Extract from the Notes from the Editor, October 2023 Newsletter:

“…sharing ownership with others in the High Desert Flyers Association, I have  easy access to our RV-12. I can go to the airport, open the hangar, do a preflight, fire it up and taxi to the runway, and … Go Flying, and much easier on the budget. So last week, I did just that and had a ball. I wasn’t going anywhere nor was I practicing maneuvers. No, I was – Just Flying –, getting to know the airplane and the airplane getting to know me.

• • • For half an hour I just flew slow, in the 50 knot range, turning left then right, going in circles, steep and shallow, maintaining altitude (mostly).
    • While “becoming one with the plane”, I was looking at ground features of the Rio Puerco valley, marking a waypoint over some interesting formations to explore some day, or tracking a road up out of the valley convinced that Pat & I had explored that road until we could go no further.
    • Heading back to KAEG, I noticed a 1200 fpm rate of climb; I hadn’t touched the throttle and the plane’s attitude hadn’t changed. Ah ha, a thermal, let’s check this out. Circling right (I had felt the right wing ’bounce’) I tried to stay in it. Nope, try left, ah ha back in it, out of it again, circling we were back in it. And we worked our way up from 6500 to 9500.
    • Ok, time to head back to ‘home plate’. Back in the pattern, do a couple of short/soft field landings (not much difference between them in the RV-12), and taxi back to the hangar. Wahoo! (And what a way to finish unwinding from LOEFI!)”

Included was an image of a GPS track of this flight. The image was too small to see any details, so here is a larger version. Click on it to see a full screen version.

Click on the image to see a full-screen version. If you wish to explore it further on GoogleEarth, download the GPS Track File (.KML). You can then “fly it yourself” on GoogleEarth. Download Just Go Flying (George Young)