Return to Flight

My friend, Josh, wants to finally start his flight training after taking his familiarization flight with me over a year ago. So on July 12 we went down to the airport for him to start and for me to get back in the left seat and continue my training. After filling out all the paperwork and going though the briefing, Josh got to fly first. He's a tall guy, so we rented 172 for him which meant I got to sit in the back. That's geed because I brought the equipment to record the flight on camera and the intercom on a sound recorder, but the bad side was that it was the most turbulent day I've gone up and the pilot was someone who's only flown once before. I can take a lot when I'm in control, but when I'm in the back and the plane is bouncing and swaying all over the place, it's a bit harder to enjoy the flight. Especially when holding a large DV Camcorder.

It was a great day when we arrived at the airport, but by the time we had the wheels off the ground, some clouds started forming at around 500 feet. we snuck past the scattered layer them in the climb, but it only took until we got to the edge of the control zone the clouds were already half obscuring the ground. We did a few simple maneuvers, like turns, but it was soon time to head back.

We knew we were just south-east of CZBB, but we could barely see the bay and the shore in the west. Our instructor, Seiji, called and asked tower if we could descend over the bay, but because of IFR traffic we had to come around the north of the airport. Strangely, the turbulence seemed to go away after Seiji took control...

We landed safely, but and any longer up there and we would have had a problem. After a debrief and some talk about us three going hiking, Josh and I went back to the plane to practice out checklists. I was just looking to go though them quickly and memorize them, but Josh wanted to know what exactly did what and why we did that item when we did.

I didn't get to fly, but it was a good refresher and got me comfortable with the whole ordeal again.