Last night, I completed my Flight Review, or BFR in some circles, which enables me once more to legally exercise my Private Pilot privileges.

Just a brief recap of the evening's activities...

I was originally supposed to complete this flight this past Saturday, but a cold front had come through the night before and despite the clear skies, the winds were gusting up to about 25 knots which could have made for some interesting landings as well as a bumpy ride. Since I do this just to have fun, I decided to postpone the flight a couple of days. I'm not in one of these "zero to CFI in 6 months!" programs...heck, I'd be lucky if I ever see a single hour of multi time in my entire life. No sense on rushing anything.

Then on Sunday I get an e-mail saying the airplane I was orignally scheduled for 707PD, is down for a 100 hr inspection. So I get switched to 653KB, another 172S that was ferried over from RYY. Compared to 7PD, this airplane, even though it is the same model year, from its exterior apperance was more like the 30+ year old aircraft I was used to flying. The paint had lost much of its gloss a long, long time ago, the wheel pants looked like they'd been hit with a sandblaster head on and the wings were covered in bugs (hey, we don't call them bug-smashers for nothing!!). Monty joked that we'd probably pick up an extra 15 knots if we cleaned all the bugs off of the wings.

Things got off to a rocky start when I went to start the airplane and the prop turned over maybe 7-8 times slowly. I tried again and it turned another 3-4 times before completely stopping. I had a dead battery! I contacted the FBO next door and they came over with their start cart and gave the airplane a jump. I kept an eye on the ammeter and volt gauge during the run-up and remainder of the flight and it never gave any problems after that. Monty thought that perhaps the guys who took it up right before me may have forgotten to turn the alternator on and flew around for an hour or so off of the battery.

Once I was finally airborne, I headed over towards Dallas and the new Paulding County Regional Airport, to demonstrate some power on and power off stalls, the two remaining manuvers I needed to perform for my review. My first power off was a little rough, but my second one was spot on. My power on stalls were a little more exciting, but I recovered quickly and didn't lose much altitude in the process.

Last on the list for the evening were some more practice on landings, as I had been landing a little flat and Monte wanted me to do a few more landings before signing me off. I headed in the direction of the Cedartown airport (4A4) but I'd never landed there during the daytime (it was completely dark by now) and the trees relatively close to the runway made me think it might not be too wise practicing there. Headed up to Rome (KRMG), and did 4 landings there, each progressively better than the next. There was someone in an Arrow doing practice instrument approaches there so I decided it was best to head back to the home base, using the autopilot and GPS to get me back there. This was my first time using a real AP...it was smooth enough it didn't matter that there was no altitude hold, I kept it within about 50' of my chosen altitude with small trim adjustments. Arriving there, I did 2 more landings, both without a doubt the best I had done to that point. Monte said I still needed to hold the airplane off just a touch longer, but at least I was consistently getting the mains down ahead of the nosewheel, my approaches looked good and I generally had good command over my airspeed and was judging my height well. His suggestion was to take some time the next time I go up to do some work in the pattern somewhere just to further hone my skill.

I won't bore anyone reading this the gory details of the ground instruction, but we just went over some of the FARs (Federal Aviation Regulations...the laws you fly by), a brief rundown on weight and balance and a few points he thought I should practice the next time I go flying. All in all, it was a painless experience and I felt really comfortable about my handling of the airplane the entire time. It just feels great to be able and spread my wings and take to the sky again!!

In Atlanta we're suffering the hurricane induced gas-price hysteria again.

Hurricane Ike is bearing down on Texas as I type, and from the time of my morning commute to later this evening, gas had risen as much as 40-50 cents and most of the stations in the general vicinity were completely out of regular gas.

Those of us who are unlucky enough to have been at the point where we needed to fill up again get to pay out the rear end for fuel because of media induced panic. There is no shortage of gas now, and there was no shortage of fuel after Katrina, none after Rita and Gustav turned out to be a total dud. Granted, some refineries had to be taken offline, but each time a hurricane rumbles into that general vicinity, we keep getting figures from the media that "this area is responsible for 20% of the country's gasoline supply". Funny how that specific area keeps moving back and forth and always seems to coincide exactly where a hurricane is supposed to make landfall.

If this does not underscore the reason why we desperately need to build NEW refineries (hopefully further inshore) in this country, I don't know what will. I don't care what your political affiliation is, if you're as upset as I am about the absolute absurdity that has surrounded the price of gas the past 3-4 years, tell your Congressmen so. Tell them it is time to stop pandering to the environmentalists and NIMBYs and do what is best for this Country's future.

This past Saturday I was able to do something that I had been wanting to again for the past five and a half years...pilot an airplane!