And We Wait...--February 23, 2010

Woke up at 8:15.  yikes.  Grabbed breakfast, headed to the airport.

Clouds were forecast to be 3500 feet at 11:00.  But the skies looked great.

I was off the ground at 8:54 A.M.  I flew the 18 miles up to my plan, but as I climbed through 3000 feet, I knew we had a problem.  We had clouds to the west in those plans and clouds up ahead in my plan.  Grr.  I had no doubt in my mind it just wasn't goin' to happen.  But I continued all the way.  Up to 5200 feet, then on site.  Clouds.

I turned and headed back for the airport.  Two of our pilots were just taking off, so the controller kept me at 4500 feet.  I even turned base at 4500.  I pulled the throttle back to idle and tried to lose altitude.  I was descending at 1500-2000 feet per minute, and I had a monstrous view of the earth through the front window.  But I just didn't seem to be coming down in time!  I turned base to final probably around 2500 feet?  I was indicating 120 knots on the airspeed indicator!!!  And I just wasn't coming down!  These Cessna's love to fly!

I blazed over the runway numbers high and fast.  And I continued to point the airplane towards the long runway (lawn-darting, more or less).  I was WAY outside of flap range, so I kept the flaps off, and I waited until just the right time to pull back to start the flare.  I knew I was going to float, so I waited.  Hold it...hold it...hold it...then I flared.  And I had to pull back quite a bit to get that airspeed off.  I contemplated a go-around a few times.  But I continued.  I ate up a couple thousand feet or runway, and I touched down much sooner than anticipated, even bringing out a verbal "Really?" from my mouth.  But I was down and moving pretty fast.  Much different than landing with flaps.  But I was on the ground.  With some runway to spare!

We went to Homer's for lunch and then I spent the rest of the day in the hotel.

Grabbed some KFC for lunch, watched some Olympics, and talked to the boss.  Had a good talk with the hotel front desk chick...and had just a nice day.  Slow but fine.  I had stuff to do.

Went to bed at 11:30.

Forecast is for clouds at 10,000 feet tomorrow.  I've seen that before, but I'm confident about tomorrow.  We should be out of here before noon...on our way to Branson, Missouri.

All I know is that it's been a long time coming!!!  I've been here a week and have yet to a day of revenue.

What a life.