Back in the cockpit again

After a 5 year hiatus in flying I, Adam, have gotten back in a plane again, practicing my privileges as a private pilot. On July 30 I took the controls of a 1976 Cessna 172M, N9693H, at Exec 1 Aviation at the Ankeny Regional Airport with the help of a flight instructor. We practiced steep turns, stalls and touch and goes. I felt like everything came back to me in a matter of minutes. The air was calm, but a little warm.






Then we went back out again last Saturday. That was a little bit of a reality check. There was a 9 knot crosswind from 90° - 130° (the east) with gusts up to 18 knots. It's not much, but it reminded me how challenging crosswind landing can be. We did 7 touch and goes on runways 4 and 18 before calling it a day. I look forward to taking a few more training flights before I'm ready to take any passengers up, but it should happen soon enough. Most of my previous flight time has been in a 152 so the relearning in a 172 has been a little challenging. Maybe I'll bring a camera and take some pictures one of these trips.