20. Sendai to Hachinohe - 17 June 2004

	Passing Matsushima airport on Sendai Bay
	Hanamaki
	Approaching Hachinohe

This flight, at 147 nm, was not quite triple the distance of the last, but was undertaken in clear weather, so I saw much more of the landscape underneath.

Leaving Sendai, I clomb to 7,500 ft, following the course of the valley, tracking the VOR at Hanamaki, and identifying landmarks (mainly lakes and streams) from the map. Autogen density is high now, so cities show up very clearly. I passed Hanamaki, the approximate midpoint of my journey, then Lake Kitakami and pressed on toward the coast and Hachinohe.

Pattern entry was smooth, but I turned onto final a tad late and had to make some corrections. Nothing to panic over. Remembering my too-early stalls in recent flights, I was not slow to go up on the throttle when it looked like I was coming in too low. Overcompensated a bit there, and crossed the threshhold about 100 ft too high. The runway was plenty long, though, so I brought the plane down slowly and gently. Even so, there was a tiny bounce on initial contact, but only a tiny one.

I have now gone from one end of ONC G-11 to another. Hachinohe is on chart F-10, which I will be using from here on out until I turn around and head south again into Honshu. Next stop: the snow country of Hokkaido.