N291DR 2.7 Flying around with my friend Sam

Today I took my friend Sam from work to fly around. He's an engineer and a big-time hobby auto mechanic person who can revive any vehicle. He took my completely dead Prius, brought it back to life, and donated it to a person in his community. He's a stupendous dude.

The oil in 1DR needed to be changed. So we went up for 2 laps around the pattern to warm things up. On takeoff, I was almost shocked by how "long" it took to take off -- I'm used to flying solo and popping off like a cork! My landings were not great: The wind was calm, and I was not used to the plane being heavy, and I was wearing a mask so I think it fooled my peripheral vision that the runway was closer. Anyway, I need to get better at my landings under different circumstances.

We changed the oil, replaced a faulty oil-drain nipple and safety wired it in.

We took off into haze, but we were able to stay away from the main glob of haze in the Coyote Valley and maintain good ground contact and a view of places to land.

We flew to Frasier Lake and did a landing for the heck of it.

We then flew to the Moss Landing plant, with Sam flying the plane and learning to handle the adverse yaw. We did a 360 around Moss Landing then went North, did 1 low pass at the Monterey Bay Academy and landed there. We had lunch.

We took off and flew along the coast to Pescadero, then cut in Easbound till we were over the quarry near Hwy 280. We orbited till we got Norcal on the phone and they cleared us through KSJC, and then we overflew the Apple spaceship and then the KSJC runway at 1500'. We had an uneventful landing and fueling at KRHV.

I used Airball to explain the relative wind to Sam, and gave him a little Airball model so he could "puppet" it while we flew and I demonstrated how I could stall the plane with the nose in a cruise attitude.

Total of 5 landings today.

N291DR 1.8 Airball flight to E16

Quick flight to E16 to try out the new Airball installation. It works; see:

  https://photos.app.goo.gl/gsUjFMFxE694hA8N7

But the display's WiFi was flakey. Got 5 landings in today.

N291DR 3.6 Attempt (!) to fly KRHV KCMA

The mission today was to visit my friend at KCMA. The Wx was quite calm, but there were some possible low clouds in between. I briefed and set out.

South of Hollister, I encountered a broken layer over the hills, and the valleys completely socked in. In particular, the IFR over the valleys meant that a lot of the intermediate airports along the way were not accessible.

I chose to fly under the broken clouds for as long as seemed safe, always keeping a valley with ranches and open fields underneath me. I kept at it for a while, but it became clear that the terrain was rising and the clouds weren't, and they seemed to stretch out for a long distance ahead. I decided to abort.

Of course, this meant a long journey back whence I came, since (again...) all the intermediate airports were socked in. This was tedious but uneventful. I chose to go to Salinas because it was a tiny bit closer than Hollister and I wanted to be done. I fueled up there, then puttered back to KRHV.

Some of my friends tell me I could probably have pressed on, given that I had lots of options. Maybe I should have? The thing is, though, shortly after the point where I turned back, I would be "bingo fuel": I would not have enough fuel to safely get back to Salinas or Holister. So what if my next waypoint, New Cuyama, was fogged in, or inaccessible? I would have had to take an out-landing in a cow pasture on one of the valleys. Which is completely something I could do and things would most likely be fine -- there would be a small risk to the plane from hitting a rock or cowpie, but nearly none to myself. But, I'd have some explaining to do. And maybe there'd be one more rancher angry about all these annoying airplanes.

Total landings -- two. One in Salinas and one in Reid-Hillview.

N291DR 1.6 Practice flight to E16

Short practice flight to E16. Log as 2 landings.

N291DR 2.1 Flight to the coast with Joosey

Flight with my friend Joosey to the coast. We flew to Frasier Lake, landed, and checked things out. Then we flew Monterey Bay Academy airport, and landed there. Some folks were jamming outside Craig Calfee's workshop. We then took off and flew North, checking out the coast. Then we turned back, flew to the Lexington Reservoir, then flew back to KRHV via a Class C transition, getting to fly over KSJC, much to Joosey's amusement. A humorous moment was where for some reason I had trouble finding the reservoir on my map, and Joosey was not sure if to step in and be like, "it's HERE dummy!" 3 landings, and a lot of fun!

