing. And I actually somewhat enjoy it! Weird.
March 20, 2009 at 11:36 AM
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