Today John Wrights Sr. and Jr. brought my Coupe to my home field after it's big five year cumulative annual. For those who don't know, I've been grounded for five years with diabetes. I don't have my medical yet so I'll have to fly with instructors and other pilots-in-command till the paperwork matches the weight of the airplane.
Later this afternoon, I found an instructor who could go with me for an hour of dual! About 4:10 p.m., we taxied out and I made my first take-off in five and a half years! I remembered how! We had a quarter right crosswind of about 15, with a crosswind component of maybe 7. It felt good. We went out to the practice area. I was able to control altitude fairly well, keep my slip indicator centered fairly well, and do all the maneuvers he asked for straight forwardly with only medium sloppiness. There's a lot of polishing to be done. I let my altitude drift too much in the turns, didn't change the bank angle to allow for the wind, etc., etc., We did "stalls" to the mild buffet at the Ercoupe's minimum flying speed stop, power on and off. Slow flight. Etc. Then we came back to the airport. On the way back, the instructor spent a couple of minutes getting used to the control feel (the only time he touched the controls the whole session). Then I did six full stop landings. On the first, I porpoised some but made it come out with a squeek touchdown. On the later ones, I was jerky but "the outcome of the maneuver should never be in doubt" and it wasn't! We did all landings with a right crosswind. There was a bit of wind shear in the last 30 feet of the descent from the buildings on the upwind side of the runway and I handled that OK. Each landing got better, each approach got to be under firmer control. I've got something in the range of 650-700 hours in this airplane and only about sixty more in other planes. But it looks like I'm firmly imprinted on flying this plane. Over the next month or two, while I work on the paperwork for my medical, I'll probably get another ten or 20 hours of dual instruction as I take instructors with me and go fly. I'll soon start taking other licensed pilots along to be pilot-in-command and introduce them into the joys of flying a Coupe. But I think, if I had my medical and biennial, I would feel confident enough to venture out in moderately good conditions, solo, tommorrow. Now that's all the technical stuff. The core is that it FELT SO GOOD TO BE OFF THE GROUND! I was looking down at the world and seeing it all from the air once again. I was, for the moment, not a bug on a griddle! And the world was such a beautiful place again, the sky was clear, the temperature perfect, and all is well with the world! It WAS a beautiful day to fly! -- Ed Burkhead East Peoria, Ill. N3802H, 415-D
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