N162HG 1.9 Practice flight near KLVK

We've had an insane El Niño season in California, and the weather has been solid IMC for weeks and weeks. We need the water, but still. Yeesh. :)

Anyway, today was VMC so I played hookey from work and went on a practice flight.

As I did a normal takeoff from KPAO, the plane felt weird. Like, just not the usual. And I looked down and had this feeling like, omg, I'm flying in this thing -- are you quite sure that this is safe? Should this not be a job for, like, the professionals?

I motored off to the area SouthEast of KLVK and did a bunch of air work: steep turns, slow flight with and without flaps, steep turns, stalls in landing configuration. I also selected a field and road and did rectangular patterns, turns about a point, and S-turns on a road.

The air work was okay, even though my steep turns got worse as time went by. The ground reference work was passable, but the S-turns, traditionally my weakest ground reference maneuver, were sort of all over the place.

I returned to KPAO and did one normal landing, one short field takeoff, one short field landing (a bit low but passable), one soft field takeoff, and another short field landing (was sent to the higher-AGL pattern side, so my descent was a bit steeper and it worked better).

By the time I was back, things were back to normal and I was feeling like I knew how to fly planes again. But wow, man -- 5 weeks is all it took! Says something about currency.

While doing my ground reference maneuvers, I was tuned to 121.5. Someone called in going, "2TA Palo Alto Tower, can you read me?" I tried to be helpful and replied, "2TA this is Guard". They repeated what they said. I again tried to be helpful going, "2TA you are on Guard frequency, 121.5". Then someone piped in and said, "He knows, that's why he's using it!" I wasn't sure what to make of that but I figured I'd stay out of it. There were no more calls to Guard.

Usually if I were calling Palo Alto on Guard frequency, I'd say so -- which is why I thought the other pilot had forgotten to retune their radio (something I have totally done myself) and was trying to help. Oh well. Hope they got it sorted out eventually.

N162HG 1.4 Bay Tour with Rick

My father-in-law Rick was visiting, and he's an instrument rated pilot. This was my chance to show off my new-found flying skills, and give him a bit of a tour around the Bay.

We departed KPAO, flew towards KHAF, then went North, over the Golden Gate bridge, though the Oakland Class C and over the KOAK Rwy 28 numbers, and back to KPAO.

Rick enjoyed it quite a bit, and was sight-seeing the whole way. He complimented my flying!

N162HG 2.3 Flight over the coast with Alex

I have promised a flight to our son's outdoor ed instructor Alex since before I got my license. Now she's leaving to travel to South America, so we figured we'd better do it soon.

We started at 9am today at the flying club with an extensive "how airplanes fly" briefing. We talked about lift, parasite and induced drag, the power curve, balance, and stability -- the basic longitudinal dynamics of the aircraft. Starting from a set of pre-made foam model airplane wings and a cheesy arrow made out of some square dowel, cardstock fins and a weight taped to the front, we demonstrated their stability characteristics individually, then rubber banded them together to make an glider we could fly around the ramp.

I took Alex along on the pre-flight walk-around, then we buttoned in, got a pax briefing, and we were off.

We departed Left Dumbarton towards San Gregorio, then flew down and up the coast. We overflew KHAF (but did not land, due to a 10kt direct crosswind I didn't want to mess with). Instead, we flew over the Crystal Springs reservoir, down over Highway 280 almost to the Hwy 17 intersection, then back up. I called into KPAO from the intersection of Hwy 280 and Hwy 85, got a straight in, and did a normal landing. I then did one more lap around the pattern to show Alex a short field takeoff and landing, then we parked and were off.

During the flight, we did a lot of sight-seeing around the coast and the landmarks of Santa Cruz, and I performed some maneuvers to demonstrate to Alex the things we had learned about earlier. I had never done these "experiments" in such a controlled fashion before, and I developed a new-found respect for the Flycatcher. Trimmed for level flight at 95 kias, cutting power resulted in the least unsurprising thing possible -- a descent at 95 kias. Firewalling the throttle resulted in a gentle climb at -- guess what? -- 95 kias. Effing textbook! Pulling back the stick -- which as I noted was the "fast/slow" control not the "up/down" control -- slowed us down to 70 kias, and just as the power curve predicted, we climbed faster! Getting this performance of course requires that Cessna carefully design all the various and sundry second- and third-order effects to cancel out, but the result is very easily "explainable" via the first-order theory.

