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We had hoped to fly to Wisconsin on Saturday, to spend several days visiting some of Terry’s sisters. But, the weather took a distinct turn for the worse late in the week, and Saturday had extensive low cloud and cool temperatures. We would have had to fly IFR at 6,000 ft or higher, and the air temperature at this altitude would have been below freezing, which is a good recipe for ice. We’ll try again in a few weeks when everyone’s schedules align again.

I zipped out to the airport late Sunday morning to do a test fit of the latest iteration on the oxygen tank mount in the forward baggage bay. This version looks like a winner, but I need to order some different hardware to secure the tank clamps to the mount. I’ve also got a pulse oximeter coming, so I can monitor the oxygen saturation in my blood stream. That will allow me to confirm that the oxygen system is working properly.

I also should manufacture a shroud to protect the oxygen tank valve and regulator from the baggage that will also go in the baggage bay.

Sunday afternoon I did a short local flight. The winds were really blowing, as a cold front had gone through early in the morning. The winds were gusting to 25 to 30 kt (some of the airports in the area reported gusts to 40 kt, but I don’t think they got this high in Smiths Falls), but there were aligned within about 20 degrees of the runway, so the crosswind component was 10 kt, or less. It sure was turbulent though. The bumps extended up to 7500 ft, and it was so bumpy at low altitude that I had to slow to about 120 kt to keep from getting beat up too badly.

Landings in high winds are good workout, which is why I went flying. Two of the four landings I did went very well. The other two were marred by big wind gusts that hit around the time I touched down, which threw made things not nearly as tidy. But they were all safe.