N291DR 1.6 Flight with my friend Caryn

I went for a flight with my friend Caryn today. Just for fun. We weren't sure how the fog would be around the coast, so I got a very broad briefing covering the entire area South of KRHV, and planned to follow the weather.

We first went South and then cut over to the West till we were over the Calero reservoir and checked out the Calero park. It's rather pretty and my family and I were just there yesterday.

We then turned South and, as permitted by the KSJC Class C, punched up to take a good look at the coast. The entire area West of the Santa Cruz mountains was covered in clouds, and was not something we wanted to tackle.

We then went to Hollister where I attempted one short approach -- pattern altitude was 800' AGL so I came up short and was not stable and went around. On my second try I needed a burst of power to stabilize on centerline before landing, but the landing itself was un-eventful. So for some reason this was a bad energy management day. :)

We looked at cool planes in KCVH for a while then flew back to KRHV. Caryn took the controls for a little bit.

My first approach into KRHV was a straight-in glide where I ended up with too much energy and had to go around! But then I was in the regular pattern with traffic, so my next approach was a standard pattern and landing with power and full flaps. It went ok except for a bit of a ballooning and a slight bump. Nothing bad but ... could have been better.

So I guess, 2 landings, and an iffy landings day, but a lot of fun!

N291DR 1.8 Mary right seat familiarization

Today was a right seat familiarization dual to see what it would take for me to be able to fly from the right seat. CFI and I flew from KRHV to Frasier Lake and did a bunch of low approaches, then returned to KRHV. CFI did the landing at KRHV, so zero landings for me today.

The sight picture was weird. I had real trouble doing air work. I had none of the comfortable sense of mastery that I have when I'm sitting in the left seat.

I spent a long time figuring out which way is forwards. :) My normal sight references were not there, and the "bulk" of the horizon and panel is on the "wrong" side so it shifts my attention in the wrong direction all the time.

The flight also uncovered "undiagnosed" over-reliance on my instruments. My air work was very poor without the constant reference to the ball and VSI. This is something I can work on from the left seat on my own, and I should indeed improve that before coming back to more right seat practice.

During one low pass, the CFI noticed I had a rudder wiggle. That's because we were sinking a bit and my brain decided my left hand was the "stick" and my right hand the "throttle" as usual. So I "added power" while adding right rudder, anticipating the torque. But of course the result was to dive for the runway and veer off to the right. Which I tried to adjust but ended up in a bit of PIO.

In general this was eye-opening and will lead to further learning experiences, but it was also a very rough day, reminiscent of my early days as a student where I wondered if I would ever be able to fly anything.

N291DR 4.2 Flying with friends

Flew 3 co-workers / their spouses today. Post cold front passage, very clear with lots of Cu, light to moderate turbulence in many places.

1. KRHV to Frasier Lake, 1 landing, off to sight-see on the coast, back to land at KRHV.

2. Brief flight KRHV KRHV, pax got airsick.

3. KRHV KRHV, flew down to the coast then over Santa Cruz, back over Lexington Reservoir and transitioned KSJC Charlie.

N291DR 1.0 Airball demo flight with Key Dismukes

Short 1 hour flight with Key Dismukes, to demonstrate Airball.

N291DR 2.3 Practice grass landings at Frasier Lake

I went out for a series of practice landings, at Frasier Lake (1C9). I did 10 landings on the grass, then 1 landing back at KRHV. All my landings were power-off approaches, except in some cases where I mis-judged my energy and had to add a teeny bit of power to land on the runway threshold rather than the grass prior to the "official" start of the runway. Generally things went really well. I was using Airball too, and that worked quite well!

N291DR 0.8 Airball data gathering flight

Quick flight out of KRHV to get data from the airdata equipment. Went out over and past UTC and did some stalls and slips at different speeds, then returned for closed traffic. Came in hoping to make a fast descent up till short final but ended up with too much energy and went around. My second time around I did a good touch and go, though floating more than I would like even though I kept it at 50 kias full flaps on final. The last time was a full stop landing, again floating a bit more than I would like. It was bumpy today so I was instinctively holding more speed later in the approach, so that could have been a big part of the float.

N291DR 1.1 Airball data gathering flight

Quick Airball data gathering flight. Departed KRHV, did one landing and two go-arounds at E16, then returned and landed at KRHV.

At E16, I went around once because I misjudged the pattern and ended up offset, with bumpy air. The next time around a Cessna was ahead of me. They went around reporting something about "--ong wind". I was like, wrong wind? I am not the brightest dude but even I don't fancy landing with a tailwind if I can help it. I tried to look at the windsock as I was on final, and all I could tell is either it was pointing straight at me or straight away from me. By the time I realized the wind was indeed favoring the runway I was on, I was too high to make a clean landing so I went around again. And anyway by that time I needed to go home and analyze my data so I decided to return to KRHV.