N162HG 3.0 Training at New Jerusalem

Training flight to brush up on my student-pilot exercises, so my skills don't rust too much. The goal was to fly to New Jerusalem Airport (1Q4) and do takeoff and landing practice, and do some air work around the area.

* Took off uneventfully from KPAO, normal departure and found 1Q4.
* Normal landing.
* Short takeoff, squirrelly.
* Short landing, had too much energy.
* Short takeoff, okay.
* Short landing, a lawn-mowing experience: approach too shallow.
* Short takeoff, forgot to raise flaps after takeoff!
* Short landing, okay.
* Short takeoff, good.
* Short landing at KPAO, okay but too much float.

I went to the area North of the field and did some ground reference maneuvers (rectangular patterns, turns around a point, and S-turns on a road). There was not much wind, so/but I did more or less okay. I did not feel as stressed-out about these as I was during my student pilot days, partly because I was far, far away from any obstacles out in the Central Valley fields, and could plan whatever approach to my patterns at will.

I then climbed and did air work.

First I did some stalls, which were uneventful. I tend to let go of the stick a bit early, just about as soon as I feel even the slightest "break" -- so they were particularly gentle. I don't really want to do overly "deep" stalls until I've gotten some experience in a Citabria with a CFI recovering from actual spins, just in case. So I think discretion is the better part of valor under the circumstances.

I then did slow flight, and was happy that I could trim the plane almost "hands off" to fly with flaps with the stall horn blaring, then do a super-gentle 360 turn in either direction.

Afterwards, I needed to orient myself to return home. I had brought my Nexus 9 tablet running Garmin Pilot, but it was not charging properly and ran out of battery. So out came my paper chart. I pointed myself at New Jerusalem, got a bearing, then at Tracy, and got another bearing, and plotted the intersection roughly, then figured out my bearing to the Altamont Pass. I pointed the nose in that direction and, lo and behold, there it was in a few minutes. Perfect!

Once home, KPAO was a zoo. There were like 8 airplanes waiting to land.

Tower asked me to do a 360 just as I was about to join the right downwind for Rwy 31, and I followed the instructions literally, right away. This sort of put me circling within the limits of the normal pattern. And indeed -- as I finished my turn, there was a Cessna sailing over my head, uncomfortably close! Mental note: Regardless of what the controller says, take responsibility for moving away from traffic! Next time, if I'm asked to do a 360 near the downwind, I'll ovalize it to move away from the downwind leg, then return with trepidation as though I were almost on a 45.

I took one shot at landing, but was asked to go around due to faster traffic behind. I got sent all the way down to the auto bridge, and all the way back to Moffett Hangar One. Finally, the controller said, "Best speed to the airport please!" I put the pedal to the metal until the last possible minute, flying at around 110 knots indicated (this is practically supersonic, to a Flycatcher), then at the last minute ditched flaps and made a short approach to a point just shy of the first taxiway, plopped it down, then turned off the runway immediately. As I turned, I could see a big twin coming down behind me....

Overall, I think this was a good "skills refresher". I only wish flying were less expensive so I could afford to do this sort of thing more often!

N162HG 1.9 Trip to KHAF with Melissa

Flew to KHAF and back with Melissa. 3 landings total.

The Wx was good over KHAF, surprisingly, so Melissa and I packed into the Flycatcher and we zipped off to KHAF.

Inbound, there was someone landing who didn't seem to be bothering with silly stuff like making radio calls. For some reason, I totally misjudged my pattern, coming in super duper close to the runway on downwind, then turning correspondingly close. I had to slip to land, after warning Melissa about what I was doing. She didn't seem to mind very much, and I made a very smooth landing.

We got out, secured the airplane and walked around. She was anxious to get back so we did not linger.

