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.

N291DR 1.1 Currency flight

We had a clear day today, but I didn't have too much time after work, so I snuck out for a quick flight. Did 2 landings and flew over the hills South of Livermore for fun. The smoke needs to get better soon!

N291DR 0.5 Flight with Taygan in the smoke

Tried to go to CA66 (Monterey Bay Academy) with my friend Taygan. We had what was reported as 10 statute miles visibility with lots of smoke. I took off and climbed on a Southbound downwind, and then realized I was drifting off to the right towards KSJC airspace. I turned away and flew some more, and found myself again drifting off to the right. Basically I was used to flying by a "sight picture" and the lack of visibility on the horizon was throwing me off. We made it to 5,500' MSL and the sky started getting more blue; if we had pushed to 7,500' MSL we would probably have been clear of the smoke, but with very poor ground visibility. I didn't want to fly low over the urban areas, which is why I punched it and climbed on my way outbound. All things considered, lesson learned in flying through hazy visibility, but I figured we'd had enough excitement for one day and we turned around and came home.

N291DR 1.4 Flight with Melissa to Frasier Lake

Intended to fly to the coast and maybe land at the Monterey Bay Academy, but the coast was clouded over when we got there. Instead toured the Hollister Hills, did 2 landings at Frasier Lake, flew up the reservoirs, and landed at KRHV. Nice, calm evening flight.

My spot landings were mostly okay. At Frasier Lake, I did two power-off 180s, and came maybe 50 feet short of my landing spot. There was a stiff wind, so I was under-compensating for that. My first one was super smooth; the second one I hit a gust and came down a bit bumpily. For my landing at KRHV, I "called it" at some point then cut power and glided in. I crossed the threshold and touched down and made it off at Twy B, but I was skimming the ground a bit fast and then micro-jerked the stick back and floated up and had to settle back down with a bit of a bump. I need to get the jerkies out of my stick during my flare!