While visiting family in Florida, my mother-in-law arranged for a friend of hers to take me flying. We headed out to KZPH early this morning with the plan being to practice some formation flying with a couple of other pilots from my mother-in-law's friends flying club. The forecast called for morning fog, with clearing after 9:00 am. The clearing part of the forecast turned out to be about six hours off, so to kill some time, we headed to a local Cuban breakfast spot (
Flaco's) for a bite to eat, where I had one of the best cafe con leche that I've ever had. After breakfast, the fog still hadn't cleared so one of the pilots had to leave and after another hour the other pilot for the formation practice also had to leave.
It was nearing Noon and the ceilings were slowly lifting and by 1:00 pm the ceilings were beginning to exceed 1000'. For the Bellanca, 800' is a prime cruising altitude so we launched and headed West for a bit and then North up to a private grass strip for some landings. This was my first time at the controls of a tail-dragger and was able to log a few tenths and performed an assisted takeoff from FL43.
Watch
Landing at FL43.
