Today, we were scheduled to make the long solo cross-country flight, but the surface winds forecast kept us home. Instead, we shot four takeoffs and landings. The first one stunk. It wasn’t unsafe or anything, but I would have been embarrassed had there been anyone else in the airplane. Well, I hadn’t flown in two weeks, so I already knew I was in need of practice and I’m glad I got it at my home field. The last three landings were just great — lots of small adjustments on final, keep her on the centerline, smooth round-out, hold her off, correct for a small gust from the right, keep her nose pointed straight, flare, touchdown. The perfect landing is elusive.   If I were to critique myself, I would say I could improve by flaring 12 inches closer to the runway.

All in all, it was a treat to be up again, and I must remind everyone how fantastic it is to slip the surly bonds at daybreak.

To meet the night cross-country requirement, we took off and headed down to Wisconsin Dells.  It was the perfect night to fly with almost no surface winds and the stars out.  MP rode along.   Everything went according to plan on the way down and I knew where I was at all times.  The landing at Wisconsin Rapids was a bit dicey because of the optical illusion that a night landing presents (just like the book says, the runway was closer than it appeared at night).  Wisconsin Rapids was a nice little airport.  We turned right around and headed back to Oshkosh and again, I didn’t get to enjoy the return trip because I spent almost all of it under the hood.  My simulated instrument flying was good as far as I could tell.  The landings back at Oshkosh were better and we even tried one with the lights off, which went fairly well.

This week I made my first solo cross-country flight.  After the first couple of times planning a cross-country flight, the planning process goes rather quickly and is straightforward.  This flight was to Wisconsin Rapids and back.  There were several things I encountered that were new or nearly new to me so there were opportunies to learn.  For example, a cloud layer at 4500′ rolled in sooner than forecast and so on the return flight to Oshkosh I had to select a lower altitude than planned, had a stronger headwind than planned, and arrived later than the flight plan indicated.  Moreover, I arbitrarily decided to close the flight plan after refueling, which is found out is a bad idea.  When I did call to close the plan, the FSS informed me they had already closed the plan after calling the Oshkosh tower and verifying I was on the ground.  Two lessons may be learned from this — 1. call FSS in the air to tell them when you’re behind schedule — 2. close the flight plan in the air or as soon as you’re on the ground.

At last, we took our first cross-country flight.  The flight was from Oshkosh to Green Bay to Merrill to Oshkosh.  JR rode along.  Of course the hop from Oshkosh to Green Bay was pretty quick.  On the downwind for runway 24 you get a great view of that Wisconsin Mecca, Lambeau Field.  The change of venue to class C airspace did throw me off a touch and T reminded me of the carburetor heat and the flaps.  I’m not sure how much longer it would have taken for me to remember those but I expect I would have done.  We stopped on the ground for a quick rest and to close our flight plan and continued thence to Merrill.  The flight to Merrill was nice and smooth and seemed to run right along the border between the real north woods and the rest of Wisconsin.  The ride back to Oshkosh was fairly turbulent and to make things more interesting, T put me under the hood.  I flew under simulated instrument conditions for about 20 minutes and I think it went fairly well.

How did you celebrate Earth Day?  We celebrated ours by driving our “SUV” 180 miles to and from work at a paper company, and then changing her oil at the end of the day.

During flight number 24, T set me the task of flying around Lake Winnebago clockwise.  While on the east side of the lake, I was to find Chilton, then New Holstein, and then the New Holstein Airport.  All of this went quite smoothly:  Communications with air traffic control, cruising at 3400′, finding landmarks (navigating by pilotage),  finding my way back to Oshkosh.  The turbulence was moderately high near the lake; it takes some getting used to.  The landing process went tolerably well considering the variable and gusty winds, but after the solo flight I did not call T right away because my phone battery was nearly dead.  Well of course I forgot to call him when I got home and he got nervous and had to call me.  I was rightfully scolded.

The next flight (weather permitting and Lord willing) should be a dual cross-country.

