October 14, 2018
The wind is now again from the south, and the temp’s are in the high 80’s… quite different from just 3 days ago. (And, with a strong cold-front punching through the Texas mid-section as I write this, we’ll be getting cold weather again, probably within 24 hours. Part of the reason I flew so soon was because of the stormy weather that will accompany that cold-front.) It was 81 even at altitude, so, a very comfortable flight temp.
The other issue from 3 days ago, was my very wild take-off. After it happened, I was too rattled to do anything other than normal flight, but today I decided to “get back on the horse” and convince myself it was a fluke. The goal was to take off from Anahuac, then do a stop-and-go at Winnie-Stowell, RWJ, Baytown, La Porte, and then back to Anahuac. And that’s what I did:
The light green arrows show my direction of travel.
I’m very happy to say that I didn’t have a single issue and that each of my take-off’s and landing’s were quite good, even if I do say so myself! It’s the first time I’ve landed at any of these airports (except, of course, for my home airport, Anahuac), so that was kind of fun. I’m very surprised how little traffic there is on a Sunday… way less than even on a weekday.
Two interesting things I discovered: Baytown has a dramatic displaced threshold, and the runway at RWJ is very skinny. But I didn’t have any issues with those, or any of the other runways. The best part — and the principle reason I did these stop-n-go’s — was that except for La Porte, they all had runways pointed in different directions. That means that the wind was hitting me from different angles and I was able to successfully adjust for each of them. I think the issue I had on my previous flight boils down to: I just didn’t think about wind direction and made an assumption. Or, more simply: I wasn’t thinking.
What made me feel more stupid was: I have a yaw string on my windshield, and a simple glance at that will clearly tell me which direction the wind is blowing. So, I…. Just. Wasn’t. Thinking.
As usual, I took my camera along, but I didn’t get any shots of the airports because I was too involved in making sure everything was good… but between the airports (and after I figured out, for each up-coming airport, which runway to use based on the wind, the frequency on my radio, check for traffic, etc., etc.) I was able to get some nice shots. This adventure took me once again to slightly different spots than I’ve been to before, so although some of the shots are of familiar things (e.g., Baytown Bridge), they are from new angles!
After arriving back at my home airport, I put my plane away and was about to leave, but then I realized with the cold front coming in, my next flight might be a cold one. Referring to a weather app I was able to confirm that next Friday (the most likely time I can fly next) will be quite cool. So, I decided to go ahead and put my doors back on:
1.64 hrs on the Hobbs, 1:33 in the air, and 101.7 miles covered.
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