Local Flight With The Family

For the first time in Vero Beach, I took the family for a short flight around the area. I rented a Piper Warrior from a local FBO to maintain proficiency and invited them along for the ride.

The weather looked a little questionable in the morning, but in Florida, it usually changes rapidly and, unless there's a thunderstorm, it's really not all that bad. By 12:45, it looked dark and uninviting to the west, but nice to the east.

We arrived at the airport at 1:00 and met Ken and Dennis. Ken started me on the required paperwork while Dennis, my instructor, copied my certificate, license, and medical. About fifteen minutes later, we were loading our stuff into the Warrior.

The flight was a basic checkout and included some slow flight, a power-off stall, and some steep turns. We ended up heading northwest because the clouds had moved quite a bit in the short time we were preparing for the flight. After the maneuvers, we headed east towards Sebastian, but there were skydivers in the air, so we diverted north to Valkaria. After a quick touch-and-go, we turned south back to Vero Beach. I mentioned to Dennis that I wanted to get three landings to be current, so we did another quick touch-and-go at Sebastian. Then it was back to Vero Beach.

As soon as the propeller stopped turning, Andrew stepped forward into the gap between the front seats and said, "I want to go flying again." We unloaded the plane while Andrew played with the controls and asked me the purpose of each instrument. It was nice to get out, and up, with the family again.