In prepping for my CFI checkride, I decided to take a non-pilot friend flying and "teach" him to fly. So we drove up to the airport, pulled the Archer out of the hangar, preflighted, and climbed in. I sat right seat, which is the first time I've sat right seat without and instructor in the left. It's odd, but the right seat is starting to feel like the normal seat.
I had talked to my friend yesterday about this flight and he had seemed up for the idea then, but today, he changed his mind. His allergies were acting up, so he had dosed up with his allergy medicine before driving out to meet me. So much for the the little training cruise.
That didn't stop us from flying, though. It was a beautifully calm morning without a bump in the sky. The visibility was pretty bad for this time of the year, but we had about five miles, so all was good. As we got closer to Portsmouth, however, the visibility started to close up a little bit and I was starting to think that we may have to file to get home.
On the ground, you couldn't tell how bad the in-flight visibility was. It looked like a bright sunny day with blue skies. As they say, looks can be deceiving.
Anyway, we had lunch at the Skyline Family Restaurant (no relation to Skyline Chili), a nice little burger joint on the field at PMH. It's one of my favorite $100 hamburger stops.
After lunch, a quick check of the weather showed no change in visibility (reporting greater than six miles). I decided to depart VFR and if the visibility looked like it was going to be problem, file in the air. Fortunately, the visibility had actually improved somewhat. Unfortunately, that improvement was caused by vertical air currents that made the flight home feel like we were flying a popcorn maker instead of an airplane.
It's days like these that make me appreciate winter flying. If it wasn't so cold, it would be perfect!
