I told him I would call later when we were done with the picture-taking.I finally made it to the airport about 2:45 pm. My instructor had just returned from flying out for lunch when I arrived . I climbed in and we headed up for a few trips around the pattern. After a couple of landings he got out and told me to go have some fun. When I got up to altitude the radio was full of chatter from pilots with the same idea as me- get out and enjoy the weather.
I was going to fly to an airport just south of my home base for some landing practice but they had gliders in the air so I stayed around home and practiced some maneuvers. After a while I headed back to the airport for some landing practice. Our airport isn't too busy (which is a shame) but I was still on the lookout for traffic, mainly because my brother and a friend had flown to Portsmouth for lunch in my brother's Beech Debonair and they were due back at any time.
Sure enough, just after turning final I heard "Bonanza 123 entering left downwind for runway 22". It was my brother's Debonair with the friend at the controls. Some Beech fanatics get upset when you call a Debonair a Bonanza because it was a cheaper version of the Bonaza built to compete with less expensive competition from other manufacturers, although my brother isn't one of them. I think the friend just wanted to announce that he was flying a Bonanza
. Still, I thought I would have a little fun. He called "Bonanza 123 turning left base for runway 22". I announced that I would be doing a touch-and -go and then added "I thought that thing was a Debonair". He replied "get that plastic toy out of the way". I was laughing the whole time I was climbing out. (I'm training in a Flight Design CT and my brothers friend is checked out in it and is a frequent renter.) I asked them later how much gas they burned going out for lunch. They both just smiled.