The purpose of our trip to Cameroon was to meet the physical and more importantly the spiritual needs of the people in these villages.  You could say those goals were accomplished.  There was a young boy who had fallen and bonked his two front teeth.  Because they were dying, they needed to be pulled out.  He lay there and took it like a champ.  There was a small girl who had an infecton on her ankle so the nurses cleaned it and gave her some medicine.  So these were medical services that the team could offer.  Most of the local people also received a toothbrush and Dr. Mitchell explained to them the importance of using it daily.

We were also privileged to be able to witness many of the local people come to know Jesus as their Lord.  Idol worship and witchcraft are common in those parts so in some cases these folks were saved directly out of those practices.  Two of those people physically confirmed their faith in Christ by burning their idols immediately.  It would be appropriate to point out here that idol worship and witchcraft are unfamiliar to Westerners and so they seem unreal.  Well, being near these things brings a sense of reality to the spiritual realm, but it would be right and good for us to remember that the “more common” sins from which we have been saved are no milder than these.  We all were dead in our sins, guilty of idol-worship and rebellion against God and so in need of a Saviour.

A special thing for me to see was the establishment of local churches in these bush villages.  Felix, a young pastor, had recently moved to Olulu to become a local pastor.  The last week we were there, 4 believers were baptised and several were added to the number of believers.  These things were a major encouragement to me and I only hope that I played a small part in the harvest there.

On Friday, I was scheduled for a trip over to New Holstein, but the weather was marginal along the route, so we cancelled that plan and shot some takeoffs and landings at KOSH.  Winds were 320 @ 7 kts and gusty — perfect for crosswind practice — but up at pattern altitude times were exciting with all of the turbulence and gusty winds.  In any case, my precision improved somewhat, which gave me confidence that in fact I can master the skill of side-slipping.  I made 5 landings and my last one was fairly good so I ended there.

I flew three times last week.  On Friday, T instructed me to fly at 3400′ around Lake Winnebago counter-clockwise and land back at Oshkosh.  Well, all of the weather forecasts, satelite images, and ATIS broadcasts indicated clear skies, no clouds.  As I headed south towards Fond du Lac, however, I noticed a layer of clouds (scattered) developing right at 3000′.  So it was an opportunity for me to exercise some good judgement.  I tried things out above the clouds, but I didn’t exactly feel like cruising at 5500′ and the clouds looked like they were getting thicker so I descended through a hole and made the turbulent circuit at 2000′.

I am finding that a great way to learn about procedures is to listen to other pilots talk to the controllers and vice versa.  For example, I heard a pilot tell the Oshkosh controller that he was going to travel through the Oshkosh airspace at 6500′.  The tower asked him to keep them apprised of any altitude changes, so later, when those clouds came into view for him, he notified them he was descending to 4500′ and later to 2500′.  Also, I’m finding that when there is a question about some communication with the controller, it is alright to just ask the question and sometimes even explain why you have the question.

Extracting the mission team from the bush involved a trip to the Bamenda Airport, since it was easier to fly in and out of.  Terry and I shuttled people and supplies around town and helped refuel the airplane.

The Bamenda Airport has a staff of maybe five who show up to work every day even though the airport only gets used ten or fifteen days out of the year.  They were there to receive our paperwork and chat during idle times.  I chatted with the manager for some time and found out he had been the manager clear back to the time the airport was built in the late 1980s but since there have not been any commercial flights to Bamenda in over ten years, the terminal is now an army barracks and the tower is not in use.

As I carried on this conversation, it occurred to me that if my wife, or her dad, or dad’s dad were having this conversion, any one of them would immediately ask for a tour of the tower.  Furthermore, I knew that I could not look any one of them in the eye when I got home and tell him that I had not asked.  So I asked.

The manager showed me how to get up to the tower where we looked around for a few minutes and then went back down.  Presently I figured the other fellows would like to take a look inside the tower, so we took a couple of trips up there and I wanted a picture of Godlove and Emmanuel in the control chairs.  I told them so and they sat right down and started acting like they were the controllers.  They picked up the handsets and started giving orders and thought it was just a jolly time.  I thought so too.