We’re off! It felt good to fly again. Here we are in sequence, from runup to takeoff to gear up: Don’t look at the camera! Heading for the runway. Gear doors open! Gear coming up!

Busy! The clearance is CYOW RV H300 expect ALSET for the River 9 M4T, squawk 5236. No sooner have I got ALSET set up than I switch to center and he gives me direct THURO. Big left turn, but that’s the way I filed. I get ATIS X and center switches us to Terminal and I check in and he say’s it’s now Y. Then I start to catch up. At THURO there’s no further clearance except direct CYOW, so to clarify I request direct TEFLY for the GPS Z runway 25. The controller cheerfully says, Cleared as requested, cleared to 3000 pilot’s discretion. According to the ATIS the ceiling is 800 feet, so circling is possible at 880, which is 500 AGL. So it will be plan B: head up runway 25 to runway 32, cross runway 22 into a right downwind, and continue in the right-hand circuit to landing. I stayed tight and forgot I was going to have a tailwind on base (wind 260/20 at 500 feet) until I started the turn. I cranked it a little tighter, overshot the centreline, but corrected back with enough skill to sort-of save face. Got the speed back to approach in time and turned off at the Mike just over halfway down the 3300-foot runway.

All in all, a good training exercise. Aren’t all flights?