"First" solo (in a long time)

 It's always better to reinforce skills with repetition, especially if that can come with no delay between sessions.  Therefore, I did another flight today right after yesterday's review sign off.  To better round-out some of the topics I need to refresh, I planned to take a "mini cross country" around a few area airports.  None of them would be far enough to qualify as official cross country time, but would be enough to practice with the newer avionics, GPS, and try landing at another unfamiliar field.  

I thought I would have enough time to make a complete circuit, but then decided to do a couple of touch-and-goes at the home field before departing to the first stop.  That, combined with a bit of a late start, turned a circuit into an out-and-back trip.  But that was still enough to work on a new (to me) GPS interface and the Aspen avionics suite.  I'm still partial to the traditional six-pack analog instruments, but this was a good time to work with the new systems on a panel similar to this one (but with even fewer dials):

I realized that I have flown three times as many hours with someone else in the cockpit with me (usually an instructor) as solo.  Combined with such a long time out of any cockpit meant that solo flight in an unfamiliar plane in an unfamiliar place was quite unsettling.  Looking back on what was to be a fairly short circuit, it may have been a bit too optimistic even without the time crunch.  

Though it was a relatively calm, clear day, there was just a bit of mountain turbulence which made me keep the speed down to about 90 knots.  Plus, visibility was degrading a bit from the western wildfires which made it more difficult to pick out the airport.  But this gave me a chance to just fly low and slow and take a few moments to just look out the window and enjoy flying again.

My destination was a single, narrow strip with no glideslope lighting (very common at rural fields).  The winds were light and blowing right down the runway.  I made my radio calls, entered the pattern, and landed with only a little bounce at the deserted field.  In addition to the normal concerns, I also took a moment to mentally look for wildlife on the runway and go through the confirmation that I was good to land rather than go around for any reason.  I also picked out a go-around point, which identifies when I've gone too far down the runway before touching down.  If we don't make it before that point - especially on a short runway, we go around.

But not today.  I made the landing and exited to the taxiway to start the takeoff run back at the start of the runway.  I also took a moment to reset the GPS back to the home field and double-check the weather.

Returning back, I did another touch-and-go because I had a few extra minutes, and then landed to wrap up my "first" solo back in the pilot's seat.