Afternoon Haze (12/12/11)

Hazy

I left work early yesterday afternoon so I could stop by the hangar. The winds were light so I decided to go for a quick flight. She started right up and I had the airport to myself, except for the Power Line Helicopter crew flying in from somewhere with a lineman sitting on a strut swinging his legs...

I added power, let the tail lift on its own, became airborne around 40 MPH, leveled out until speed reached 60, then established a climb. I remained in the pattern until satisfied the engine was running fine, then headed east over Amish country.

Nearly level with a cell tower

Looking West

Amish country east of Lancaster

I climbed to 2000' to see where the haze layer ended, and I was just above it 1600' above the ground. The sky was brilliantly clear just above. But below me the land was covered in a thin, milky soup. I reached for the carb heat and left it on for a minute.

I tried a chandelle, then some steep turns. Then I slowed way down to 40 MPH with about 1400 RPM. It felt like i was hovering in space. I pulled power to idle and held the nose high and had the tiniest stall break -- these wings act like a parachute.

With the engine warm I decided to head back down and do some low-level flight over the wide open farmland north and south of Route 30 east of Lancaster's tourist traps and shopping plazas. The Amish have held onto this land and kept it in good order. Most of the fields are still green with winter wheat.

I zoomed across the green fields and enjoyed the sensation of speed low flight provides. I turned right and headed west into the sun, climbing to be back at 1100' over Strasburg. I flew over our old house in West Lampeter looking as it did when we built it in 1996, save for the addition of a very nice playset in the back yard and the removal of a few trees.

The clock was ticking and I still had plenty of work to do before my 830 PM international phone call. I pushed the nose over and headed north to join the pattern at Smoketown. It was quiet so I turned continuous base to final with an aggressive slip. I touched down gently on the grass on three points. It felt god so I taxied around for one more lap. The second touchdown was better with less speed and float.

I put te airplane away and pulled off the cowling to clean up the fine spray of oil. My guess is the seals are finally setting into place as there is less today than on previous flights. We'll see.