Homeward Bound

We’re back at it! We got the news Monday evening that our little bird was ready to be picked up. In true form, Seth was on it. Plans were rearranged, our CFI was begged for help, and our meet-up time was chosen.

5:40pm.

We met up close to 6. Typical. But we were off! The trip to Whiskey to pick up Stan was uneventful along with the drive to Triangle North (a.k.a. Franklin Co. for the non-pretentious types). We met up with Rick, the mechanic who did the work. He gave us the documentation for the STC and the new alternator (yay, power!). He also gave us the bill…

Good-bye spare kidney.

We walked out and completed our pre-flight. Here are the stats:

Temp: 25*F

Sky: Clear

Time of Day: idk, dark?

Wind: South… Southwest? It doesn’t matter. There was just a lot of it. A LOT.

Gloves: None

Hands: Frozen

Preflight: complete, but bejesus it was cold.

I was flying this evening, and so Stanley and I hopped in. Ammeter, charging! Woohoo, we’ll have power now. Everything else that normally works is working too, good to go!

We taxi out. The plan is to depart runway 23 to the south. I was having a hard time seeing where I needed to taxi to. It was here that I discovered magic. The incantation is simple:

Tune your radio to the airport frequency
Click your transmit button 7 times in quick succession
BOOM! All of the lights marking the taxiways are on.

…It is so cool.

Our take-off and cruise was uneventful. The sky was brilliantly clear, and we had a full moon. Indicated air speed was 100 with a tail wind. We were cruising, not bad for a little 150. I was finally able to spot our airfield without being right on top of it. It’s the little wins… The landing process is also coming together for me. Still a ways from doing it completely unsupported, but I can now piece together the process. Just practice.