Flying: 6 Up, 6 Down, And 6 All The Way Around

Finally got out flying today.

Weather was excellent, and I and the aircraft were available so all things fell into place.

Since I was way out of practice, I decided to regain some currency by doing pattern work.

Another club member had grabbed the Dakota and we met at the airport as he was also going to do some pattern work. 

So I got the Archer pre-flighted and got ready to go.

Finally, Runway 27R is open again, as are the taxiways, even if they have been renamed.  Taxiway Kilo is no more, it's now Delta 2.  

The Archer started right up and I got the ATIS and then did a taxi to the run up area, did the run up, everything checked out so I headed to the runway hold short line.

 Got permission to take off and then I was off as if I hadn't been away from it for way too long. Haze and crappy viz from the smoke was mainly above pattern altitude but it was still hazy-ish at and below pattern altitude making it harder to see other aircraft.

Landing 1 was kinda hot and long with a fair bit of float.

For takeoff two, they had me takeoff from 27R and then do a Left pattern for 27R.

A left pattern for 27R?

I repeated it back with an emphasis on left, as going left would put me across 27L's departure end and I'd then be heading down 27L's downwind, so I wanted to make sure what they said was what they meant.

Tower confirmed, so off I went.

I did the left pattern, was cleared to land on 27R.  Right after I had turned base, the tower then amended the instruction to have me land on 27L.

This meant I had to do a pretty tight left turn to line up on 27L, and a slip to drop altitude to land on it rather than 27R.  Which I did, but I was still all sorts of fast and landed quite long.

Then took off from 27L, and then they had me cross over to 27R where I then stayed for the next 4 landings.   Each pattern was a bit different with tower adjusting things to fit aircraft in - extended climb-outs, extended downwinds etc, just to keep things interesting and to make sure everyone was paying attention.

All landings continued to improve and I finally got it all on speed, on picture and right in, which was nice.

Quite a few aircraft where in and entering and leaving the pattern but it never got terribly busy.

It was good to shake the rust off. Now I need to shanghai a safety pilot and get my instrument rating current ASAP.

That's 1.1 and 6 landings, ranging from good to excellent.