Actually, I am not playing devils advocate. After a "risk analysis" I opted to go ahead and fly it by myself. I based my decision upon the following.
I don't perform at my best with someone watching over me. I hate the biennial flight with the instructor although I admit that it is beneficial in that it forces me to react to sudden situation changes and practice engine failures. Yesterday I didn't need the pressure of being observed, I am fairly self critical and make some effort to keep my skills up normally.
The aircraft is a 3 axis microlight and is relatively easy to fly.
I have been "less than current" a few times before for viarious lengths of time. I missed two or three months after hospital surgery, twice, and nearly five months while the aircraft was repaired following storm damage. The first flights went well, including the landings, in all three cases.
The weather conditions were good and the wind was forecast to be in a good direction for the strip. In the event the wind was light and variable so the landing wouldn't necessarily be in the expected direction or shortened by the wind speed. I judged it was still acceptable.
I was well rested and in the right frame of mind for flying. I see that there is another thread about flying just to keep a licence valid whether you want to fly or not. I don't do that as I find it counter productive. My mind was ahead of the aircraft from the preflight until the drive home.
The aircraft is mine. Nobody puts me under pressure to take a check pilot for insurance purposes after 28 days (there it is again, 28 days!). If the aircraft is "US" nobody else is inconvenienced.
After considering the above I decided that the biggest thing playing upon my mind was the landing back at the home strip. The strip is not too long, 380 metres with trees just before the threshold when the wind is westerly. It is not too wide at 12 metres so crosswinds can be a bit demanding. Another issue is that it is not completely flat which makes it look much shorter from when you turn final until you come to a stop. It is on the top of a hillside and suffers curl over when there is any south in the wind, which there has been regularly recently. Not yesterday though.
Whenever my currency is low or the conditions for getting back into my home strip look to be challenging I do what I did yesterday. I fly to a nearby strip which is almost exactly twice the length and twice the width and is the same orientation and I shoot a few touch and goes until I am really comfortable and hitting the numbers. Then I return to the home strip relaxed and ready for it.
I was pleased with my performance yesterday. One overshoot which I caused by being slow to notice being so high that I couldn't side slip enough to rescue it. The slab sided Rans S6 would practically drop out of the sky when slipped but the current aircraft is a bit more slippery and doesn't go so steep. Then I did two good approaches and greaser landings. I headed back to the home strip and, after doing a fly by to check the windsock (the wind was a bit variable all day), completed a tidy circuit and a good landing.
I am still not ready to be taking passengers (I don't want the responsibility or the distraction) but I am comfortable to go on my own again, soon.
Last edited by rans6andrew; 10th April 2016 at 21:10.
Reason: finger trouble in the typing!