Sucky steep turns

Plane: Cub, 65 hp 
Route: 40I, Local 
Weather: Broken clouds, 43 degrees, wind 330 degrees at 7 knots

It's been a few weeks since I had a chance to fly. So long, in fact, that I'm extremely glad Gina and I took the opportunity to go up and photograph the foliage in mid-October. All the colorful leaves are long gone at this point. Between cruddy fall weather and living in The Only State That Matters™ this election cycle (i.e. we've got TFRs all over the place!) the opportunities for aviating have been quite limited as of late.

Gina was working this afternoon (she works part-time in the office at Stewart these days - not sure if I've mentioned that on here yet) so I took the little Cub up solo. I figured it would be nice to get in some practice. With a moderate wind out of the north, I'd also be able to get in some crosswind takeoffs and landings.

Cold temperatures and flying solo made for some quick climbs today

I headed out over the lake to knock off a few steep turns. At least that was the plan. Usually I can polish off a couple with good precision in no time flat. I have no clue what was up today; I was all over the place. Not rolling out on heading, altitude fluctuating ± 200 feet, airspeed increasing... it was a mess. Determined to get it right, I probably did 15 or 20 before I got everything in check and hit my wake on the roll-out  Normally I make sure to do it one more time to confirm it's not a fluke but that one success was good enough for me this afternoon!

After pulling the carb heat for a power-off stall / falling leaf series, a steep spiral brought me down to 1,800 feet and I re-entered the pattern. The local skydive outfit was doing their thing so it was a typical day at Stewart - avoiding the human missiles plus seeing and avoiding a few other NORDO taildraggers. In the end, I did five circuits; three regular takeoffs and landings followed by two power-off 180 approaches. I flared about six inches too high on nearly every landing but, all in all, it was a decent afternoon behind the stick.

Flight Track: Google Earth KMZ File 
Today's Flight: 1.1 hours
Total Time: 247.9 hours