N291DR 1.8 Flight to KWVI to meet Barry

Flew to KWVI to meet my friend Barry and give him an Airball unit to play with. Flew as a pax with him in his Carbon Cub for a while, then flew back. 2 landings.

N291DR 2.3 Practice flight to 1C9

Flew to 1C9 and back for practice. 2 landings.

N291DR 0.8 Practice flight

Practice flight, 2 landings at KRHV.

N291DR 3.2 Flight from L17 to KRHV via KPRB

Flew with back country friends from L17 to back country sites, then peeled off while they landed. Landed at KPRB to refuel and eat lunch. On takeoff from KPRB, my pax door popped open, so I landed again, closed it, and took off. Flew 6,500' to the vicinity of Hollister, then stepped down to 2,500' to give room to all the heavies coming in and out of KSJC. Un-eventful landing. 3 landings total.

N291DR 2.3 Group flight from L52 to L17

Flew with back country friends from L52 to L17, Taft County Airport. One landing, at Taft. Took a scenic route, so it took longer than a simple direct flight.

N291DR 2.2 Flight from KRHV to L52

Flew from KRHV to L52 to meet up with some back-country fliers. Route was via HNNTR, picking up flight following just South of Watsonville to help with penetrating the MOA. The MOA was hot and I was restricted above 7,000 feet, which was no problem: I just flew at 9,500.

N291DR 0.7 Quick Airball data gathering flight

Data gathering flight with Airball probe. Took off from KRHV, flew East of San Jose, and came back to land. 1 landing.

N291DR 2.0 Flight to KMRY to meet Randy and Michele Schlitter

Flew KRHV KMRY and met with Randy and Michele Schlitter. Flew with Randy from KMRY to CA66, where we got to hang out with Craig Calfee. Flew back to KRHV. 3 landings today.

N291DR 1.6 Flight with backcountry pilot Melissa

Flew around with a backcountry pilot from our airport (coincidentally with the same name as my wife). We intended to land at Frasier Lake, but the wind was blowing strongly straight across the runway so I waved off. We landed at Hollister instead. We checked out a couple Stearmans then came back along the West side of the Coyote Valley, did a lap around the Calero Reservoir, then cut across and made back for KRHV. 2 landings total.

N291DR 2.5 Flight to Alta Mesa Airpark

Flew to meet friends at Alta Mesa Airpark (3CN7) and back. 2 full stop landings. 68.8 nm one way, so satisfies Sport and Private XC.

Un-eventful landing and takeoff from a grass field, with a stiff headwind so it was pretty easy. On the way back, I flew over Hwy 680 on the West side of the Livermore valley, and got hammered by turbulence! I had to shift away from the hills a bit, so I asked KLVK for permission to enter their airspace temporarily.

N291DR 2.2 Flight to Half Moon Bay with Melissa

Flight from KRHV to KHAF and back. On the way there, flew through KSJC and over SLAC. On the way back, came up Hwy 17 and over the Lexington reservoir. 2 full stop landings.

N291DR 1.2 Flight with Sergey

I washed the plane today, then took it out for a spin. Sergey happened to be around and came with me. Very bumpy day. I did one go-around and one touch-and-go at E16, then came back for a full stop landing at KRHV. Sergey wanted me to do wheel landings, which I'm totally not used to. To-do item: Practice wheel landings! Sergey's advice is, use some flaps to keep the aircraft's incidence reasonable while landing.

N291DR 2.6 Solo around the Coyote Valley

Some solo practice around the Coyote Valley, in E16 and 1C9. Total of 5 landings. Lots of fun!

N291DR 2.0 Solo to Byron

Practice flight to stay current -- I've been working on Airball a lot these days. 3 landings. Flew KRHV to Byron via the Altamont pass, then back to KRHV passing North and West of Livermore.

Sergey recently lowered the idle setting so I came up short on both landings at Byron. Back at KRHV, I came in close and forward slipped and made the glide, but then noticed I may have had the throttle cracked a tiny bit. :)

N291DR 2.2 Solo to E16 and KCVH

Solo practice and fun flight. 3 landings at E16 -- one a "failed" short approach where I came in a bit short and needed power; then a good short-field landing at minimum safe speed with power; then a no-flap wheel landing. Flew to KCVH and did 1 no-flap wheel landing with a decent x-wind, landing on 1 wheel then the other. Then flew back to KRHV for another successful no-flap wheel landing.