Well we had to go down to Lakeland for a family get together. Ken and I decided we would fly down there. I was going to fly both legs. But ended up only taking the return leg. We put the airplane on a battery charger to make sure it was charging over night. Being it was getting down to the low 20’s. This isn’t normal for Florida. We don’t have the hangar heated. So just to make sure the plane would start we put it on a trickle charge.
We got up in the morning and I was looking at the weather. It was a clear day but the winds would peak around noon and with the possibility for a hard start. Ken and I decided he should fly down. I preflighted the airplane and filled it up with gas. That was a cold fill up. It was probably about 25 degrees then. Ken then pulled the airplane out of the hangar. We closed everything up in the house and got in the airplane. It started just fine, but ran a little rough for a while. But as the engine warmed up it started to smooth out. We let it “cook” for 5 minutes before taking off. We normally only wait 3 before taking off. But wanted to give it a few more minutes because of the cold.
We took of and it was a bit bumpy on the trip down. But not a bad ride. It took us about 26 minutes to get to Lakeland. It probably would have been a 2 hour drive down. It’s funny when I fly in to Lakeland (LAL) I think of when Sun N Fun is going on. That this airport has a BIG make over when Sun N Fun is going on. It’s like night and day.
We landed and parked the airplane right by the FBO. Not to many people where flying that day. Probably because it was to cold…. Anyways we went to our family get together and stayed there until around 4pm and headed back to the airport. I was the one going to be flying back. It has been a while since I have started the airplane in cold weather. It had only gotten up to around 40 by then, if that. We got the airplane started and I called tower and got my taxi instructions and took off from 27. For me taking off from 27 is a little more confusing. Plus its been a while since I have flown in to or out of LAL. But now it has all come back to me. I was cleared to take off on 27 with a north turn out. So we headed home.
The ride home was much smoother then going down. We stayed low due to higher winds. We had a head wind coming from the north. Its a quick flight only about 30 minutes of so. We then saw our neighborhood in view. I decided to do a strait in to 36. No one else was in the pattern. The lasted time I flew was Dec. 2. So I wasn’t sure how my landing was going to be. I didn’t need to be concern because it was a nice grass strep landing. I taxi off the runway to our house. We then pulled the airplane in to the hangar.
It was a nice flight. It felt good to fly again. I need to start doing this more. Which I think this year I will increase my flying….
