After working really hard on Airball for the past few weeks it was time to have some fun. I went out with Aden for a flight to sightsee over the hills South of San Jose, and do a few landings at E16.
We took off uneventfully and flew over Anderson Lake and Coyote Lake. I did some steeply banked turns with the excuse of having Aden check out some of the scenery below; little did he know that I was actually practicing my 45-degree steep turns! :)
We then turned towards E16. The AWOS was not working so I waited while another pilot flew in tentatively to check what direction the pattern was. It ended up being Rwy 14, so from 3500' over the Southern tip of Coyote Lake, I barreled down in a slip and ended up at pattern altitude in plenty of time to come in on the 45.
I did one landing which my compatriot called "smooth". It was a power-off 180.
I then did two low passes, to get the feel of moving around the runway. On my first pass I was a bit wobbly because I was trying to practice sliding left and right over the runway while keeping the nose pointed forward, and I slid a little too much to the left. On my next pass I just concentrated on staying straight and centered and it went fine.
I then did one more landing, also a power-off 180, and there I landed a little flat but it was ok.
We took off again and headed for the hills once more, then from there back to KRHV.
I was given straight in Rwy 31R while a Cessna was given a parallel straight in on Rwy 31L, and ADS-B showed them to be a few hundred feet lower than me! I had visions in my mind of my low wing airplane settling on top of their high wing one, so I offset waaaay out till I could see them, and then kept them in my sight. All went well.
For my landing, I again judged when to start my approach, then cut my engine and did the rest of it power off. It went well but again my landing was a bit too flat with a bit too much energy. Better than too little energy, I guess, but still. I would like to acquire the skill of better judgement.
We took off uneventfully and flew over Anderson Lake and Coyote Lake. I did some steeply banked turns with the excuse of having Aden check out some of the scenery below; little did he know that I was actually practicing my 45-degree steep turns! :)
We then turned towards E16. The AWOS was not working so I waited while another pilot flew in tentatively to check what direction the pattern was. It ended up being Rwy 14, so from 3500' over the Southern tip of Coyote Lake, I barreled down in a slip and ended up at pattern altitude in plenty of time to come in on the 45.
I did one landing which my compatriot called "smooth". It was a power-off 180.
I then did two low passes, to get the feel of moving around the runway. On my first pass I was a bit wobbly because I was trying to practice sliding left and right over the runway while keeping the nose pointed forward, and I slid a little too much to the left. On my next pass I just concentrated on staying straight and centered and it went fine.
I then did one more landing, also a power-off 180, and there I landed a little flat but it was ok.
We took off again and headed for the hills once more, then from there back to KRHV.
I was given straight in Rwy 31R while a Cessna was given a parallel straight in on Rwy 31L, and ADS-B showed them to be a few hundred feet lower than me! I had visions in my mind of my low wing airplane settling on top of their high wing one, so I offset waaaay out till I could see them, and then kept them in my sight. All went well.
For my landing, I again judged when to start my approach, then cut my engine and did the rest of it power off. It went well but again my landing was a bit too flat with a bit too much energy. Better than too little energy, I guess, but still. I would like to acquire the skill of better judgement.
