In aviation there is often talk of “catching the bug.” You can tell those where are infected, they are the ones that look up whenever they hear a plane flying overhead just to see what it is. In their mind they are wishing they were up there defying gravity.
I didn’t fly anyplace special today, just spent some special time with my youngest son. It’s been two weeks since I flew which is too long. Not having anyplace to go but time to do it we headed out to the airport before it got too hot. He doesn’t quite have the bug, but I am trying to get him infected and there are signs that it is taking hold. After pre-flight, starting the engine, realizing my headset was still on the shelf in the hangar because I had taken it out of the plane because the shop was supposed to take the plane to do some work, shutting down, sending him to fetch the headset, starting the engine again, we were ready to roll.
With the seat all the way forward he can finally reach the rudder pedals and wanted to steer, so once we were out from between the hangars and on the taxiway I let him take over. Steering with your feet is different but he did better than I did my first time. Everything was good on run-up so we took off and headed for the nearby practice area over Lake Matthews. Departing to the southeast I turned the controls over to my son. Coming in over the lake at 4,200′ there was another plane at 4,500′, one below us at 3,000′ and two more checked in on the radio inbound. I had already brought the power/rpm down to just cruise around but knowing we could out climb the other’s there and that usually only the twins go up higher (everyone on the radio was a single) I pushed the prop forward and throttle in and had him take us up to 6,000′. We spent some time with him flying us around the lake and then off to the southeast for a bit before heading back. He did well flying the whole time until giving me the controls back a couple miles south of the airport as we were getting ready to enter the pattern. Once we exited the runway he steered us down the taxi-way until we got to where we were going between the hangars. Always fun to fly, even more fun when I get to spend it with my son.
