KFME 121227Z AUTO 00000KT 7SM CLR 23/21 A3013
KFME 121248Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 24/21 A3013
KFME 121454Z AUTO 00000KT 10SM CLR 28/20 A3013
Those METARs listed above don't tell the whole story. The relative humidity was high too. My plan was to leave early and fly before it got too hot. I had the initiative to go out and do some practice maneuvers to make sure I wasn't too rusty. By the time I arrived at the airport at about 1200z, 0800hrs local time, the temperature was 72 degrees F but it matched the dew point. This probably explained the 5 miles of visibility since it was so humid. Once my passenger arrived she and I got started about 30 minutes later. The temperature and dewpoint had separated by 2 degrees C and the reported visibility was 7sm. After we launched I headed out toward the JETTA intersection and got up to 3000ft to start my practice. I explained the maneuvers we were going to fly and we decided on the steep turns first. We were headed East and had gotten out over the bay. Because of the humidity and the haze both the water and the sky blended together. There was a lousy visible horizon for a steep turn and at one point in the maneuver I considered stopping. Once I got around to facing the land things got better for visual references. After the second 360 we were "rewarded" by the bump of flying through our own wake. This was something that I explained excitedly to my passenger.
Next I entered slow flight and puttered along at about 60 knots before pulling the power and entering a stall. The stalls in the Cessna Skyhawk are very benign and I guess my friend thought that they would be worse. I know that they scared the bejesus out of me in primary training but maybe that was because I knew what they were about. The visibility was clearing a little more as we headed back out over Annapolis and got on course for Tipton. The traffic pattern was very busy and I managed to squeeze my self in by extending the downwind for the traffic landing in front of me. My long final allowed another aircraft to depart. I got thank yous for my efforts to communicate and work my way into the traffic pattern.
My long final approach threw my timing off a little and I could see that I was too high. I reduced power all the way to idle and made sure I had full flaps. The stabilized 60 knot approach I was working was still too high. I had carefully explained all of the maneuvers to my passenger beforehand except this one. I dropped the right wing and simultaneously pushed the left rudder. I continued to further deflect both controls as I pushed the nose down. I forgot that a non flyer may find the forward slip uncomfortable since the nose was pointed left and the runway was coming up in the right window. I could see my passenger sort of raise up in her seat in surprise. I'm sure she was wondering why we were suddenly flying "sideways." I was having a blast as I got my altitude straightened out and slowly neutralized the controls for the landing. I explained to her that it was all right and I meant to fly the airplane like that. I decided to taxi back for a closed pattern even though the airport was really busy. We went around again and I noticed that the thermals were starting to act up. When we landed the second time the density altitude was already about 1500ft. After we taxied over, got some fuel, and tied the airplane down it was nearly 90 degrees F. We stopped and chit-chatted with the mechanic a little before my friend and I parted.
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