Flight Time–Local Flight

Last week, Susan told me about a conversation she had with a woman whose husband owns a plane. I reached out to the husband, Rob, and we set up a meeting.

Today I met Rob outside his hangar at Melbourne airport. He escorted me in the I got to see his 1956 Cessna 172. For those who are familiar with Cessna 172s, you will know that Cessna has made many versions of the 172 over the years, for example, the current 172 model is the 172SP. Rob’s 172 is the original model year, so it is simply a 172. It is basically a Cessna 170 with tricycle gear. It has a straight tail and an unusual instrument layout. But one thing that is does have is a Garmin GNS-430W, so I can fly instrument procedures.

1956 Cessna 172 N7286A

After talking for about an hour, I asked if we could take it flying. Rob said “Yes”, so we pulled the plane out of the hangar, did a pre-flight, then were on our way. We departed Melbourne to the south along the coast. I did some slow flight and turns on the way down past Sebastian, then we did a landing at Valkaria. Back in the air, we returned to Melbourne.

Give that the hangar is in Melbourne and the usage fee is so reasonable, I expect this will be my go-to time building plane for the foreseeable future. I started the badging process at the airport and should have my badge in about three or four weeks.

Below is the flight track of the flight.

Flight track from Melbourne to Valkaria to Melbourne

Flight Time: 1.6 hours
Total Time: 806 hours