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! :)