So one of the guys who I go Orienteering with owns a share of a Cessna 182 airplane and occasionally flies it around for fun. He called last night and said he was going out for a night flight and asked if I'd like to come along.

Well of course...

Anyway, so I got to fly the plane. A lot. Basically if we weren't landing or taking off, I was in control of the plane. We flew from Los Alamos to the Santa Fe airport, where we did a couple of touch-and-go's. Then we went south to the Double Eagle airport in Albuquerque and landed. We were going to do a touch-and-go there but the runway was a little short so we stopped, backtracked, waited for some other traffic to land, and then took off again. Then it was back up and over the Jemez Mountains and a loop over Los Alamos before landing.

It was all night flying and the moon wasn't out, so there wasn't much to see other than city lights, but it was still great. My only complaint is that the instrument layout in the 182 is not condusive to flying from the copilot's seat. Some critical gauges are hidden behind the pilot's stick.

Nina came too, but was tired and fell asleep for about half of the flight. For the part that she was conscious for, she had a good time. I can't wait to do it again. Ugh this probably means I'll be compelled to get my pilot's license when I have some more money... and that will make we want to go in on a plane... and that will make me poor. Oh well.