Back in the air!

One of the things I wanted to make sure I did in Oklahoma was get some more time in the air. I do most of my flying back home in the same chunk of airspace (hello, practice area) and with students, so I wanted to take advantage of the change of scenery and add a few new airports to the map on my wall. (I have a map of the whole country in my office with red stickers marking out the airports I've been to, and for how long I was in OK last time I only had four stickers in the area. Time to fix that!)

Last time I was here I flew with Chickasha Wings out of Chickasha Airport (CHK). The planes are cheap and readily available, the people are friendly, and there are airport kitties. Who doesn't like airport kitties?

So sleepy...

The weather last Saturday wasn't too great. Like, 400 foot ceilings and 1 mile visibility. Not exactly what I was hoping for to knock out my BFR. Mitch, my CFI buddy, offered me some free simulator time while I waited, so I shot a few approaches while we waited for the weather to get better. Eventually we got just enough of a ceiling to get in the air.

I can kinda see blue sky...

Mitch let me pick what I wanted to do for my BFR, and since I've been mostly teaching slow flight, stalls, and pattern work lately I told him I'd like to check out a new airport. We decided on Carnegie (86F), a 3000' long unattended field out to the west.On the way there, he showed me how to work the handheld GPS they have. It was pretty funny to hear the lady yelling out "500 feet!!" as we passed some of the higher antennas along the way. After initially picking out a ratty cropduster strip as the airport we were looking for (and shortly thereafter realizing our mistake), we landed at Carnegie and backtaxied to take off again for CHK.

We don't need no stinkin' taxiway!

The weather was slowly getting better as the day went on, but it never really got above marginal VFR.

Not what I'd call severe clear.

I didn't mind though, because after we got back, Mitch signed me off for a BFR and showed me how to check the plane back in, ring myself up, and work everything I needed to take the plane out whenever I wanted. Since the weather looked way better for Sunday, I booked the plane for the afternoon and started planning out the flight. New airports, here I come!  :)