After a long, cold winter, I finally got in my first flight of 2008. By chance, my former instructor Gordy—who taught me during my private pilot training—happened to be at the field, just finishing up with the J-3 Cub. It had been months since we last crossed paths, and I needed to get my 90-day recurrency done and shake off some rust. After some small talk, Gordy, with a bit of time on his hands this Easter Sunday, offered to join me as a passenger. I couldn’t turn him down—it had been since last October that I’d seen him.
We pulled N73450 out of the barn, and I started my pre-flight checklist. With 6 quarts of oil on board, I added two more just to be safe. Gordy, even as a passenger, naturally slid into instructor mode, offering tips as needed. I didn’t mind at all—it felt like old times.
After takeoff, I set my sights on getting the required three takeoffs and landings to a full stop, which we knocked out pretty quickly. We had a slight crosswind from the northwest on runway 1, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Once that was squared away, Gordy suggested we fly to Rochester. I was eager but hesitant—shaking off the rust and jumping into Charlie airspace felt like a bit much. Before I could voice my concern, Gordy assured me he’d handle the radio, so off to KROC we went.
As we approached Rochester, I made the first landing attempt on runway 25. In the process of getting reoriented to the field, I inadvertently crossed the path of runway 28—a rookie mistake, but one I only made once. The crosswind at KROC was stronger than what I faced earlier, so I had to work the controls to get into position. After a touch-and-go, we were back in the air, and Gordy asked if he could take a turn. Of course, I handed over the controls.
Gordy’s approach was steeper than mine, and for a second, I thought he was going to bang the prop, but he greased the landing with just a hint of drift before taking off again. Seeing that, I was reminded of my student days and felt that urge to nail it like the instructor. My next approaches were much smoother, though I had to go around once when things didn’t quite line up.
After watching Gordy pull off another smooth landing from a steep descent, we headed back home, logging about 1.5 hours of flight time, some good Class C exposure, and shaking off the rust.
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