My first flight as a pilot

My schedule has been crazy the last couple of weeks, and it's not going to get much better anytime soon.

I booked Fern for a nice local site seeing flight with my three oldest kids as my first passenegers. We arived at the airport on time and Fern was ready to go (full fuel and oil).... nice! I got my two youngest kids situated in the back with their seatbelts and headsets, then my oldest daughter and I hopped in. A couple of minutes later with some fiddling with the radio we were off.

The winds were basically calm so I choose the nearest runway and we took off into the clear blue sky. We flew to the north shore then switched to 126.7 to touch base with some local traffic, then I swapped back over to Ch'town. We followed the island's north shore west for twenty miles or so then I decided to do a touch and go in Summerside.

The local unicom was deserted but I still broadcasted my intentions and position anyway. My touchdown was fine but the front wheel dampener certainly needs some attention. We took off again and this time followed the south shore back to Ch'town, the kids got a great view of the Confederation Bridge.

I had my oldest daughter Brittaney take the controls for a few seconds, she was not enthustiastic about it, I suspect she was a bit nervous although she'd never admit it. The two youngest kids were ready for some aerobatics but the newly licenced pilot (aka me) vetoed that request, I did give them a couple of minor rollercoasters, which they loved.

We turned towards the airport over Ch'town harbour and my straight in for runway 03 was nice, I was a tad high but we still touched down on the thousand foot markers. The front wheel made its presence known again as soon as I released the elevators. A short backtrack to taxiway Charlie and a few minutes later we were on the apron.

My first flight as a licenced pilot was in the books with 1.1 hours on the hobbs. What a great day for flying, my kids loved it.

Life is good!