Outstanding day to fly.

One of my friends wanted to go flying so he joined me at noon today.

I gave him the scary talk on the way to the airport about how the air is like water with currents and waves. I explained that a commercial jet is like an 2000-passenger ocean liner on the water and the plane we were about to fly in is like a two-man rowboat on the water.

I also told him that we would take off, turn around and land in a few minutes so that he would have a chance to say, "I don't like this. let me out."

I did my pre-flight, started the aircraft and then taxi'd over to the runway. We took off just about noon and flew the pattern with three other aircraft. He did his part by pointing out the other aircraft as we made our trip around the pattern. I had an excellent smooth as glass landing and as we were taxiing back, I said, "So, how's it going? You still want to do this?" He said, "That was great! Let's do this!"

So we did.

We took off and headed east. I took him out over Belchertown so he could take pictures of his brothers house and then we flew up the center of Quabbin. Then it was over to Montague and down the river to land back at Northampton.

We had picked up a crosswind by the time we got back to the airport so my second landing involved a bit of a right crab onto the runway with some fancy footwork to get us straight as the wheels touched down. It was still a pretty damned good landing even with the crosswind.

All in all, it was a good time for all concerned. I got to fly for an hour+ and do two full stop landings and he got to experience his first flight in a small plane.

 As we were driving home he asked when he could go again so I guess he enjoyed it.

⧫

We had a very successful Thanksgiving with 2 of our 3 children joining us. We also had my wife's mom with us and it appears we all ate way too much food.

So while I continue to eat, and then digest, massive amounts of Thanksgiving leftovers, you should visit these:

• A dog, a cat and a tortoise walk into a bar....



• I'm thinking Harry Johnson is a fake name. That means I think the entire story is probably fake.



• You gotta love the rich.