A lot has happened in my life in the last 3 months, including a fire across the street which destroyed 3 houses and forever changed many lives. A few weeks prior, Todd, the owner of the flight school I rented from whenever Aggie was out of commission, abruptly ceased operations without notice to anyone - leaving a lot of people in a lurch and owing many people thousands of dollars.
With adversity comes opportunity. One of the instructors from the school and one of the airplane owners who had placed his plane on leaseback with the school formed a new operation in the next building over. They contacted me and asked if I was interested in leasing Aggie to them - they needed a complex aircraft in order to offer Commercial Pilot training. I had to face facts. Aggie hasn't gotten nearly enough flight time since I've owned her and I could really use a tax break. So, I agreed. As of last week, Aggie is now available for others to fly. I have very mixed feelings about that, but it makes business sense. We'll try this for a year and go from there.
So, now for the flying. Since September, Steve and I have made a number of flights, the most memorable of which were are annual trip to Asheville for the fall colors, and a flight in January to High Point to pick up Stacey's dress for her sister's wedding in Playa del Carmen. That trip, made on a windy Sunday afternoon, included Spencer and Steve. It was a miserable, bumpy flight but necessary. We've also made a breakfast club run and a trip to Hickory the day after a snow/ice storm- a beautiful flight until we landed and taxied to the FBO - which was iced in!
Which brings us to this past 3 weeks. February brought about the time for Aggie's annual inspection. This one hurt. Two stabilator bearings, $278 each (probably cost $10 to make), new brakes, including rotors, and a bunch of little stuff. Then, in order be ready for rent, a pitot/static system check. OK, a new Vertical Speed Indicator and line repairs. Geesh.
After all of that investment, this past weekend (March 7) it was time to fly. At 8, Steve and I met to pre-flight. We planned for Lumberton, an airport about 15 miles SE of Maxton and about 80 miles from home.
Aggie started right up, like she really wanted to fly. We taxied to Rwy 20 and after our run-up, were cleared for takeoff. The conditions couldn't have been better. Mid 30s, NO wind and ample sun. Aggie was airborne in 1,500 feet and we were 500 feet AGL before we ran out of runway. A left turn and we were climbing over the speedway. Though busy, Charlotte departure was accommodating and allowed us to our 5,500 ft cruising altitude almost directly. As we climbed, we looked around and could see for about 50 miles. Amazing day! At 5,500, we leveled off and settled in for a leisurely flight. I checked our true airspeed - 140kts. Ground speed (according to the GPS) - 140kts. No wind at 5,500 ft. And not a ripple.
Enroute, we flew over some familiar landmarks: Blewett Falls Lake, Rockingham Raceway (the "Rock") and Maxton airport - home of a small salvage operation we have visited many times. As we passed over maxton, we saw the familiar remains of 3 747s, a couple of DC-10s, 727s, and DC-9s. And, for a change, a new addition. We couldn't tell from our altitude, but it was clearly NOT a NW Airlines craft. It may have been an MD-80. We'll have to make a point to visit soon.
At about 30 miles, we announced to Fayetteville Approach that we had Lumberton in sight. We set up for a left base for runway 5 and began descending. Turn to final, gear down, flaps 20, 85 kts approach speed. We flared over the runway and as we touched down gently, I heard the soothing "chirp chirp" of the mains kissing the runway. Not bad for not having flown regularly in the last couple of months.
We pulled into the FBO only to find it closed, so we wandered the ramp to see what there was to see. An old school flight instructor/aircraft mechanic wandered out of a well worn hangar to say hello as he sat into an Adirondack chair. We spoke a bit about flying as his student, a newly minted solo student (in his 50s) arrived during our conversation. He had just soloed the day before but had cut his experience short because the cross-winds had hurt his confidence. We encouraged him to get back in the saddle as the day couldn't have been better for a student. As he and his old salt instructor started to discuss the planned flight in the Cessna 152 (way too small for my blood), Steve and I explored the tired array of ramp aircraft on display. The usual group of old, tired, unflown 172s and Cherokees. There was a nicely maintained RV-8 and a Cessna pusher/puller. Otherwise, it was a ragtag group with no real redeeming qualities. It's always sad to see aircraft that are unlikely to leave the ground again.
Oh well, time to head home. Steve in the left seat, me in the right manning the radios. We taxied behind the student, watched him take off and then runway 5 was ours. Full throttle, airspeed alive, 80 kts and off we were. Left turn, and a climb to 4,500. We were cruising home before we knew it. At 55 miles, we could see uptown Charlotte! After what felt like a shorter flight than it really was, we were on our way down on a left base for 20 at Concord. Steve turned us to final, and planted us on the runway (a bit firm, but nothing horrible). Taxi to the ramp and we are done for the week. 1.8 hours of bliss in the air!
