Buzzards!

Today we started out with light to medium rain in the area, so we scooted up north to a grass strip (48X) named Manatee. I like landing on grass and tight little strips with trees and shrubs. The buildings, shrubs and stuff give me a much better feel for the ground than 150-foot wide runways. I had a couple of nice passes and touch and go's, so we made a full stop and taxied back. One thing about even a good grass strip is that it adds drag under the wheels, the little Remos wheels aren't any bigger than a lawnmower, so it takes higher power to start it rolling. Manatee looks like the kind of place where a bunch of old airplane nuts spend all their time fixing up home-built airplanes and lying to each other. I'll need someplace like that one day.
The second flight today was back down to Venice for touch and go's (landing practice) Sherman says I had three good landings today. Since I logged six, that's 50-50! I enjoy the challenge of landing. Takeoffs in crosswinds are also fun in a very light airplane, but working the pattern and figuring out the landing is where the money is.
Everybody was very well behaved today down at Venice, but we still had a little excitement. An older guy in a Beech Baron took off with a window open and wanted to do an immediate return to base. First thing is, unless the window is different from standard production, it just opens inward by the pilot's left side. Okay, reach up and close the hole! And even a Baron isn't wide enough that you couldn't reach a window on the copilot side too! But we weren't in the airplane with all that noise and wind. What caused us the problem was when he reported that he was mid-field on the downwind leg for Runway 22. You see, WE were mid-field on the downwind leg for Runway 22! And we could not see him. I held altitude and heading and we sorted out that he had not climbed back to pattern altitude of 1000 feet, but was scooting under us at 500 feet. No problem! We just extended out and did a 360 degree right turn to let him land and clear.
The area off the approach end of Runway 22 has some very nice golf-course homes with ponds all over it. By now the sun was out and the puffy little cloudlets were at 1200 feet along with buzzards riding the thermals over that golf course subdivision. We flew under five, over several and did an F-16 imitation to avoid a pair circling. Those are big birds! Sherman says that's what the prop is for, but I'd rather use it for getting around. It's wooden composite, strong and light, but 8 pounds of carrion-eater would not be good for it! And the mess on the windshield would be nauseating. I took some video with the Flip camera, but the homemade bean bag mount was aimed too low and I got nearly three hours of instrument panel and shoulders.
Tomorrow, I fly twice and then take my written exam. Another day of fun mistakes that just seem to work themselves out.