I had booked a couple of extra vacation days after the SNF week, as I didn’t know exactly when I would make it back home. On Tuesday, 03 Apr, I did some aircraft maintenance, including an oil change. Yesterday I finished the firewall forward inspection, inspected, cleaned and lubricated the tail wheel pivot, and then put everything back together.

Terry had suggested that we wash and wax the aircraft this weekend - I was completely floored when she offered to help with that huge job. But, the weather was decidedly nippy, with a very cold, strong north wind. So we defered that task until we get warmer weather.

Plan B was to fly to London, ON today, to have lunch at the Katana Kafé, a gourmet restaurant at the London airport, owned by Christain Dries, who owns Diamond Aircraft. In the “good old days”, before the local community discovered this restaurant, you could just show up and be sure to get a seat. But, now the London residents have flooded to it, and you really need reservations if you want to be sure to get in. I couldn’t get an answer on their phone yesterday, so I gave up on that plan, and moved to Plan C.

Plan C was a flight to Peterborough today to check out the recently opened Landing 27 Bistro. The previous Peterborough airport restaurant closed on short notice earlier this year, and it is good to see another restaurant finally take its place. We both enjoyed our meals - it was definitely worth the flight.

The winds were fairly strong in Peterborough, straight across the runway. It was rough on final, and I was stirring the pot with the stick to keep things going in the right direction during the landing. I got very lucky with the wing down touchdown, and the right wheel touched down so smoothly that at first I wasn’t sure whether it was on the ground or not. But, once I saw that the altitude wasn’t changing as I moved the stick fore and aft I realized that the right wheel was down and I closed the throttle, gently lowered the left wheel, and finished the landing. The winds in Smiths Falls were even stronger - the landing wasn’t quite as perfect, but it was still better than I had any right to expect. Landings usually go I cycles - I’m due for a few clangers now.