The First Person With Enough Guts To Fly With Me Is...

My mother. Last week, I told her that I was going flying and asked her if she wanted to join me. I was surprised that she accepted the invitation without any hesitation. My mom is susceptible to motion sickness and was worried that it would happen to her in a small plane.

I assured her that the conditions this morning would be smooth and that I wouldn't try any stalls, lazy eights or emergency descents (unless necessary). It was a beautiful morning. The dew point is up and the morning temperature is about 10 degrees warmer because of it. It was 85 degrees at Stellar at 6:45 this morning.

The plan was to fly her to Marana (AVQ) for breakfast. There's a good restaurant there. I recommend the biscuits and gravy. Anyway, we didn't make it to Marana.

Angel Air has students that they employ to refuel the planes every night. They taxi the plane across the airport to the self-service fuel station, fill the planes, return them to the ramp and tie them down for the next day. The 172 I had reserved has a full tank of gas...and a dead battery. The intern/student that fueled it left the master switch on which killed the battery. Dang.

I returned to the dispatch area and told them the situation. Even though all other aircraft were spoken for, the guy promptly gave me another 172. The only thing the pre-flight revealed was a flat spot on the left tire, but not bad enough for a no-go. The nose wheel tire looked fine.

At the runup area, another 172 called me up on the radio and said I should check the front tire. I shut down and got out to take a look. Sure enough, with the nose wheel turned, the low pressure manifested itself. Definite no-go. Thank you fellow 172 pilot. I returned to the ramp and shut down thinking there was nobody in maintenance this early on a Saturday. The had me drive it over to the hangar, aired up the tire and finally, we were on our way...1 hour late!

Instead of going to Marana, I decided to take an hour long route from Stellar-Casa Grande-Coolidge-Florence and then transitioned Williams Gateway, then flew over Mom's house and then back to Stellar. It was a nice, smooth flight and Mom really enjoyed herself. That makes me happy.