The shortest flight I've ever logged

[cjsmith]

Preflighted the aircraft, awkward with my flashlight in the deepening gloom. It was a bit low on gas -- that was a bummer, because the fuel truck guys had already gone home, so we'd have to taxi over to the self-serve island and wrestle with the hose. Waited for my flight instructor to get there; he'd said he'd sign me off, but as my paperwork was not signed YET, I knew I shouldn't start it without him.

In due course we got in and fired it up and listened to the ATIS. I was the first to hear the fateful words. "Attention all aircraft: both fuel trucks and the fuel island are out of service." On the second run-through Benjamin heard it too, and he swatted the avionics master and pulled the mixture.

Despite his speed the Hobbs meter had juuuuuuuuuust begun to tick over to the next digit. I owe for 0.1 hour on that plane. We logged it, of course. Night flying time. :-)

As I was securing the aircraft Benjamin pulled out his handheld radio and asked ground control what was up with the fuel. The controller said the place was quite simply out of gas -- a scheduled delivery hadn't come. We wondered what the airport was going to make of that in the next couple of days. (Oddly enough, the ATIS recorded the following hour didn't have the note about the fuel.)

Then we went into the club and he signed my paperwork.

Comments

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

If you'd like! Wow, I don't think I've had anyone promise to land with the aircraft before. From someone who knows how to land without one, that's qhite a vote of confidence! :-)

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

In the interest of clarity, I only know how to land without an airplane if I have my own wing. And usually I bring along two, just in case!

I haven't actually landed in a small airplane since I was a student, these long years ago. Every trip I've taken since then in anything smaller than an ATR-42 or a Saab 340B, the airplane and I parted ways while airborne. I rather miss landings in little planes.

Come to think of it, I miss flying in little planes too. Don't get me wrong, the airlines are fine, and I'm obviously an avid skydiver, but both of those are quite different. While we fly around in small aircraft a lot as parachutists, it's all just one big spiral up, then out -- our Cessna goes by "Elevator One" and the KA90 goes by "Elevator Two" on the CTAF. It's also all business: I tend to be a lot more concerned about myself than the aircraft or what's going on around us other than looking for traffic.

So if you were serious, I'd really enjoy it!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

You can feel free to bring your wings with you if you like, just in case you don't like what I'm doing! ;-)

How 'bout a little later in the season, when it's less rainy/grimy and I have my legs under me a little more firmly?

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

-chuckle.- The temptation might be too great!

And later in the season is fine. The weather now sucks eggs. I heard on the radio the other day that this is the officially wettest March (in terms of the number of days with rain) in recorded history for this area.

Regardless, it can stop raining any time now. I'd be fine if we didn't get another drop until December.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Wow, I knew I was annoyed but didn't know it was a recordbreaker. I would be fine with the rain stopping any day now, too. I *like* sun. Sun lifts my mood. (Remind me of this when I am cussing about the temperature inside my dark dark blue car.)