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.