A brief, barbecuey break from wedding planning

Plane: Cessna 150
Route: 40I-AXV-40I
Weather: Clear, 75 degrees, wind calm

Well hello there! You say this is a flying blog? Nah, can't be... nothing new or aviation-related has appeared on here in over a month!

I know, I know. Sorry about that. As I mentioned a couple posts ago, wedding planning (45 days to go - eek!) is consuming nearly all of my time right now. Still, a full month is a long time to go without flying. Also, the weather is finally traditionally fall-like - a.k.a. the best flying weather of the year around here, just absolutely gorgeous.

That means I had to find some excuse to hop in the left seat. So Gina and I took a 150 up to Wapakoneta for one of Marty's famous Wednesday barbecues this evening. Had to get at least one in before we completely run out of weekday daylight again until spring!

A little bit of footage (at 5x actual speed) from tonight's flying

Takeoff was about 4:30 pm and it we were on the ground at Neil Armstrong Airport roughly 50 minutes later. The flight was uneventful - I had to deviate slightly east of DAY per Columbus Approach's request to avoid their departure corridor but otherwise it was quite peaceful up there. The trees are starting to turn and we spotted some bright patches of color here and there.

Dayton International Airport

As is always the case with Marty's shindigs, the food was delicious and company friendly. We had about an hour and a half on the ground and enjoyed the meal while saying hello to some pilot friends we haven't seen in a year or more. I did a quick preflight while Gina finished eating and we were back in the air at about 6:45 pm. That was about 15 minutes later than planned but we'd still make it back before dark... barely.

Fall colors near the Benchwood Road exit off I-75

Approaching downtown Dayton around sunset

The sun dipped below the horizon about when we passed by downtown Dayton. It's only another 10 minutes or so to Stewart from that point. I slipped off my sunglasses and enjoyed the nice colors reflecting from the sky to the ground as I descended from 3,500 feet down to pattern altitude.

Since the light was fading and I hadn't practiced one in a while, I did a simulated engine-out landing. If you watch the video above, you'll see how nice the 150's full 40 degrees of flaps are when you're high on final! We landed about halfway down the runway to facilitate a short taxi back to the parking spot.
 

The sun drops below the horizon on this perfect fall evening

 

I might as well include the "it might be a while before I post again" disclaimer here. While I do hope to get in at least a couple flights this month to enjoy the fall colors, I can't make any guarantees with how busy my life has become. That post about how I capture and edit my videos is still in the works so I hope to at least use that as filler if I'm not able to take to the sky!

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.8 hours
Total Time: 208.8 hours