Friday, April 21, 2006

Jet trip

The Cub is a blast and I enjoy it. The jet is a blast and I enjoy it. Come to think of it, flying is a blast and I enjoy it.

John and I took off yesterday and after 5-plus hours landed at Monterey CA ... home of barking sea lions and the best seafood salad you'll find anywhere. We made the flight at Mach .80 - the boss likes to take it easy on the fuel - at FL430. Smooth as glass. Almost everybody down low was complaining about the ride. They might as well have complained about the headwinds ... at FL400 we had 70-plus knots on the nose and at FL430 we had only 36. True, we lost some TAS, but only about 11 knots. That's a fair trade.

The jet gives me a chance to nudge here and there to get better time or fuel mileage ... not so with the Cub ... I'm pretty well chained to Mach .012 and the gas runs through the Continental at pretty much the same rate no matter what I do. The skills are different, no two ways about it, but the treat is the same. I know how Tiger feels when he hits one just right.

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