I had a bunch of comp time built up, and Friday was looking like being the best day of the week, so I took the day off and spent it at Smiths Falls. I flew first thing in the morning to gather a bit of static system position error data. After lunch I zipped up to Carp to visit Touch N Go Aviation, a pilot supply shop at Carp. I picked up a neat night light that straps onto your forehead, and some other odds and ends. I was very impressed to see that I only burned 1.9 USG from engine start to engine stop to get from Smiths Falls to Carp (24 nm each way), and 2.3 USG to come home (I did a touch and go in Smiths Falls on the way home, so the extra circuit cost me a few tenths of a gallon).

Today Terry and I flew to Muskoka for the Grassroots Aviation BBQ. It sure is pretty country up there - cottage country, with lots of lakes. I had no idea who Grassroots Aviation was, but it turned out that they supply raw materials and hardware to homebuilt aircraft builders. I picked up some floating platenuts that I need to improve the way the wheel pants are mounted. Bob and Christine were very nice people - we'll probably go back next year. It would have taken about 5.5 hours to drive to Muskoka, and we got there in an hour (plus 40 minutes driving to the airport, and another 30 minutes to get the plane out of the hangar, do the walkaround, etc).

I was glad to have the XM weather from the Aera 510, as some of the weather guessers were predicting a few thundershowers to develop. The public forecast guys were crying the blues, predicting doom and gloom all day. The aviation forecast guys said no showers until 11 PM. As it turned out, while we were on the ground in Muskoka, a line of convective activity developed between Muskoka and Smiths Falls. I left the XM weather on while we were on the ground, so I could run a radar loop before we left to better understand how things were developing. The radar loop gave the impression that the weather would pass through Smiths Falls before we got home, and that is the way things turned out. The runway was still wet when we landed, and the cells weren't very far off to the east, but they didn't get in our way.