Thread: Joy of the Sunset Quickie

Got to make a short but nice hop this weekend. The weather and my schedule have conspired against me for the last few weeks, and I hadn't flown since late February. I was itching to fly - I don't like going more than a week without at least a short hop.

It was windy most of the day Sat and was forecast to be really windy with strong crosswinds on Sunday, rainy Mon and Tue ..... so when we had a nice window of weather open up Saturday evening and I decided to take advantage of it to get 1CT up in the air. Winds 8-10 from the NE, so a little light crosswind practice was in order on runways 33 at ADS and 35 at GLE. Departed ADS, flew to GLE, did some T&Gs, practiced slow flight, stalls and steep turns on the way back and had a great view of the northern 'burbs on the way back.



1CT soaking up the sun at 110kt, descending for ADS in no particular hurry.



Landed about halfway between sunset and twilight. 1.2 hr Hobbs, about 6 gal of gas, and one happy pilot. New style UMA light rings look great and match the internal lighting in the ADI Pilot.

Fly whenever you get the chance, even if it is only an hour.

Technical note: I think I've found the optimal W&B for getting the flare "feel" right when solo - about 40 lb in the baggage compartment. This agrees with the new W&B envelope put out by FD. Flare and good speed control made for excellent landings (by my standards). We keep duffle bags in the compartment for organizing things (and keeping them from going aft - we use bungees on them) and I just keep a bunch of 2l coke bottles filled with water to use for ballast. Cheap, 4 lb each, and disposable.

Doug

Why isn't your GPS in the docking port? Why is it mounted outside like that? WF

The GPS is on a home-built bracket that brings it more into the pilot's field of vision. My father designed it and after flying with it for a while, I like the location. It can be taken out in about 30 seconds and the GPS returned to the dock.

Doug

I can see Dougs point. After years of flying my C-182 and C-206 with the Garmin on a yoke mount I now have my 396 in the panel docking station in my CT. This works OK but it is nowhere near as user friendly as having it where I could see it better,

Maybe my old eyes need something with a bigger screen??

Did another 0.8 today after work, wind calmed down nicely, great sunset. Went up with my father who is in town for a few days. Great way to relax after work, do some steep turns, fly over the traffic jams at 1500 agl....

Doug