The morning’s mission was to pop down to a non-towered airport on the Gulf of Mexico to meet some friends for lunch. Naturally, I got a late start, so I stayed high as I neared the destination until tucking the nose down and keeping the power up in an attempt to make up a minute or two. Alas, I erred significantly when letting down and found myself way too high and way too fast when I should have been entering the traffic pattern. The only thing for it was to keep the power back, level off and make a descending 360-degree right turn to bleed off some speed and let me get things back under control. Which is what I did.
Feeling rather feisty and not having done a steep turn lately, I wracked the airplane into a 45-degree bank and began my 360, looking out the window to verify my position as I circled out over the water. As the airplane slowed, I dropped the gear and turned my attention back to the panel, to check airspeed and other important things.
