I am no longer a complete noob when it comes to ski-planes. My friend Don took me up in his Taylorcraft this evening!

We had a solid hour of nearly smooth air except for a few bumps in and around the river valley. We flew over his house and a few friends of his houses.

Then we proceeded to a nearby lake and overflew it heading into the sun checking for any obstacles. There was a half dozen bird (probably vultures) off to the south side. So we made a mental note to give them a wide berth.

We continued westward a bit and made a 180 and landed to the east with the sun at our backs. The first touch and go scared the birds a bit. The second touch and go didn’t really scare them at all. It is fun that you can pick from a nearly unlimited amount of lakes to land on (because we are in the land of 10,000 lakes).

We headed down the river valley and did a touch and go at a public use grass airstrip. Then headed back up the river valley and headed for home. Throughout the flight, I took the controls on several occasions (which I thoroughly enjoyed).

There is something magical about cruising along low and slow on a warm winter evening.