A Good Day to Fly

I flew home today. The humidity and haze blew out overnight, today was at least 10 degF cooler. The air was smooth, even with a clear sky and I could see from horizon to horizon at 4,500'. I only used the GPS to validate my winds aloft course correction and then I shut it off. There was a headwind component, which made up for the tailwind yesterday.

Yesterday morning I had listened in on Unicom and it was very quiet. Today it was full of traffic. It would have been nice to have been at one airport where I heard "Mustang, flight of two, downwind." That had to be impressive to see and hear.

After I landed and while I was refueling, there was a very nice looking Aeronca Champ circling tightly over the field. It was sort of cowboy-ish, but there wasn't anyone else in the pattern, so what the hell. The pilot entered a downwind and I turned my attention back to filling the wing tanks on my Stinson with 100LL aviation gasoline (at $4.40/gallon).

I looked up when I heard the windmilling prop of an airplane on short final. The Champ flared over the runway and landed with three light chirps from the tires. No adding power on final, just a nice, pretty approach and landing.

I finished up fueling, taxiied back to my spot, tied the airplane down and put the cabin and engine covers on.

A good day to fly, indeed.