Today we are having another ‘wind event.’ It gets breezy around here when a front passes to our north. Winds at Stead (KRTS) are currently 250/21G30. One of the available runways is 26 so the wind is pretty much a direct headwind but the flight wouldn’t be very enjoyable once you got into the air unless you climbed up to maybe 12,000 MSL. Even that is no guarantee.

I took a short flight last Friday (today is Monday) and although the surface winds were fairly light the ride was pretty bumpy. I flew up to the north a bit and then turned around and returned to the pattern. By then the winds had shifted and were 020/10G15. Stead has two runways and the wind was 60 degrees off both of them. You just had to choose whether you wanted a left or a right crosswind. I picked runway 08 for a left crosswind.

I made a normal full-flap landing for the first pattern. I decided to make that a stop & go and to try it again. The next time I did a no-flap to give a little more stability. That worked much better.

While I was on downwind three other planes called entering the pattern from various directions so I made the second pattern a full stop and put the plane away. It was a half hour flight and I got the airplane exercise I was after and felt ready for the Young Eagles Rally we were having the next day.

Saturday dawned clear, relatively calm and cold. My hands got pretty cold doing the preflight at 7 am in below freezing temps. I had my little ceramic engine preheater blowing hot air into the cowling for about an hour. Throughout the morning the temperature continued to climb, ending up in the mid-60s.

I flew 3 kids, the first being the most enjoyable. The third seemed more interested in posting to Instagram than actually getting into the flight experience. The flights each lasted about a half hour with the kids operating the flight controls for 15-20 minutes. They all seemed to have a good time. It’s always interesting to see if any of them come back to attend an EAA Chapter meeting.

It was a fun day, though a bit tiring with all the up and down and ‘instructing’ in flight basics. Over the two days I logged 2.3 hours and 5 landings.