Saturday (Finally I Get A) Fly Day

Finally there was a break in the weather that has been giving us fog on really low clouds for quite some time now. In short its been either ridiculous winds, or Low IFR for weeks.

Forecast for today was for more of the same LIFR, but today it broke and was pretty much clear up to 2,500 feet.

So I headed to the airport and got some practice in.

Just stayed in the pattern as there was a solid layer at 2,500 and I needed to get my VFR daytime currency back.  A light wind from about 050 meant we would be using the 9 side of the runway and I was using 9L. Typically its the 27 side but today the winds wanted us to use the 9s.

The plane loved the cold air.  The performance was amazing in terms of climb and I had to use less throttle than typical in the pattern.

 After takeoff I was hitting the 1,500 foot altitude for the turn to the crosswind leg of the pattern incredibly early compared to where you would reach 1,500 in the heat of summer.

I started out with some full stop landings.

First one, I was a little low going from base to final, seeing 4 red lights on the PAPI, so I added power and climbed back up to 2 white and two red which is the proper glidepath. Put it down right on the numbers and went to do it again. 

Incidentally, 1,400 feet is the sweet spot to end up on final to get two white and two red when you level out from your base turn at Pontiac. 

After the first landing, I was the only plane in the pattern, which is unusual for Pontiac.  Likely the forecast kept people home.  Made for some very efficient pattern work.

I then did two more full stops and switched to touch-and-goes for three more landings. Dodged a flock of geese on one of them.

Then for #7 I declared it good and did a full stop landing.

All the landings were nice and smooth and after the first couple patterns I was pretty dialed in. Not bad after horribly not flying for over 90 days.

That's .9, and 7 really quite good landings for my first flight of 2024.