The weather today was outstanding. Some of the best flying weather I've ever had. The wind was near calm and the visibility was phenomenal. The clouds were very high and wispy. It was only just a tiny bit bumpy but I blame that on our proximity to the ground.
I took a friend up who wanted to take pictures over Annapolis. After we left Tipton we headed down and once clear of the Class B airspace I made a turn and headed over the Severn River. We headed down the river and toward the Bay. Once we got near the mouth of the Severn we made another right turn and flew up the South River until we passed by Annapolis. Another series of right turns and we made a rectangular pattern over the city at about 1200 ft. Before our flight my friend had asked about opening the window to avoid taking pictures through the plexiglass. I knew from the Cessna manual that there was indeed a "Maximum Window Open Speed." Since I also knew that that speed was the same as V NE, the Never Exceed Speed of 163 Knots, I knew that opening the window would not pose a problem. Besides I was planning for about a 100 knot cruise. Once it came time to open the window I didn't know what to expect having never done it before. I knew it would be noisy and windy but how much was a mystery. The headset dampened the noise but all in all it was like opening your car window when your going down the highway. The 100 knot wind was brisk but not enough to try and suck my checklists or charts out the window.
After a few circles around the city we headed over to the Broadneck Peninsula for some more photos. Once I got over to that area I had to be careful because I was near the Class B Surface ring. Once we finished with that we headed back toward Fort Meade.
Back before I began flying the FAA would provide visibility measurements from the surface using a different scale. Nowadays the maximum visibility you are given is 10 Statute Miles. If they give you 6SM vis then you've got 6. But when you get 10SM vis, it's at least 10SM. It could be more. They used to give visibility as "unlimited" which meant that you could see all the way to the horizon. I'm sure today would have been one of those unlimited days. When we were on our way back to Tipton and headed North West I saw a "bump" on the horizon. I pointed it out to my friend so he could see it too. The "bump" was Sugarloaf Mountain some 50 or so miles away. I was surprised we could actually see that far.
We got back to Tipton and I am now back to making "good" landings once again. I had calm wind which gave me a faster ground speed on final but I was able to make a really nice stabilized approach and touch down in about the first third of the runway. Me friend gave me a thumbs up so, from a passengers point of view, it was a good landing.
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