N712MF 2.1 Some landing practice with Sergey

I went out with my friend Sergey who is a CFI-Sport for some landing practice at E16. We probably did at least 6 landings in total. Here's what I learned --

• Normal
• Takeoff
• All okay
• Landing
• CRAP checklist
• Turn off carb heat on final so you have power available for go-around
• Even with a short approach, call out final in a non towered airport because people expect this
• Short field
• Takeoff
• Do not rotate too early or too late
• Stick back when brake hold at full throttle
• In the SportStar, don't use any flaps
• Landing
• Keep 50 knots (or just under) on short final
• Once dialed in, use attitude to indicate airspeed
• Remember you are on the back side of the power curve
• Nose down means you go further
• Do not nose down and add speed
• Excess energy causes float
• Use throttle to adjust glideslope
• Soft field
• Takeoff
• Nothing really new - it's pretty easy
• Landing
• All my landings are already pretty much soft field technique

We did a lot of practice where I messed around with the short field technique. We tried one midfield power-off practice for an in pattern engine failure, and with all the power-off approaches I've been doing, it was pretty much a no brainer.

On the way back to KRHV, I tried to glide down and ended up with too much energy and had to go around. That went okay, but Sergey's point was I could have rescued it had I perceived my extra energy earlier on, slipped for a while, climbed to dump speed, put down the flaps, then helicoptered down. As it turns out, I ended up going around and starting the go-around with full flaps, which is a difficult thing to do in the SportStar with all that drag. :)

N712MF 1.3 flight to E16 with Mark

Quick flight to E16 and back with my friend Mark. 2 landings total.

N712MF 2.1 Flight to KVWI with Aden

Flew to KWVI with Aden just for fun. 4 landings total.

We flew to the Moss Landing power plant then made a 45 entry into the KWVI rwy 20 pattern. I tried a short approach and overshot because I was too close in, so I went around. The next landing was a regular approach since I was behind a Cessna in the pattern.

We had a Diet Coke at the cafe.

We then took off and I did a couple more landings, both short approaches, and both worked fairly well this time. We then flew over the coast and over Santa Cruz, then up Hwy 17, over to San Jose, where we got sent over the Pruneyards to KRHV. The power-off approach to KRHV was a bit dicey: I ended up short of energy and would have landed on the displaced threshold had I not added a bit of power.

N712MF 1.6 Flight to the coast with Jocelyn

Flew to the coast with my friend Jocelyn -- her first ride in a truly "little" airplane.

We took off from KRHV and flew a left downwind 31L departuer. We did one landing at E16 then flew off to the coast and came back up following Highway 17, then through the KSJC Class C and back to KRHV.

One landing at E16, which was a normal (not short) approach. Worked out fine except I did a bit of a wiggle when a gust caught me in the middle of the runway.

The landing at KRHV was a short approach and it worked out fairly well. I did end up rounding out a bit earlier than I would like to, probably because I arrived with a bit too little energy. Still a pretty late round-out by any normal standards, but my goal is to arrive at 60 kias at the threshold (or as close as possible) then have a long flare. :)

I was hoping to fly over KSJC midfield but at some point they just said to proceed direct KRHV ;) -- but at least we ended up flying close to downtown San Jose which was cool.

N712MF 1.7 Practice flight to Byron

I showed up to fly N712MF today. It was open all day but I failed to make a reservation so it was taken when I got there. :) I ended up staying at the airport for a while working on the computer until it was back, then off I went.

I did 4 landings today.

I took off and went to Byron, did 3 short approaches, then returned to KRHV and did 1 more short approach.

One of the short approaches at Byron was pretty perfect -- arrived on speed, slowed down just right, and made the first turnoff. The others were with too much energy. I think I am setting myself up a bit too close to the runway, then turning in a sort of kinked way rather than in a single, smooth curve. But in all cases I made the second turnoff of the runway without trouble, and they were full stall landings with a complete flare and soft touchdown. On one landing I failed to account for a bit of crosswind and got blown across, but not more than a couple of feet.

I tried to do a better job of speed control on climbout, and noticed that I'm getting off speed simply because I'm failing to keep my eyes on the relationship between the nose and the horizon. Something to look at the next time I fly.

