Memorial Day Flying

I had planned to fly to Mackinac Island yesterday, but complications and circumstances intervened to prevent that.

Instead I flew a friend in the Dakota from Pontiac to Jackson for their first flight ever in a small aircraft.

I did a thorough pre-flight as usual, and explained everything I was doing. I did the same with the run up and had my passenger read the checklist out so they could participate and see what I was doing.

An absolutely gorgeous and perfect day to take someone up for the first time.

Winds were light and variable and it was pretty much CAVU when we took off at 9:00 am.  I had flight following setup.

Flying along at 4,500 feet we soon got close to Jackson.

I soon had the field in sight, pointed it out to my passenger, and let Great Lakes Approach know I had it, they cancelled flight following and had me contact Jackson Tower, which I did.

Jackson tower had us enter a left downwind for Runway 7 and I did a nice landing. We then got to taxi to the apron and he stated I could park by the restaurant fence right at the front, and I stated I appreciated the premium handling.

I parked perfectly lined up on the fence, and Tower complimented me on the parking job. 

Jackson tower is always awesome.

Some kids at the fence were waving as we pulled up, so after I had shut down and got out, I walked over invited them and their parents to see the plane. The kids got to sit in the plane and play with the yokes and had a good time.

The two of us then went in to have a late breakfast.

I had a coffee and the Pilot's Omelette, of course. 

Outstanding as usual, and I tried the sourdough bread rather than my usual rye this time.

Suitably personally fueled up, we headed back to the aircraft.  I did a preflight and we were soon off again.

It was a little bumpier on the way back, and we flew at 3,500 as there was a scattered layer of clouds at about 4,500.  Even with the bumps, my passenger reelaxed enough to have a small nap.

 

Still a gorgeous day.

We overflew the President of the Flying Club's house and he got a suitably patriotic picture of us.

 

Yeah, that speck to the upper right of the flag above the cloud is us.  Next time, I need to try to overfly his house as its just inside Pontiac's Delta airspace.

Pontiac Tower first had me line up to enter the left downwind for 27L, whcih i did.

Then, he changed his mind and had me overfly the field and enter the right downwind for 27R.

Then he stated I should extend the downwind and he'd call the base turn.  So, I stayed up at pattern altitude motoring along.  He then calls my base right at the normal base turn location.

A bit of a diving turn ensued as I hadn't lost any altitude on the downwind and had kept my speed up on the downwind as he had been seeking to extend me for spacing before he changed his mind.

I then still made a good landing.

My passenger stated that the runways looked rather small as we came in to land, but was impressed with how smooth the landings felt and my passenger said they would fly with me again without any reservations.

I then taxi'd to the hangar, got the plane refueled, and cleaned off and that was the experience. 

That's 1.4, and 2 very good landings, and the first flights ever for a friend in a general aviation aircraft.