The wife wanted a quite day at home after the Christmas party at the Yacht Club last night. But she was nice enough to let me slip out and go flying with a buddy in his new 1978 Beechcraft Sundowner. He got a really sweet deal on this one owner plane with only 2000 hours. It has a new paint job, all new interior with leather seating and carbon fiber instrument panel and new GPS.

We flew down to Rockhill, SC and picked up two new Light Speed head sets. One #25X and one #33X.

I flew back and we had a nice tail wind, getting around 145 MPH on the GPS.

Thanks Rick, glad to hear you are not selling the Fountain!

Dash panel

Final approach into Lake Norman airport.

We were running into a pretty good cross wind at this time. The wind is always blowing above the trees here. But as you can tell, the wind sock is dead under the trees.

Runway #14 is slightly uphill, so you have the cross wind to deal with, the tree to clear and then the uphill runway.

Rick, I am glad you have over 400 landings at this air strip.

Beautiful!!!!!! MY brother is a 737-300 Captain , we have flew many smaller jets in the Tulsa area,we would do alot of touch and go's flying the patch had a great time and looks like you had a great day. Thanks for sharing.Darin

Great Mark. Love the pics!
Flying and aviation are another one of my main interests. I miss flying...It's been an awfully long time.

Brings back memories. I used to travel around the country buying small planes and selling them to dealers. Now a physical problem(inner ear) keeps me from flying, but I still manage to turn one once in a while. That's one reason I got into boats. Boats and airplanes-a great combination.

Darin,

I got the props back Friday. Thanks, they look great. Will not be able to test for a while though. I will keep you posted.

With Charlotte being the hub for US Air, I know many pilots. One of our best friends is a captain with US Air and also owns a Baja 25 Outlaw named "Set Max Thrust".

It is a lot of fun. I personally don't know any other way to really get away from everything other than flying.

I rank flying the best get away, motorcycle riding the second and boats the third.

Take care Mark

Sorry to hear about the inner ear problem.

There seems to be a very good market for used planes. My buddy looked at several and by accident found this plane right in the hanger next to the school where he learned to fly.

He has already been asked by three different people if he would sell it.

Take care.

Chris,

That is awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I know a job is a job, but that is a good office to have!

Thanks for the links to the pictures.

Mark