Outbound, we took a detour around the airport and found the parking area where I could have stopped and which would have been really close to the shops and restaurants over the airport fence. Lesson learned. We took off, then I did one more pattern and did a full stop short field landing, which was fairly good. On the way back to KPAO, I demonstrated some steep turns at 3500' to Melissa. I offered to demonstrate slow flight; as soon as I started slowing, she said it didn't feel safe and she didn't want to do it, so I sped back up. On some level, I'm kind of proud of her for realizing the inherent un-safety of flying slowly -- even if we were high enough that this was a non-event. We got back to KPAO where I attempted a soft field landing; it was safe but, for some reason, I ended up getting blown sideways, I think because of sloppy rudder work on my part.

Melissa said she enjoyed it, so that's awesome!

N162HG 2.0 Trip to Petaluma with Lisa

I've been meaning to fly with Lisa since I got my SP-ASEL. She's a CFII friend who has been informally mentoring me through many, many things regarding aviation. Today, we finally got to have a flight where I could show off my new-found skills. Um, such as they are....

The plan was to go from KPAO to Petaluma (O69) and back. I hoped to get a KSFO Class B transition on the way up, and return via a Easterly route passing between Oakland and Mount Diablo. If we didn't get the Class B on the way up, we would try again on the way down.

I had planned pretty thoroughly, with route leg headings and estimated times written down, Google Maps views of the destination airport, and all that. Lisa seemed to approve.

We called in to ground at KPAO, and it turns out KSFO was not giving Class B transitions at that time. Well schmell. We went the Easterly route then. Our route was KPAO VPSUN VPDUB VPWAL O69, with the plan being to cross VPSUN at 4500' and remain at that altitude for the rest of the trip. However, when we called in at KPAO, they gave us flight following, and NorCal told us to remain below 4000' for a while. Otherwise, they were fine with our route.

On the VPWAL O69 leg, there were a bit of mountains before crossing the San Pablo Bay. These were not clear from the chart. They looked "high" from far away, but were less than 1000' and looked really low when we passed them at 4500'. Interesting how terrain can look misleadingly high from far away. Lisa flew quite a bit to get a feel for the Flycatcher and also so I could spend time futzing with my charts and comparing to what I was seeing out the window.

We arrived at O69 without event. It was hard making out the runway as usual -- the main problem is figuring out, given where we are right now, how big should the runway look? There was a Cessna Caravan taking off who was very nice and diligent on the radio about making sure we didn't crash. I did a nice smooth landing.

We got fuel after much futzing with the stupid half-broken gas pump, took care of natural liquid elimination needs in ... um ... nature, then got in the plane and puttered off to the runup.

At the runup, I realized I had failed to test the fuel! Eek! I shut down right there, tested and came back in. Then we restarted and took off.

We made for the Golden Gate Bridge, hoping to try again for a Class B transition. As we got closer, I saw there was a thick layer of fog over the bridge and San Francisco. As a Sport Pilot, I am required to fly with reference to the ground, which I take to mean I cannot fly "VFR on top" over a layer, so no Class B transition that way either. No problem. We turned to retrace our Easterly route, back to KPAO.

Then we realized it was getting late. As a Sport Pilot, I am not allowed to fly after the end of evening civil twilight. We were right at the middle of San Pablo Bay, and Lisa suggested I just call NorCal and ask for a direct route. I did, and they gave me a squawk code.

We were routed direct to the Oakland Coliseum (hard to find without knowing where to look, but hard to miss once you see it) at 2000', then direct midspan San Mateo bridge at 1400', then released to talk to Palo Alto.

On the return flight, Lisa helped with the flying a bit, and also helped with getting our waypoints entered into the GPS.

At Palo Alto, things were quiet, and I made a pretty smooth twilight landing.

Overall, I think having a GPS is a pretty important thing for flying around the Bay Area. Maybe if everyone used paper charts, then the controllers would have different expectations, but I get the feeling that basically everyone expects everyone else to have the precision and situational awareness of a GPS. This means I should consider, at some point, switching to an EFB.

When we landed, there was a meeting of the Ninety Nines at Advantage Aviation, so Lisa just joined right in. By the time I had packed up, they were all listening with rapt attention as she held forth about some flying story or the other!

