Dinner at Emma's

We skimmed above the hills, and through the slight haze, thankful for the coolness of our altitude. Husband handled the radios and navigation, and I was on the controls. Right on schedule, we came over the last ridge and Husband spotted the airport to our right. I made a couple of small s-turns to slow us down and get us down to altitude while Husband made our presence known on the frequency. We landed without seeing any other traffic-- and despite my nervousness, I even managed a decent (though not great landing!). As we taxied, unicom called and asked if we needed services. We declined and headed around the ramp for the restaurant. We made it! My first flight with a passenger as me as PIC!

We had a great "diner" meal-- Emma's is a greasy-spoon kind of place-- perfect for our first flight along together. It's right next door to a detail shop called "Dirty Birds Detailing"-- they detail planes and boats. So while I tied down our "dirty bird", Husband talked to the owner about their services. Maybe we'll take our plane back for a detail sometime.

After dinner, we had an equally nice flight back. I was worried that I'd be too nervous or that we wouldn't be able to coordinate our crew management-- but it was great! Husband was very helpful-- and it all went very well!

When we landed back at JYO, we met M for one last flight together. The plan was to fly over to Manassas, do a missed approach, and then fly to IAD. But alas, the controllers had other things in mind. As we approached Manassas, the controller told us we wouldn't be able to land at Dulles because there were too many departures going. So, we did the approach to Manassas, did a touch and go, and then took off again. After we were back in the air, the controller asked what our intentions were. So M very politely said again that we wanted to do the approach to IAD... and this time the controller (we thought it was another guy) snapped back at us "I already told you that you couldn't do that!", so we instead asked to go back to JYO. Oh well. At least we got a little more night flying in-- it's so pretty!

M left to become an airline pilot Sunday-- I can't wait to hear about his adventures. M, wherever you are-- happy contrails and just remember to keep the shiny side up!