This morning I took my girlfriend on a local flight for some touch-and-gos at Aurora State and McMinville. The morning was overcast with the ceiling at 3700 feet, so we cruised over to Aurora State at 3000 MSL. It was a busy day at UAO, with at least 3 airplanes in the pattern the entire time. On our first landing attempt on runway 35, departing traffic pulled onto the runway while we were on final, so I initiated a go-around.
The air was rough and my passenger was getting airsick, so after 4 touch-and-gos we left the pattern and turned towards McMinville. Gliders were operating off of runway 34, and engine-powered traffic were using runway 4 with a crosswind from the left. The air was way smoother in McMinville than Aurora, but my girlfriend’s condition was deteriorating after the first touch-and-go, so I made the second landing a full-stop. We got out, tied down the airplane, and walked around for a bit. We talked to some pilots in the FBO for a few minutes, enjoyed a free beverage, then hopped back in the plane and headed back to Hillsboro.
Each landing throughout the morning got progressively smoother, and the landing in Hillsboro was nearly perfect: almost no float, and a virtually imperceptible touchdown. Mission accomplished, but in hindsight I would have spent less time in the congested, turbulent air of the Aurora traffic pattern and instead spent more time at McMinville, as that probably would have been a less nauseating experience for my passenger.
