THE TEMPERATURE has been 100 °F (38 °C) lately – much too hot. I am off work today. The last few times I’ve been flying I’ve been working on Commercial Pilot maneuvers. I wanted to do something else. I decided to do a short triangular cross-country flight to two airports I had not visited before. One of the guys I know from Civil Air Patrol is interested in learning how to fly; I invited him to ride along.

The flight I planned/flew was from Daniel Field (KDNL) to Greene County Airport (K3J7, 56NM/110km) to Washington-Wilkes Airport (KIIY, 19NM/35km) and back to Daniel (46NM/75km). The initial heading was 285 with the wind 310 at 10, so a bit of a headwind. Ground speed was an “amazing” 85kt. Navigation by looking out the window at landmarks and using GPS actually was amazing. 🙂 You can tell it’s almost summer in Georgia. There was plenty of haze on the horizon.

We arrived at the first airport, landed, and taxied back for takeoff. The next leg was very short, but had a perpendicular crosswind. This required about a 20-degree correction. We flew directly towards the sun, so with glare and haze I didn’t see the Washington-Wilkes Airport until we were about four miles away. Another better than average landing, taxi back and takeoff.

Now, what had been the headwind became a tailwind. Instead of 85 knots we had a ground speed of 114. Much better! I had the airplane from 8:00 to 10:00 and landed right at 10:00, for a total of 1.9 hours of cross country flying.

The flight was exciting, but it was rewarding for the precision and pleasant since it was not yet brutally hot out and was cooler at altitude. I need to do more of it!

PS I flew Augusta Aviation’s Cessna 172 N80842. I seem to have a lot of time in their airplanes! [Trivia – the Cessna 172 is the most produced airplane in the world.]