A working airplane, nice weather, and grandparents eager to visit the little brat, create a pretty flying opportunity.

Yesterday, conditions made possible a trip that I’ve been imagining for a few months: bringing my parents to Toronto from Windsor for a few hours, then returning them back home. By car, two such round trips would take around 15 hours, making it impractical, but with an airplane, it’s far better. (OK, two car round trips would be silly – they could just drive themselves.)

It’s not perfect. We had airport ferry delays, oil top-up delays, and refueling delays. But it’s pretty good: 80 minutes each way in calm air. My normally nervous nellie parents took turns drowsing off in the back, while the other took the controls briefly. They got to experience flying low as we paralleled the 401 highway, flying high, flying in marginal conditions through some surprise snow squalls, and finally flying at night. I logged over six hours, of which the passengers enjoyed half.

While in Toronto, of course they ate up little Eric as he held court. He kindly dispensed noises, movements, laughter, and only a bit of hazardous waste, to the visitors. That last bit was probably a royal put-down due to the absence of presents. Next time they will know better. Just kidding.