N712MF 2.0 Flight to KLVK with work buddy Michael

A work buddy of mine worked as a software engineer at Rockwell-Collins and was always interested in aviation stuff. Once, we drove back together from a company offsite and we talked about airplane stuff all the way. I had long promised I'd get him in the air, and with my family out of town, this was the time.

We spent a bunch of time talking about the briefing and preflight, with me showing him the various airspaces, how we check the weather, what a briefing looks like, and all that. Then we preflighted, got the airplane gassed up a bit, and took off.

I have been reading more about Rotax engines and have been watching the temperatures more closely. They went into the yellow zone (very far from red, but still) on climbout, so I made sure to give the engine some time to cool at level flight before continuing my ascent.

We did a tiny bit of maneuvering over Lake Del Valle, including an awkward time when Michael's headset volume was accidentally turned down so we spent a while trying to figure out why he could not hear me. There are several squelch and volume knobs everywhere so we had to diddle each one.

We landed un-eventfully at KLVK. I planned a glide into Runway 25 Left, and I had maybe a bit of excess energy but was able to burn it by applying full flaps. I ended up doing what I intended to do, which was to arrive at my flare near the numbers at my standard landing speed of 60 knots, then flare till a full stall landing.

We were given taxi instructions which I flubbed (and I am very embarrassed about this) -- we ended up on a dead end because I missed a taxiway. We tried to do a 180 turn but failed, so I asked for permission to shut down and turn the plane around and they said ok. What shame. Finally I got around and they asked me to expedite crossing runway 25 Left and Right, which I did ... expeditiously. As I careened across the runways and zoomed into a taxiway, they noted to me, "2 Mike Foxtrot authorized to resume normal taxi". Right. As in, slow it down a little. Roger. Thank goodness for understanding controllers.

Lessons from this experience are (I use Foreflight):

1. I think I am too accustomed to flying into very familiar airports so once I'm landed I'm like, "job done!" and I pay insufficient attention to airport "driving directions".
2. I need to mount the iPad where it's visible all the time, rather than having it handheld and putting it in the pouch when not being used. I recently removed the RAM mounting ball from it to take it on a trip but I have one of these on order so I should be ok soon....
3. Study runway diagrams of airports before going there.
4. Use the taxi diagram.
5. KLVK has one short and one long runway. If you are used to KRHV, where there are two runways of the same length, you will be confused. Don't.

We had lunch at Beeb's and then took back off departing Southbound.

Once again, I gave the engine some cooling time then climbed to 4,500' MSL to demonstrate some maneuvers to Michael. The air was smooth, so I showed him turns with and without rudder to illustrate adverse yaw, and did some steep turns. We also checked out the Del Valle reservoir, which is pretty. Then we came back to KRHV.

My descent and landing into KRHV was uneventful. I did another full-stall landing with minimal drift and landed quite well.

I should add: While at KOSH, I spent a while using the Redbird crosswind simulator:

https://simulators.redbirdflight.com/products/xwind

It has been a HUGE help in teaching me the right sorts of control inputs to use when landing!

N712MF 2.2 Practice

I haven't flown solo for a while (despite having done LOTS of right seat time with my friend as we flow from KRNO to KOSH for Oshkosh, then KOSH KORD to drop me off for my flight ... that's a whole 'nother story). I planned to take a work buddy up the next day so I went out for some practice.

It was wicked turbulent. I started with some air work -- stalls and steep turns -- over the reservoirs South of KRHV. These went well.

I tried to do a landing at E16 and basically gave up. My first solo landing after a few weeks' hiatus was definitely not going to be that challenging -- not without the airplane being useable afterwards, that is. So I decided discretion is the best part of valor, did a go-around and went back to KRHV.

At KRHV, I was given runway 31 Right for repeated back-taxi and landing practice, and I did (let's say...) 8 landings in total, including the last one which was a short approach and went very well. Apart from one where I landed a bit flat, the remainder were full-stall landings with the mains touching down first and the nose gear coming down softly afterwards.

N616SF 4.0 Liam mountain checkout

I signed up for a mountain checkout at my FBO. They signed me up with a new-to-me CFI and a C172RG "Cutlass". I was to show up at 8am on Sunday, bright eyed and bushy tailed.

I got the POH for the aircraft, and visited it once to see what it looked like. I was thinking of doing a full VFR flight plan but I was pretty busy yesterday. Anyway, much of the training is about planning so that was not an issue.

