So I went flying in the 340A for the first time this year on Wed.

I hadn’t been up, first due to the strain of the issue that led to my surgery and then the surgery itself, then the healing process. While I wasn’t too sure about it, again, one has to keep up if yer gonna keep on keepin’ on.

So I went to the airport, and they had already pulled the 340 out so they could get to some other plane stored behind it, which was convenient for me. Preflighted, fired it up, and taxiied to the active runway.

Called for a radio check, did the runup per the checklist (since I hadn’t flown in a month I paid particular attention to the checklist) then called my departure on CTAF, pulled across the hold-short line and lined up. Ran up to full power, released the brakes and accelerated to takeoff speed.

Climbed out at 1000 ft per minute, did a circuit of the pattern, and landed….not a perfect landing, but not bad. Slight crosswind from the right, Firmer that I generally do, but on centerline and where I wanted to touch down. Full stop-taxi-back and took off again. This time departing for an RNav approach.

Which I did perfectly until some asshole who I have never seen at the airport before cut right in front of me.. No radio calls, nothing. Flying on a more or less perpendicular vector below me, then suddenly turned and aimed for the Final Approach fix that I was descending towards. Then, after I called on CTAF to state that I was breaking off my approach, he belatedly called that he was 8 miles out on the same Rnav….except our near collision (and it was less than half a mile and less than 500 ft spacing) happened closer to 5 miles out, at the final fix, not the initial fix which was 9 miles out..he wasn’t even sure where he was, I dunno, maybe he was just one of those assholes…. Irritating though. Such is the fun of flying at uncontrolled airports…and why I have the instrumentation I do so I get traffic alerts early. There have been a LOT of near misses at the airport where this happened in the past few months, so much so that the FAA is likely to get involved. Lots of flight schools and an ever increasing amount of traffic is causing this.

Anyway, after that fun, I circled back to the initial fix and started the approach over. Again, a decent approach, slow descent from the initial fix to the final approach fix, then follow the glide slope and localizer all the way down,  this time all the way to a landing.  While I was on the approach, I heard 2 other planes in the pattern yell on the radio at the asshole who made me break off. He never made a “final” call, and never told anyone where he was in the pattern and just kinda bulled his way through.  (I’ve called the flight school that owns the airplane to complain, but that’s pretty much all I can do, they are at another airport 40 miles away and it is likely this person was on a solo practice instrument flight.)

After that landing though I gotta say that my gut and associated musculature was telling me it was time to stop, so I did.  I guess I am not as healed as I thought.

So 2 landings one (and sorta a half) practice Rnav approach (no foggles or safety pilot so it doesn’t count in the logbook as an instrument approach) and 0.8 hours.

But I am gonna have to work harder to get my gut muscles back to strength. I see the doc on Friday so we will see what he says. I think I need some exercises, but I wanna wait and see what the doc says first.

I have a trip upcoming at the end of the month, so I gotta get back to flying shape.