Lesson 47 – Back in the Air

I finally got back to flying after my long layoff. I definitely have accumulated some rust that needs knocking off. That was most obvious in the landings.

The plan was to take off from Waukegan and fly to Galt, enter the pattern and land there, take off again and fly to Grand Geneva, enter that pattern and do a few more landings before heading home. This would be an exercise in pilotage, positional awareness and just generally getting back into the swing of things.

The flight to Galt went well enough. I had the airport in sight while still well out and got into the pattern OK. The landing was a little bouncy but safe. For some reason, I after taking off for the flight to Grand Geneva, I turned the wrong way. I knew the airport was north but I started turning south. I don’t know why.

I didn’t have such an easy a time finding Grand Geneva. That airport is always hard for me to locate. To me, the runway looks like a section of road visible through the trees. Unfortunately, there are a couple road sections in the area that, I think, look the same as the runway. I had the GPS set for C02 so I would have gotten there eventually. Sandy gave me a hint about where to look and then it popped out for me. The two landings I did there were not great but were getting better each time.

The flight back to Waukegan was uneventful and the landing there was the best of the day. A little off center line but no bounce or balloon. The next lesson is going to be much like this one but to different airports in the area.