We spoke a lot about the various effects we need to worry about in mountain flying, including optical illusions and weather, but the most important of course was aircraft performance. We wrote down the book numbers for KRHV, KPVF (Placerville) and KTRK (Truckee).

We then departed on a KRHV KPVF KTRK KRHV flight.

Much of the work of the flight was about getting used to the complex airplane, and learning how to mess with mixture / prop / throttle controls and control manifold pressure and RPM rather than just having a simple "gas pedal" to shove.

The CFI taught me to set the pitch to a known quantity, then accept the performance the airplane gives me. This is to avoid chasing a climb rate and ending up in a stall, or worse. This is great advice -- I would only add that a more ideal metric would be, not pitch, but rather AoA. But in the absence of a reliable AoA gage, this will do.

For our landing in KPVF, I made the standard mistake of coming in too high because of the angle of the runway and the fact that it's on a plateau. One newbie illusion confirmed. :) We taxied back and took off right away. That was uneventful.

We then flew to KTRK, in the process going over a bunch of ridge lines that I swore up and down we would never make it over. Then we descended and landed, in some rather nasty turbulence, but overall without too much fuss. I was expecting a scary feeling of careening down the runway (high density altitude means high true airspeed, right?) but for the most part that was not a thing.

We shut down at KTRK, gawked at the zillion-dollar jets, tried to go to the cafe and failed (it was closed), then got back in and got ready to depart.

The rotation was really the most important lesson. It took all of 5 seconds, but it was interesting. I am used to rotating and getting this burst of speed and a leap into the air, from which vantage point I can correct my heading for the prevailing crosswind and get going. Instead, the airplane wheezed into the air and I was caught drifting off to the side, dangerously close to the taxi lights. At that low height, I felt like I didn't want to bank too much, but there we were. My CFI was on the controls with me and we got fixed up, but it was really eye-opening.

We circled once around KTRK for climb, during which we went from +1,000 FPM to zero to (my CFI noticed, I did not) about -200 FPM. Finally we had enough power to get over the ridges and we made an uneventful return to KRHV.

In the process, my CFI taught me a bit more about the ethos of flying for performance and range, not just "managing to get into the air". For example, he had me reduce my altitude and get less of a headwind, and we ended up getting back faster. Very nifty.

Overall I'd say the main lessons are:

1. Plan plan plan plan plan, then plan some more. Leave nothing to chance.

2. Take baby steps starting from airports like O22 (Columbia) and expand my envelope slowly.

N188EV 0.9 Short practice flight

I'm taking a week's "staycation" so I decided to take another short practice flight and try some more maneuvers to say current.

I took off on a slightly but not horribly windy day. It was wicked hot out. I was baking under that canopy. But once in the air, things seemed okay.

I set myself up to fly alternately 4,500' and 5,500' (VFR cruising altitudes) up and down the area from VPUTC to Coyote Lake, watching for traffic, staying away from the flight path of the commercial heavies coming into KSJC, and monitoring Norcal on 120.1. All looked good.

At some point I pushed full power at 4,500' and -- lo and behold -- the engine would not reach its full RPM. Now in hindsight of course I know this was due to the density altitude, but at that moment for some reason my brain told me that my engine was not making full power and I needed to high-tail it to my airport.

I was quite high over VPUTC at that point, and so I maintained altitude to a straight-in Rwy 31 Right. Once I felt I had the field made, I cut power and slipped in. I tried to go a little bit further than usual because the ATIS was reporting about 14 knots down the runway. Unfortunately, I had too much energy and was going to overshoot. Experience points. Next time be aware of this sight picture and remember, "too much energy".

There were not too many people around so tower gave me 31L or 31R at my option. I asked to make an abbreviated pattern and was told I could maneuver as needed. I did a 360 over the field and came in for an uneventful landing. However, during the 360, I needed power to make a nice wide-open pattern. Again experience points: Next time, if you are going to do this maneuver, judge early if you need to do a 360 rather than figure it out at the last minute.

I could probably have made a tighter 360 and landed without power, but at that point I had power -- I was not in an emergency -- so there was no reason to do anything excessively weird. I was still near a reasonable pattern altitude and so I chose not to do any heroics.

