Runway 18

So, I moved on to my next lesson, which focuses on nothing but takeoffs and landings (to include go-arounds).  I brought my brother along for the flight, who was filming.  He was pretty nervous until we actually got up in the air, but ended up enjoying it.  I loved watching this one, b/c of the perspective, one I hadn’t been able to see yet.  The first takeoff you see is probably the most interesting, as he glances right and catches the airport, then back over to US Route 50, with all of the vehicles below. 

As we were throwing another person into the cockpit, I had to perform weight and balance calculations.  The Cessna 172P I was flying has a max takeoff weight of 2400 pounds.  We were fully loaded at 2390.5 pounds so needless to say, the takeoff and landing rolls were longer then normal.  As you can tell in the video, I had to take the plane all the way to the end of the runway on landings.

The weather was quickly deteriorating.  I filed my flight plan for Fort Meade’s Tipton airport, but Flight Services suggested staying in the pattern at Freeway Airport due to the adverse weather.  When we took off, the wind was sitting around 5-10 knots from the northeast.  The ceiling was supposed to be around 1600′ by around 4-5pm.  But at 10am, it had already dropped to 1100′, so I was ok with staying in the area.  My next flight will take us to Fort Meade Tipton(FME), though.

Quick note on the video: not quite sure what happened with the sound.  It was completely missing from the recording, so enjoy the ‘quiet’ video.  Eventually, I will get some background music made for times like this…

~ Brian

Hours logged: 0.9 / Total Hours: 12.9 hours