I was in Wisconsin recently for work and had the opportunity to go flying with my good friend Andy in his Piper Cherokee Warrior (shown at left pre-flighting it at KUBE in Cumberland, WI). Having seen this plane before he purchased it, I'd say he has done a great job in fixing this craft up. He has turned it into a nice, stable IFR/VFR platform.

I even got .3 hours flight time myself! Flying it was pretty simple and it was under CAVU skies that we explored the area around Cumberland. Got to fly up towards Long Lake where we were having business meetings and then down towards Rice lake (KRPD) (shown on final at left). This was also my first experience in flying right seat. Because of this, I thought better of attempting any landings. I still think I'd like to go up with an instructor to practice this skill some more before attempting a landing from the right side.

This flight also provided a couple of more firsts for me. Not only did I get to act as a safety pilot for the first time for a pilot under the hood (we figured it was silly to NOT take advantage of the situation for Andy to fly a simulated NDB approach into KUBE to apply towards his IFR currency. The other first I got was after he went missed on the approach into KUPD, we circled around and he lined up for runway 18, which is a 2000 grass runway. We did it as a simulated engine out landing and ended up a little short so he added power to carry us over the road and land on what would be the numbers in the grass. The grass runway was amazingly smooth and the grass had good braking action, allowing us to stop short of the asphalt runway 9/27 that crosses the grass strip a little past the halfway mark.

Thanks Andy for a great morning of flying!