N162HG 2.0 Watsonville fly-in with Rodrigo

Today's plan was to attend the Wings Over Watsonville fly-in, flying there with my friend Rodrigo. I planned to go out there by following Hwy 280, 85 and 17 over the Lexington Reservoir and out to the coast, then returning via E16 (San Martin, aka South County) and transition the SJC Charlie to get practice talking to controllers. The idea was to do as much of the trip as possible using pilotage and paper charts.

We took on only 1/2 tanks to keep our weight down.

On our way out, Rodrigo did most of the enroute flying. I called for 3500' after we cleared the SFO Bravo shelf. Then, as we went South, he asked me if I was going to talk to Norcal or descend below the 2500' SJC Charlie! Oops, I did it again! I was so careful about the Bravo, but forgot the Charlie! I decided we should descend to 2000' then climb again when possible. I correctly identified our climb point, clear of the Charlie, via landmarks, and we climbed clear of terrain while following Hwy 17 over the mountains.

Once we were within sight of Santa Cruz, Rodrigo asked me if we should take a shortcut or continue flying to the coast. Hm. I called up the temporary tower frequency for KWVI, and it was a hot sticky mess! Oh my god. There were like half a dozen airplanes talking over one another and the controller was clearly very overwhelmed. I took the controls and started circling over the Santa Cruz pier, and called in expecting to be given directions to make inbound. Nobody replied. Reports from planes in our vicinity, only some of whom we actually saw, continued.....

At some point one of us -- Rodrigo or I -- figured they were expecting me to just make inbound. But I didn't want to do that without asking first. I called specifically asking if I could do that, and was told to make inbound and report on the right 45 for Rwy 20. I descended to TPA, to avoid running over anyone or getting run over, and did that.

The problem is that there was a hill, hard to see on the sectional, which if you happen to be flying at TPA happens to obscure KWVI from view. I sort of felt around until Rodrigo pointed out that, um Ihab, there is the runway! Oh. I made inbound, was given a very long downwind, was asked to turn base seemingly seconds before we crashed into the hills :), and made an uneventful landing.

I was asked to follow the ground crew, but they didn't take any interest in me until I complained. Eventually, we backed into some grass and parked. There were no tiedowns and I had failed to bring the chocks, so I set the parking brake and borrowed a couple of random wood blocks from some dude in a hangar, and we were good.

We had lunch. I walked to the 7-11 to get drinks with my credit card. We checked out a Rans S-6S, David "Pablo" Cohn's Commonwealth Skyranger, and a bunch of other planes.

We got fuel, again 1/2 tanks.

We pulled the plane out to depart. There was a dude who wanted to get by with his Cub and was running around frustratedly -- it was not clear why he was in such a hurry given that we told him we were leaving. I tried very hard to ignore his wild gesticulations and go through my startup checklist. As it was, I forgot to ground lean before taxiing. Oh well. :P I got to the runup, did my runup, then called in to take off. Another pilot was like, Skycatcher, are you going to pull up to the hold short line there? Ah, this is not KPAO. We pull up! So I did.

We did an uneventful departure towards E16, I got the KPAO ATIS, and then I called into Norcal. So far so good.

Going Northbound, I then did my classic mistake of not realizing just how far to the left of KSJC the Pruneyards (VPPRU) are! Once again (I did this before on a training flight, tsk tsk) Norcal was confused about my course and asked me if I was going South of KSJC or planning to cross midfield. I cluelessly said, whichever works for you. They replied, we'll get you a route. I said I was going direct VPPRU. They said ok, that works. Oh dear. I must have come across as very clueless!

Now apprised of my actual route, I made North without event. As I passed KNUQ, there was a Cirrus about 3nm to our left that I was told to follow in. I kept losing sight of them -- most of the time, it was Rodrigo who saw them. That made me kind of veer to the right of the KPAO centerline. Yuck. Anyway, I centered myself again, tried a short field approach, and sort of made it but sort of didn't -- I was maybe one foot short of my intended point, probably because I had under-estimated the wind. It was okay though. I landed, and it was short.

But then there I was. Tower told me to expedite off the runway because there was someone following me and already over the pond. I did my best, but the following traffic had to go around. Oh well. :P

Overall, this was a decent though not perfect flight, and I learned a lot!