June 7, 2001 - Down The Line! Precision Flying [Click on thumbnails to see full size pictures]
Touch and go	We're flying today from the Farmington launch site, with Lisa chasing and taking pictures. We have some nice steerability in the winds this morning, about 90 degrees, right higher up, left lower down. We take the opportunity to do some practice approaches and touch-and-go landings. Santo asks me to navigate to the north end of the runway at Robertson airport in Plainville (it's about 6am and all of the airplane drivers are still in bed!) and land on the numbers, which I do. Then, he asks me to fly down the centerline and land at the opposite end. This is an interesting process, since I have to go up to go right, then down to go left, and so on, but I complete the task, landing gently at the far end of the runway.
Balloon Sticker!	The big flagpole at Norton Park looks ominous from the ground as we approach the park for a landing. Happily this is just an illusion!
Landing	We work the winds so our approach is toward the center of the park, allowing for some leeway in case the wind changes when we get low down. As it turns out, we back up slightly as we land but we're well away from all obstacles. Well, almost all...there was that one tree, but Lisa is waiting for us, and we drop her a line to guide us clear.
	Our track from the GPS. You can see pretty clearly how we played with our 90 degrees of steerability over and over during the flight.

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