today, another pilot and i were going to fly KJYO (leesburg)-KGVE (gordonsville)-W78 (south boston)-KPTB (petersburg)-KJYO. there was some weather coming in from the south later in the day but we thought we could make it. the other pilot flew the first leg (to GVE). GVE was very interesting. it's a short narrow field (2,300x40) which is the shortest field we've ever landed on. we found the field without any trouble but being the passenger i got to watch the approach. it definitely looks short from the right seat and i was watching the end of the runway pretty closely. he did an excellent short field landing. the people managing the airport were very nice and offered us ice cream but we figured we'd better be on our way. i do recommend stopping there but definitely be prepared for a short field landing.
the next leg (to W78) was much more eventful. the weather was coming in a bit quicker and visibility was coming/going. we could still see well enough to be legal VFR but we were just a bit uneasy. we were also maneuvering here and there to avoid running into any small puffs of cloud. as we passed KFVX (farmville) the visibility was getting worse so we opted to divert to KFVX. that's where the fun (and the lessons began). we were not as prepared for a divert as we usually are and had a little trouble with the CTAF and runway. i was flying this leg and was very annoyed with myself when i realized that i was on final for the wrong end of the runway. all i had to do was look at the heading indicator and it would have been obvious. anyway, when i realized what i was doing i did a go-around and just went onto the downwind and turned back and landed correctly (a decent landing). i learned a couple of things from this experience. we've gotten in the habit of the pilot not flying having the sectional and AFD and the PIC just flying. this means that you can't cross check any errors. the pilot should always have a sectional on his kneeboard to refer to no matter what.
the next interesting thing is that in the KFVX restaurant we met Sara Parmenter (http://www.doav.virginia.gov/vaap.htm). she's Virginia's Honorary Aviation Ambassador and has been a pilot for 56 years (she's in her 80's). she was there with her cessna 140 having some lunch. we got to talk with her for a little while, take a few pictures of her and get her autograph. she's very nice and you should stop and talk to her if you get the chance.
after checking the weather radar we decided to go ahead and head back to JYO due to a time constraint. i flew back and we were just ahead of the weather the entire way back and had a good landing (we walked away and they could use the plane again).
all in all it was an excellent day and, as usual, a few new learning experiences.
i will get around to posting the pictures soon. i also have a little bit of video (taken with my new flip mino recorder) of the clouds.
we are both looking forward to starting instrument ground school tomorrow night. today was a perfect example of potentially limited visibility affecting a trip. having IFR available if necessary would have kept us going on to our planned destination.
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