Winter Sightseeing Flight

The weather has been, well, wintry and not great for flying. We had a nice Sunday, so Nancy and I went up for a while just to knock some of the rust off and see the sights. Here is the view from the departure end of our runway.

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Here's a quick view of the takeoff. As you will see, we are off well before the terminal. We were at pattern altitude by the end of the runway. That's the good news about these low temperatures - terrific performance.

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Here is a nice shot on departure with the runway behind the winglet a moment after takeoff. As you can see, visibility was great. We decided to fly over and check out our neighborhood from the air.

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Here are some shots of our neighborhood from about 1,200 feet. We sent these shots to our neighbors, several of whom came out to look up and wave to us. They like to see the aerial shots of their homes.

The Velocity has a very distinctive sound, so all of our friends in town know when we fly over. 

The neighborhood with a little shot of the canard on the left.

That's our house at the top left.

Our friends' neighborhood was next

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Next up, we went and circled Marsh Creek Lake for some pictures. A friend at the gym was out mountain biking with her brother. She told us she looked up and told him "Hey, I know the guy flying that plane!". He said "Yeah, sure. " She sent him copies of the pictures we posted on facebook and he lost that bet.

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After that, we wandered back to the airport, taking in the sights and enjoying the visibility.

Great visibility to the East.

Crosswind leg for landing

Entering downwind leg for Runway 29

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Here is a quick video of the landing. Make sure to watch it with the sound on. You can hear the main gear touch, then its almost 5 seconds before the nose gear touches down. This took me a while to get this down. You have to balance the plane on the main gear by using a combination of back pressure on the stick and brake application. It cuts down your takeoff roll and saves wear on the nose gear.

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Here are a couple shots as we taxi back to the hangar after landing. 

No snow, but it still looks cold and wintry

Cessna follows us in

The lucky family transferring from their private jet to their limo. But did they build it? No.

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It was a great afternoon flight and I look forward to more nice weather breaks.

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