Interesting
flight yesterday.
Had
just completed a touch-and-go. A Cessna 172 had turned
crosswind ahead of me, then I heard the radio call:
"Auburn traffic, Cessna XXX is coming back, I've got
problems."
For a
moment, it looked like he was swinging back to land
downwind (he had just turned for the downwind leg,
this wasn't an "impossible turn" situation. I swung to
the right and called, "Fly Baby is getting out of your
way...."
He
continued on downwind. I followed behind. I think he
was no more than 500 AGL at any point. As he got ready
to turn base, he was VERY low. I was cringing, because
he was over the downtown area. He flew a wider pattern
than I would have, but it held together and he got set
up on final.
He
was, actually, too high when he made it back to the
airport. But the runway is ~3800 feet long, and he
managed to touch down and roll out to the turnoff at
the end. "Nice job," I transmitted.
The
interesting thing is what MY airplane was doing. I
realized all my attention had been outside the
cockpit. I was ~300 feet below pattern altitude, with
the throttle just at 2000 RPM or so.
All came
out fine, but one *does* have to remember to fly their
own airplane, first.....
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