Building hours presents lots of opportunities for fun flights. I picked Maja up from the our house and flew to Lancaster for lunch. The R-44 is so much better in cross country than the R-22. Scratch that. The R-44 is better than the R-22 in almost every way. When I first started flying the 44 I preferred the more nimble 22 because it was what I was used to. The hydraulic controls, and the pendular action of the long main rotor mast made hovering a bit different and I felt awkward. As I’ve now gotten quite a few hours in the 44, I absolutely love it. You can take 4 people. It can carry actual fuel. It is far more comfortable to fly in cross country flight. The R-22 can be exhausting. Its faster. And the ample power makes getting in and out of confined areas more feasible. There are definitely confined landings that I can do in the 44 that I would not attempt in the 22.

Lancaster is a great airport. Friendly and considerate controllers combined with good facilities and a great restaurant. Hard to beat for that $100 burger.

Its winter, so our fields look brown and barren, but landing back at our house we overflew our three horses who ran a little bit – all in all they were not freaked out.