Four Good Landings

Busy 9/11, but finally got some flying in before bed. Decided to do some touch-and-go landing practice after all. Took off from Cape Girardeau and headed south towards Sikeston Memorial, an airport about the size of Dalton's. As I got closer and tuned in their traffic (no tower, like Dalton), I realized there was a Piper Cherokee doing touch-and-goes there already. He was still there when I arrived, so I joined him. Here's my first landing, a bit high maybe, but right down the middle:

That's supposed to be a 100' wide runway, but it doesn't look it. Dalton seems much wider, but it's also 100 foot. Maybe the markings on Dalton's runway make it seem wider? Anyhow, after touching down and then powering back up and returning to the pattern, I got this shot of the Piper landing as I was flying the downwind leg:

(click to enlarge)

Hard to see him, but zoom in and look on the far left of the image just above the runway. We were probably never less than a mile apart, but at that range I could see him without any magnification. In fact, I generally fly at about 80%, so I'm actually zoomed out a bit.

I flew around and made one more landing, lower this time but still right on the number:
The Piper flew off after that one, so I left too and headed East to Mississippi County Airport (still in Missouri). About that time, my seven-year-old came down and wanted to fly, so I let him take the controls for a few minutes until we got to the airport. He let me land it, this time on a 60 foot wide runway, and just perfect:
After we watched that on replay, I had to pause the flight and tuck him in. Then back to the basement to finish the flight. I just did one touch-and-go here because it was getting late, so I headed back to Cape Girardeau. About 20 miles out I requested clearance and was instructed to enter base leg left, runway 28. That means you don't fly the full pattern, just come in perpendicular to the runway and then make a left turn and land.

I followed the instructions, but came in a little too close, so when I made the turn, I was too high. Fortunately, it's a really long runway, 6499 feet (about triple what I need), so that wasn't a problem. I landed long, but right on the dotted line:
All-in-all just an outstanding flight, almost an hour in the air with four nearly perfect landings. I feel a lot better than I did after my first landing here in Missouri. I think I'm ready to try that new plane now.