All in all, this was an interesting experience of actually being a little bit scared in the airplane, and seeing how I reacted. I have a book about Engine Out Survival Tactics, and I read it through and it recommends learning your airplane's glide performance and rehearsing a specific maneuver, including target altitudes AGL at various points. I can see now how this would have been really useful. I'm motivated to practice this more (within the bounds of safety -- no sense creating an emergency just to practice emergencies...).

And about failing to realize that my engine does not make full RPM at 4,500' on a hot day? I feel very dumb.

N188EV 1.6 Short practice and intro trip with Bobby

I went for another short practice flight with the son of some friends of ours -- he is 12 years old and is quite talented with anything vehicle related. For example, he just hopped onto my wife's Tour Easy recumbent bike and started riding around as though there were nothing to it.

We flew from KRHV South down to Coyote Lake at 3500', then got the ATIS from E16 and decided not to land there. We dipped down to 2500' and crossed the Coyote Valley. We saw it was foggy around the coast so we turned round and came back the way we came, climbing again over Coyote Lake. We then called in and made a straight-in into KRHV again.

The E16 ATIS was reporting, if I recall correctly, 14G16. Not horrible, but it was a slightly bumpy day and I didn't want to make harrowing bumpy approaches that test my comfort level while I had a brand-new pax with me. I would be distracted, and there would be too much mental pressure to "succeed" rather than back off if I didn't like things. So I decided to just fly today.

I demonstrated some maneuvers to Bobby, like why we have a rudder and what a steep turn looks like, and he seemed excited about it. I told him (and his parents) to get an intro lesson with a CFI so he could get the experience of actually being on the controls.

For our landing, I was at 3,500' and was given a straight-in. As usual, I tried to teach myself how to glide in. I judged where I could cut my power then did so and tried to maintain VG (59 kias) and remain perfectly coordinated. I ended up not having enough energy, and that doesn't surprise me -- we had about a 14 or so knot wind blowing down the runway. So let that be a lesson to me about my glide performance with a headwind. :) I added power and came in on a fairly normal approach path for the last bit.

N712MF 1.5 Short practice flight

I've been very busy with my work on http://airball.aero/ (including data gathering flights with other folks) so -- ironically -- I've been too deeply embedded in the flying world to fly solo. Well that needs fixing. I went out solo today to just get some practice.

It was eventful.

First was the springus problem. The Rotax has two springs that go from the carbs to the rubber doohickeys that attach the manifold pressure equalization tube to the intake manifolds. It's not clear why they are there. But one was loose. The mechanics came over, said yeah, we have no idea why this thing is here either, but if it's there it oughta be on properly, and tightened the thing.

Next came the taxi debacle. KRHV is being resurfaced, so it was all orange cones and weird taxi instructions. At some point I ended up "lost" and asked for progressive instructions and was making U-turns all around the ramp. They were patient.

After that was the carb heat mystery. I added carb heat on runup but nothing happened, and the knob seemed surprisingly smooth. I taxied back and popped the cowl and the little mechanical things were indeed mechanicking, and the mechanics told me that if that's going on, then it's working. So I guess I just had a very low carb heat RPM drop day.

Off I launched. It was blowing 13 knots down the runway, so not much crosswind but bumpy. I bumped off to E16 and tried a landing, which went okay but was scary due to the bumps. I tried another one and decided to say screw it and go around.

I then came back to KRHV and had an uneventful landing.

All in all, my feeling is that I have allowed myself to get a bit rusty and therefore need quite a bit more serious training to get comfortable again.

N98495 1.2 Kate

Another C172 practice flight.

N12234 1.1 Irene

Quick C172 flight with a CFI.

N188EV 1.6 Chickening out with Aden

Our FBO recently updated their rental rules such that we can land at up to 3,000' density altitude without a mountain checkout. I have been always wanting to go to Columbia (O22), which is just over 2,000' MSL, and previously out of reach without the checkout. So I decided today was the day to try and go.

We took off uneventfully into pretty icky turbulence, bumpety bumping along through the mountain passes out to the Altamont Pass and towards Stockton. Even in the Central Valley, it was really bumpy. The ceiling was somewhere around 4,500 scattered to broken, with lots of flat-bottomed clouds and lots of bumps underneath them.

I decided to chicken out, and we turned back and bumped back to KRHV, where we bumped up and down through the pattern. I selected 15 degrees of flaps and kept my speed up through the approach, and ended up making a pretty soft landing.

