The past few months have flown by way too quickly. Unfortunately, I have not been flying with it! Its easy to make excuses... Not enough spare cash, busy at work, no rental time available, yada, yada, yada. I told myself after the first 5 YEAR lapse that I would not let this happen again, but sure enough the gap had started growing.
I was working at home on Friday and couldn't help looking out the window... all I saw was a perfectly clear sky and no wind. The thought of flying entered my mind.
After Sutton Aviation moved the plane to Pontiac (KPTK) I was told that Lapeer (D95) would soon be purchasing a new C172 with the same glass panel (Garmin G1000). So, I decided to give them a call...
Much to my surprise, they did exactly that! In fact, they did one better... they are now a new Cessna Pilot Center and have online scheduling, which is a huge bonus. No more calling the airport to check availability, just a couple clicks and your done. If you live anywhere in Mid-Michigan and wish to start flying, check them out Lapeer Pilot Center.
I was put in touch with Ed, one of their flight instructors. I told him it had been three months and I would like to get checked out in their C172. He checked the schedule and we were able to get a 2 hour block this afternoon.
It was another nice day, a bit warmer than I like (84'F), but nice. I arrived at the airport early to catch up on some "hanger flying" (aka pilot stories). I happened to drum up a conversation with the Chief Instructor for AirShares Elite, which is a fractional ownership for Cirrus aircraft. Lapeer is an authorized repair center for Cirrus, so he was just killing time with what appeared to be busy work. Of course he got me all fired up about the program, then reality sank in and I quickly realized this option was WAY out of my budget... But fun conversation nonetheless.
I stepped into Ed's office and we made copies of my License, medical, etc... we talked about flying and my past experiences, then we hit the sky. It was all second nature and that three months felt like 3 days. We did some steep turns, slow flight, stalls, and a few landings... all of which I aced (nice pat on my own back)! and after .7 hrs on the Hobbs Meter we were at a full stop. Ed finished the check with some nice remarks along with an endorsement in the logbook.
So, I am back where I started (or should I say RE-started)... D95 is great! Its close, the people are friendly and the rates are decent.
Life is good!
FYI... stay tuned, I recently purchased an HD video camera (Canon HV20) and cannot wait to post some flight videos in Hi-Def!
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