Wednesday's Mental Health Break

Things were alternately boring and nerve-wracking at work on Tuesday. I looked at the weather forecast for Wednesday, and asked my boss if I could take the next day off. Sure, he said.

Wednesday dawned clear and cool, with warmer temps forecast. My transponder check was due, so I flew down to Adrian and while the guy was setting things up, a friend of mine showed up. Dean lives nearby, heard me on the frequency, and drove over to say hi. In the meanwhile, I had called John & Judy, and we had decided to fly out for lunch.

Dean rode along with me, and we had the windows & door wide open! He's got a C150, and mentioned that "this is a different kind of flying." No kidding! We went down to Exit 3 in Ohio for lunch, and chatted for an hour or so.

Then Judy wanted a cup of coffee at Jackson. John didn't want to go to Jackson because he didn't feel like talking to a controller, and I didn't want to go there because they don't have any grass. So we went to Napoleon instead, where I ended up buying a beautiful rodeo-type shirt at the little tack store next to the restaurant.

We all had dessert, then John & Judy headed home, I took Dean back to Adrian, and then headed back to Ann Arbor. I had left my house at 9am, and got back home 12 hours later, about 2 1/2 hours of flying around.

It was a beautiful day for flying with the windows open, good friends, good food, five landings on five grass strips. It just doesn't get any better than this!

And oh yes - last night I flew a Tiger Moth! No, I didn't do the takeoff or landing, but everything in between! My first open cockpit ride, but not much windier than my cub with the windows open.

Anne.

Good on ya' Anne. How did you like flying the Tiger Moth - especially the ailerons??

Bent

Here's to taking serendipity breaks more often!

Bent, I really enjoyed flying the Tiger Moth. I kept thinking about how some 18-year old learned to fly back the early 40's, then moved up to some kind of war plane. For me, this felt a bit heavy, but it was very responsive. S-turns over a road and turns around a barn all over the countryside south of Ann Arbor on a beautiful evening made for one happy girl!

A follow-up to the Mental Break story:

I had refueled at the self-serve pump at Adrian before returning to Ann Arbor. I kept thinking I had forgotten something just before I took off from the grass, but everything, including my run-up, had sounded normal. Landed back home, cleaned up the plane, went home.

Two days later, Tim decides he wants a ride. As I'm pre-flighting, I notice the right fuel cap is missing. Some doofus (me??) had forgotten to put it back on after fueling, having gotten distracted.

I'm convinced that it's laying somewhere in the grass back at Adrian, but it's a 270W x 2400L bit of real estate. I walked the whole way, twice, and believe it or not, found it! I may forget something else sometime, but not my fuel cap!

This is after my fuel valve inspection plate came off on the first flight around the pattern after the annual. The guy who mows the grass at ARB found that one for me.

Anne.