Once on the ground, I chatted with the local CFIs and got some words of wisdom.

1. What I was experiencing was mountain waves, not thermals. The flat bottomed clouds were that way for the same reasons that they look that way when they are due to thermals.

2. Everybody else was getting beaten around today.

3. The bumps in the SportStar were certainly way more severe than I would have experienced were I in a C172 or similar.

4. That said, it was not an unsafe day to fly; I could probably have continued up to Columbia to take a peek from a safe distance, had I wanted to keep bumpety-bumping along.

5. That said, there's no way a landing at Columbia would have been advisable.

It's good that I got out there with the assumption that I was going to abort if stuff didn't feel right at any point. Also thanks to my pax Aden for being cool about it and not pressuring for mission completion!

N915L 1.7 Jasper

I went up with an AeroDynamic CFI today for a jaunt in a C172 to see how things go since I'm thinking of getting my medical (it's a long and sordid story). It was fun and amazing how much more stable the C172 is compared to the SportStar! It was a beautiful day and we flew over Los Banos!

N188EV 2.9 Meander to KHAF with Melissa

Sightseeing trip with Melissa. Flew KRHV KHAF and made a landing, had lunch, took off and did 2 practice landings, returned to KRHV and did one go-around and one landing. Total 4 landings.

Departed KRHV downwind, flew on the East side of Hwy 101 to about Gilroy, then cut over the Coyote Valley. Returned Northward towards Mount Umunhum, climbing as we went to maintain terrain separation and safe gliding distance to hospitable terrain. Orbited a little to sight-see over the mountain and the Almaden park where we often hike. Did a cruise descent in the direction of Bonny Doon Airport, and continued up the coast to KHAF. Entered right traffic Rwy 30 on the 45 and made an uneventful power-off 180 -- landed a little bit long but was a good soft full-stall landing.

We parked at KHAF and went for something to eat.

Returned to closed traffic and 2 landings. Both were attempts at power-off 180s. One was okay. The other was iffy because I added flaps at the last minute; this made me float; and I sort of gave up on steering the plane while it was skimming a foot or so off the ground; when it finally touched down, there was a little bit of side load. Then flew via the Crystal Springs reservoir and KSJC class C transition to KRHV. Attempted one power-off 180 but ended up being bounced around and decided to go around. The second landing was a standard powered approach and was uneventful.

There were a bunch of fun cumulus clouds and interesting bumpiness underneath, and of course lots of lovely scenery, especially when we were at 9,500' over Mount Umunhum and could see the entire Bay Area from the Southern-most tip of Monterey Bay all the way to San Francisco laid out underneath us!

N712MF 2.2 Practice flight to E16

I haven't flown since early last December, so it was time for a tough shakedown to get back in the saddle, and today was the appointed day.

I took off from KRHV departing downwind, and did a lot of air work over the lakes (Anderson and Coyote Lakes) which included:

• Steep turns -- all within PTS, some more impressive than others
• No flaps power off stalls -- doing well
• Full flaps power of stalls -- also doing well
• Deeper stalls with a bit of "falling leaf" recovery -- did ok, remembered to use rudder not stick

I also did a couple of pretend engine-outs where I just set up a descent, noted altitudes, and then got out of there. (I am hesitant to do any truly ambitious power-off practice solo at this point.) In retrospect, I did not remember to follow my checklist, which is very important. Next time.

I did a 3 full-stop landings at E16, all short approaches. I went around once because I seemed to be low on energy and was at risk of landing on the blast pad before the threshold, so I started picking the first taxiway as my aiming point, and with timing my flare properly, I was able to nail my landing spot quite consistently. Wind was 310@9-ish on rwy 32, so no xwind to speak of and no gusts, but still. This is reasonable progress towards my goal of true power-off 180 performance in any wind conditions.

On the way back to KRHV, I called in at 3,000 feet over UTC, and was told to make straight in rwy 31 (Left or Right, I don't recall). Just after that, someone in a Cessna called over UTC, didn't give their altitude, and was *also* asked to make straight in rwy 31 something-or-the-other. Yikes. I suspected I was higher than them and feared pancaking on top of them on approach. So I called in and they asked us for our positions, and the Cessna reported me in sight. Whew! :)