And the third day will not go as planned.

On my last leg of the day, I arrived at RDU with a lot of static on the radio. Figured it was either a capacitor on the alternator  or one of the mags. Did a mag test and oops... right mag only is running extremely rough. SO.... looks like I wont be departing RDU early tomorrow as planned. Ok, so much for the bad news.

The good news is, wow, this is great! I get to fly nearly every day for the next month! I spent Monday evening with my Dad in Trenton NJ after an uneventful flight from NH to NJ. Perfect VFR weather. New England has been swamped lately with rain. Lots and lots of it. I considered trading my plane for an ark, but figured it would be better just to leave town.. hence my fly-about. One positive from all the rain is that its very very green. A beautiful sight to see.

Ron Bell convinced me to stop in for a mini-meet (debatable as the definition of piper-meet is somewhat in flux). We had lunch and nice conversation. All too soon it was time to head off to First Flight. I've had tail winds all the way which is uncommon when traveling southwest in this part of the country. I took it as a good omen. The ride to first flight was smooth as silk, clear, and for the first time in a long time, 2 minutes after departing OFP, I was "cleared direct" to my destination. I know, I know, people that fly IFR in places other then the northeast probably get this all the time, but I almost giggled when I read back the "cleared direct".

First flight was cool. If you haven't been there, its on a very large plot of land. The (Kill Devil) hill is right in the middle of the campus. At one end is where the first 4 flights took place. Its marked by 1 large granite stone and 4 smaller ones each marking a progressively longer flight. They also had an illustration showing a two dimensional plot of each of the flights. It was obvious that they couldn't get the thing out of ground effect. Each of the 3 flights (relatively short) ended in a stall after trying to climb out of ground effect. The 4th flight never attempted to get out of ground effect which allowed them to go much further. Fun fact: A piece of fabric and wood from the original Wright flyer went the moon and back with Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11. Bet you didn't know that. Me neither (lol).

After hanging out at  FFA for a few hours, it was off to meet Jill. Another uneventful flight, but this time the tailwind was gone. So here I sit waiting patiently for the real-estate mogul, er, uhm, my gracious host to finish a phone call so we can go and grab a bite to eat. Its wonderful the hospitality people are showing. me. The only down side is that I feel like I am rushing. I guess the mag problem will be a good excuse to slow down just a bit.