Well, it is long past bedtime but I am still flying around in my mind so I will jot down a few quick thoughts on the recent trip to Catalina with Colin. I rented a 172 at South Bay Aviation. Turns out they should not have rented it to me but that is another story. I flew the mini-route to Santa Monica and was on the ground with the engine shut down twenty-four minutes after spooling up. Coming out of the mini-route at twenty-five hundred feet I needed to shed eleven hundred feet in about a mile and a half to hit the pattern right. I tried something new for me, I put the plane in a wicked sideslip and dropped all the altitude long before I needed to. It was fun to try to stabilize heading and airspeed with the plane cocked thirty degrees into the wind.

Colin, Dexter and I went to Avalon for a burger. Colin got to try takeoffs and landings in a high wing for the first time since he got his ticket. I was happy he pronounced the plane a worth while beast in spite of the aluminum shell and older avionics. The KAP140 two axis autopilot is a really neat piece of equipment and we had a great time flying the heading bug and altitude settings. We saw no buffalo though, which was a sad surprise.

No more flying budget until after the new year. I dearly wish I had a little Cessna 152 with instruments tied down at Torrance. The freedom would be wonderful. To putt along throught the air at a stately ninety miles per hour in an aiplane that could not hold me, a large friend and a full tank of gas sounds like paradise to me tonight. Maybe someday soon. Leaseback is a tempting concept.