Many years ago, as a new private pilot, I found myself dealing with a false sense of security and passenger distractions. It was a nice afternoon in southern California, and a couple of co-workers and I just finished work. They had never been in a small plane before, so we headed to Montgomery Field in San Diego. New paper license in hand, I preflighted the Cessna 172 and performed a weight and balance calculation.
The departure and flight up and down the coast was uneventful and very nice. After maybe an hour, we headed back to Montgomery Field, careful not to mistake what was then NAS Miramar for our destination. The landing on Runway 28 was fine and my friends seemed to enjoy themselves, maybe too much, because they wanted to see another takeoff and landing. We all kept talking about how fun the flight was while taxiing back to the runway’s departure end. Cleared for takeoff, here we go again for a quick trip in the pattern.
