Grant's flying

I broke a long drought today and had a quick fly before I go home to Brisbane. Just circuits, but in a nice newish Piper Warrior, equipped with a shiny Garmin GPS and all the mod cons (a mere snap at only $15 an hour more). The weather was real bad this morning, clouds scattered at 1000 (i.e. pattern altitude), broken at 1500, wind gusting to 35kts with maximum cross wind component of 15kts, rain and turbulence. By the time I got out to the airport late afternoon, the weather front had moved through, the wind was 300@30, blowing straight down the runway, with no real crosswind at the ground. My first circuit I was following a Cessna who proceeded to encroach Sydney air space (by flying past Bankstown hospital). Lawrence said I couldn't follow him and directed me to contact the tower, advise that we were turning early upwind and resuming pattern altitude. So I did. Tower approved an early crosswind turn and I was back on track. First landing I did a gentle bounce (the Warrior is so much more forgiving than the Grob's I trained in, in part due to the gas-strut suspension). My next two landings were good, although I was a little low on my third approach, not allowing initially for the strong headwind. I did two flapless approaches, with characteristically long float times, which were all good.

So I checked my log book. I'm actually just under 70 hours when I added it all back up again. My final flights pre-PPL practical test are: