N291DR 1.8 Flight to Byron with Sam

This was Sam's first flight in a small airplane. He ended up with me, in an LSA, in the afternoon, going towards the Central Valley (there was fog towards the coast). Lucky him?

Takeoff was uneventful, and we flew to Byron and landed in a rather gusty wind on Rwy 23. We walked around and talked about planes, then took off straight out Rwy 23, flew around Mount Diablo, then landed at KRHV.

My first attempt at landing at KRHV was rather embarrassing. I came in fast, tried to "rescue" things by making it a wheel landing, bounced, and ended up going around. My next attempt was successful, though nowhere near as short as I would like.

In general, I think I need more practice doing basic landings in gusty, cross-windy conditions. I think I was actually better at these when we first got 1DR, when I was practicing all the time.

N291DR 1.6 Flight to Hollister with Lauren

I took my friend and neighbor Lauren for her first ever small plane flight!

We took off uneventfully to a clearing but somewhat bumpy late morning sky. On the way South, I demonstrated what the controls did, and of course the Dutch roll exercise turned her stomach! Yikes! We then motored down and took in the scenery. I decided not to try to land at Frasier Lake, because of the bumpiness, but we landed at Hollister instead.

After talking with some glider folk and gawking at some Cal Fire planes, we took off again and came home -- I had to return the plane in time for my co-owner to go on a trip. Lauren took the controls for quite a while and did really well. Landing at KRHV again was un-eventful.

N291DR 2.1 Practice flight to E16

Routine practice flight to E16, doing landings. 6 landings at E16 and one at KRHV.

N291DR 2.2 Flight with Angelo

I took my co-worker Angelo for a flight -- his first ever in a small airplane. Logged 3 landings total.

Our original plan was to go land at the Monterey Bay Academy (CA66). On the way, I did one landing at Frasier Lake (1C9) for the heck of it, coming up a tiny bit short on my power-off 180 due to inadequate wind correction but otherwise doing okay. We set off towards the coast, and found that the coastline was getting fogged over. I suggested we land at Watsonville (KWVI) instead, but while inbound on the 45 realized that the fog was likely to roll over us while we were in the airport and might trap us. I continued my pattern but announced I was not landing and leaving on a downwind departure instead, and off we went. Instead, we went to Hollister (KCVH) and landed, with an amazingly short landing due to the prevailing wind down Rwy 24. We strolled around and got a really amazing introduction to Cal Fire aircraft and fire-fighting tactics from a friendly local Cal Fire pilot, and chatted with someone who had a polished Luscombe based in Frasier Lake. We took off and came back for a relatively uneventful landing at KRHV. I touched down a bit fast and landed a tiny bit long but was able to get off at Taxiway B.