Went to airport and had lunch with the guys. Fabricated two pairs of aluminum chocks while hoping for the wind to die down. It didn't. Preflighted in the hangar and rolled her out into the 20 degree weather. Wind was about 10 to 15 but right down the runway. Decided to give it a go.
Taxied to the end of 28 and called for a radio check. Several attempts - no go. Taxied back and shut down. I had previously set my transmit sidetone slaved to the volume control. Bad idea I guess, since then when I set the volume for a comfortable level in the headset on transmit, I couldn't hear incoming transmissions. Went into setup mode and lowered the sidetone level.
Taxied back out and ran the checklist one more time. No more excuses. There comes a time when you have triple checked everything and then checked it again, and there is nothing else to do but shove the throttle in.
N37JP and plain old JP (me) were off the ground very very quickly and climbing through 500 as we passed the FBO. Was at 3000 before I took a breath and remembered to raise the flaps.
Radioed notes to Carolyn on the ground. Several things to fix before the next flight. Need weatherstripping around the canopy for one. Windy in there! Also have a heavy right wing. Prop is probably pitched too high - WOT 5500 RPM @ 4000'. Will leave it for now.
Landing in gusty wind uneventful. All in all, a great day. No good airborne pictures - these will have to do.
