[gkey]

Thanks Barry.

I am starting this year with some long x-country flights, just to get used to the signs of personal fatiguing and the plane characteristics on such a long flight. I already noticed that the S-Tec 55 tends to veer up + down a little when set to ALT for long periods. A quick change to VS +0 corrects that, and as soon as she has settled, ALT will work again perfectly. Each plane has its own personal little quirks, and I want to know them before I hit the wide open spaces above endless water.

Fortunately, Canada is a big place, so one can do very long trips with the comfort of Terra Firma beneath you. And the routes I'm planning on have gazillions of airstrips, just in case.

My first planned exersice route is next week - it is one that is very familiar to me (back in my days with the 172). From CEN5 (Cold Lake, AB) to Brandon, MB on July 4, 2007. I'll stop there for supper, drop off my wife and daughter with friends, and return to CEN5. That will give me almost 700 nm in one day. Then I'll repeat the same trip a week later.

In August we plan to do this same route again, sleep over, and the next morning depart from Brandon to Qualicum Beach, Vancouver Island. That will be my second trip over the mountains, and my first one without my good compadre, my CFI. Although the trip can be done without refueling, my comfort levels do not allow me to do that, and I will park in Lethbridge for refueling, lunch and a leg-stretch before taking on the mountains. I'm just taking it easy.

Later the year I also plan to go from CEN5 to Thompson, MB and on to Churchill. Maybe do a little whale watching from the sky at the same time...