Written by Alan Hoffler
I’m guessing the first string pilots all take Thanksgiving off. Or both my pilots (RDU-CLT, CLT-PNS) were former carrier pilots. Landings were hard. Got a taste of jet speed. I recognized my favorite cross country destination (HBI – Asheboro) a mere 7 minutes after takeoff from RDU, at 16k, and we began our descent into CLT thirty seconds later. A 27-minute flight.
Sunset was nice out the western window into PNS, but that’s all the flying for today. No PIC time logged. Weather forecast for rain in N. Florida, so my BIL/CFII picked me up in the car. Only mildly disappointed, as my turkey overdose had me very sleepy.
Hangar chat at the home base was quite entertaining, as 5 kids do liven up any conversation. My BIL also showed me either 1) he is an exceptional instructor, or 2) I shouldn’t believe anything he says after 9 p.m. Quote of the night: “We’ll practice a few landings before we take off”. That is something new — they train a little different here in FL.
Tomorrow we’re weather dependent. DUATS is down now, so I haven’t seen weather and am too tired to call, but we’ll plan a long (commercial, >100nm) VFR CC, with some IFR on return. May even end up IMC, who knows. Plenty of military airspace to work around here, as well as lots of good destinations of low traffic. My long CC to my folks is in doubt at this point, but we’ll get some time one way or another.
There’s always the sim…