Pilot Life: Two Flights in a Day

After a foggy weekend that wasn't at all in any of the forecasts kept me from doing the solo commercial cross-country flight I wanted to do, I finally got a decent day to get back in the air today. Unfortunately, the weather today didn't improve in time for me to be able to do this particular cross-country flight in time as it would've conflicted with my personal schedule. As far as my luck and fortunes in flight training is concerned, what else is new??? So I stayed local today and got two separate flights in, one during the late afternoon and one quick one at night for night currency purposes.

Fine day to spread N5174E's wings.

For the first flight during the afternoon, I flew down to Eugene and practiced some landings there; it's been a while since I flew into a towered airport. Something else specific to my commercial requirements include doing some night landings at a towered airport (while the tower is still in operation!) and I'm thinking Eugene will a be good place to practice these landings in the near future. So the purpose of this first flight for today was to re-familiarize myself with Eugene Airport. After all the pre-flight/before-takeoff business, I got airborne and made my way down to Eugene, where I did three laps in the pattern for Runway 34R before returning back to Albany; I picked up VFR Flight Following by talking with ATC at Cascade Approach during the en route phase between the two airports. After landing and following a quick stop at the fuel pumps to top off tanks, I stowed the airplane back at the hangar.

After this flight, I had some church activities that were coincidentally happening in Albany by the time I got back on the ground, so I stuck around to kill some time and saved myself from the extra trip up and down the freeway. Of course, that made for a long day! While I was at the activity, I contemplated whether or not I should do a quick night flight afterwards because my night currency lapsed just a few days ago. In the end, I decided to do this second flight since it was a nice, clear night and I was already in the area; it was also too good of an opportunity to pass up while conditions were optimal. So once again, I returned to the Albany Airport and got ready to fly!

After a quick walk-around/pre-flight/before-takeoff business, I hopped in and got airborne off Runway 34 and did three identical laps in the traffic pattern, doing a full-stop landing followed by a taxi-back for the subsequent departure, just like the last time I did my flights towards night currency at Albany. After the third full-stop landing, I was done and night-current, so I taxied back to the hangar and stowed airplane for the second time of the day. It has been a long couple days, with plans and objectives just not working out in my favor, not to mention coming off the heels of a somewhat a frustrating weekend. But at least I got something taken care of today...