New Years Day 2010 - 3 flights and an alarming incident...

Happy New Year! Well, I got a free pass from 'SWMBO' today so headed over to Marham to fly KI. Despite snow flurries and some fairly heavy snowfall on the journey there, the skies above Marham were a clear blue - perfect! Mind you, a bloody pheasant took my passenger-side wing mirror off by flying straight at the car. Grrrrrrrrrr!! I got a new toy for xmas, a tiny video camera, so thought I'd try that out by strapping it to my forehead... As the footage shows, that wasn't the best idea I've ever had, but will do better next time from a fixed position! I pre-flighted KI and was soon heading skywards, and before I knew it I was in the overhead at 5000' - time for some fun. The total flight time today spread over 3 flights was 1 hour 35 minutes and as ever, I did loads and loads of loops; On my first flight I was particularly pleased by doing a double loop; on flight number 2 and 3 I did 4 in a row which was fun, and proved that you can loop the Nipper all the way to the floor (typically I seem to lose 250' per loop). Next up were rolls, both left and right this time. I'm pleased to say that my rolls are getting a lot better; KI seems to roll much better to the right, and I don't think it's just down to poor technique on my part! Next I tried rolling off the bottom of a loop which was fun, and I managed this both ways. Max strain today was 5G although as its only transitory, its no problem at all. Makes me grin a lot though! During flight number 2 I felt something drop onto my left hand - rather worryingly it was the canopy shoot bolt! I knew that there was another part to the bolt somewhere in the cockpit so using very gentle manoeuvres I descended and brought KI in for a landing on 01. Fortunately I located the other part and satisfied myself that there were no other loose articles in the cockpit. After fitting a new stiffnut KI was good to go, so I did! On the last flight I introduced a new manoeuver, the wingover, which went well both left and right, so I did a 4-loop sequence from one of them. Very satisfying! That was it really; a great start to the New Year and I'm definitely improving (although I'm very aware that I'm still at the bottom of the learning curve!). Next time, I'd like to try spinning and then rolling off the top of the loop. Should be fun!!