C.K's Flight Log 2005
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Places I've been, how I got there, comments on airports and navaids. I fly out of Reid-Hillview airport and I'm parked at Hangar J-4. Stop by and say "Hey"! Latest flights first : Note: All flights since May 2004 are in Mooney M20K 231 N3636H unless otherwise indicated. Further note: if you see an na after an approach count, that stands for not actual's, meaning I shot the approach in VFR conditions without a hood.
17 December 2005 RHV Time: .5 Landings: 3 Approaches:0
Two weeks, get the airplane warmed up. Three takeoff's and landings. Nice approaches,
still setting down a little hard, but not a problem. Parked, buttoned up, and
then the rain came, right on time.
3 December 2005 RHV Time: .9 Landings: 1 Approaches:0
Been almost two weeks, gotta get the engine warmed up. Flew over into the inland
valley. Some puffy clouds around, easy to avoid so stayed VFR. Did some steep
turns. On landing there was a reasonable crosswind (16 knots at 280, so probably
11 knots xwind), slightly less flap on landing, very smooth. Left wing came up
a little after touhdown, but easy to get down again and smooth exit.
19-21 November 2005 RHV BOI RHVTime: 5.9 Landings: 2 Approaches:0
Boise, time to pick out lighting fixtures and colors for the remodeled basement.
There is a huge high that has been sitting over the western states for the
last week, and looks to be staying for the next week, and it means that the
air is just dead still. Not a bump going up, not a bump coming back. D> BOI
above SAC on the way up. On the way back strictly V-113, the MOAs were hot
and you could hear a lot of military flying calls. Some forest fires along
the route as things are just too damned dry. Though on the flight back it
got busy below Sacramento, if just in a procedural way. Lots of practice
approaches going on, and I got re-routed through the last 15 minutes of flight
a lot more than usual. Instead of just vectoring me, I got 4 (four, yes,
four) new clearance routings in 10 minutes. ECA-CEDES-SJC, 3 minutes; no,
now ECA 183/MOD 216 - LICKE- RHV, 2 minutes later; no no, we really want
you to fly (now that I'm past ECA) LICKE-SJC-RHV, 3 more minutes, then; oh
heck, how about LICKE-RHV? Then 1 minute after that we start vectors. I'm
going to assume the controllers were expecting to get overloaded at some
point with the badly-performing practice students and just wanted to make
sure I had a clearance to where I was going in case they couldn't talk to
me. All the clearances put me over the hills so I'd be out of the practice
areas, too, so avoiding traffic conflicts. But it sure was a lot of writn'
and re-twiddling the 530 in a short amount of time.
11 November 2005 RHV SNS RHVTime: 1.6 Landings: 1 Approaches:3
Time for some hood work. Found a victim to sit right seat (Ron Klutts) and
went up. Fine departure from RHV, even some clounds to go through. First
ILS into SNS was, like, way high. Missed, held at MARNA. Altitude holding
was a pain, more than it should have been, though I didn't go off more that
150 ft. Second ILS into SNS was just dandy. Held again, then back to RHV.
Solid clouds along the approach path to RHV, so that was an actual. Broke
out at 1,900 ft, OK, not great, landing at RHV.
5-6 November 2005 RHV MHR RHVTime: 1.7 Landings: 2 Approaches:0
Folsom for a wedding. Could have gone into Cameron Park, but the weather looked
like might have some low clouds moving in, so decided to use Mather since
they have an ILS. Took off at 1215, controller climbed us over RHV then out
to MHR at 5,000. V-334 to SAC, about halfway along cleared direct to MHR.
No clouds in the end, visual to 22L. That's the long one, 11,000 ft, I can
land 5 times in a row on that runway. Parked at Trajen ,
they were fine. We didn't ask for much except a parking spot ($6.25), so
can't evaluate their service. Long taxi from 22L to Trajen, stay alert. Back
Sunday morning, 22R takeoff. Note that there is another, old and closed,
runway between taxiway Alpha and 22R. Not an issue except there are some
old hold bars still painted ont he taxiway, confused me momentarily. The
woman in the tower was working Mather ground, tower, and Approach, so our
clearance was a little slow in coming, but we got it. Took off into a thin
(about 750 feet) cloud layer at 1,000 ft, then clear out to RHV. Visual into
RHV, Turn and drop from over the hills at 6,000 to the approach into RHV,
speed brakes out and 1,500 fpm down,and that's about it.
22-23 October 2005 RHV BOI RHVTime: 6.0 Landings: 2 Approaches:1na, I
used the ILS into 10R
Up to Boise for the weekend. Out to Reid-Hillview at 6:30, load a bunch of
crap-ola into the airplane (moving from San Jose to Boise one Mooney-load at
a time is going to take a few years....). Clear the now-typical Sunol-SAC,
then V-113. Fog and low ceilings at RHV. I could see to the end of the runway
and 600 ft.ceiling (note), and Livermore was clear, so I took off. 3 minutes
in clouds, then broke out at 1,200 ft. and clear all the way up. Not a bump
or ripple all the way to Boise. Cleard D> BOI later than usual, about Reno.
The Oak Center controller woman had the absolute giggles, every center communication
was prefaced by 15 seconds of laughing, don't know who was tickling her. Only
interesting thing was 3 Southwest airplanes getting confuse, and the Salt Lake
controller saying "The problem is that none of you are using your calls,
signs, let me start again." Don't care if your a Cessna or a 737, use
your danged call sign on every transmission, OK? Nothing but a 1.5 hour straight
line flight, filed a " CAVU, neg turb, 0 C" pirep just to have something
to do. Cleared to land visual 10R at KBOI, not even the traditional low-level
bumps. Nice landing, taxi to TurboAir.
Was going to head back on Monday, but the progs were showing a front sitting right on top of San Jose, with low clouds. SJC and RHV were already heavily overcast until very late. I decided to head back Sunday so I didn't end up in Stockton with no way to get to work. Took off from KBOI at 2 pm, cleared rwy heading then RV to as filed. Filed for 16,000, though I knew there would be a 10 knot headwind. Lower was slightly less, 5-6 knots, but I like to be at 16k or above on that route to keep a goodly distance from the terrain. Fine flight, some ripples over the heated ground and ridges, but nothing to disturb anything. Cleared D> FMG after REO, and then the Silence sets in. I timed it this time, one point was 22 minutes (yes, minutes) between radio calls, any calls. Glad I have both an iPod nano and a Garmin 396 with XM radio to listen to. Activity begins around Reno, lowered down to 12k, then 8k, with D> ECA and D> CEDES for the GPS 31 into RHV. Passed directly over a rather intense forest fire southwest of Lake Tahoe, called it in just to be sure someone knew. Stayed IFR the whole way, even though it was VFR down here. It was just too hazy, better to have another pair of eyes watching too. Over CEDES went south, called RHV in sight, was given a visual approach into RHV. On final I was getting some weird tail-pushing, even the the prevailing wind was just off the nose, and I was not set up like I wanted to be when I crossed the fence. Instead of fighting it, I just went around. Second pass was a pretty landing.
16 October 2005 RHV STS RHV Time: 1.6 Landings: 2 Approaches:0
Time to get some more wine. Up to Sonoma. Nice and bouncy flying out of RHV,
but things smoothed out after Livermore. I had filed OAK-SGD hoping to get
along the Oakland side of the bay, but nothing doing. D> SABLO D>SGD,
which is pretty much over the hills. Only interesting part was dodging a
vfr Cezzna climbing up out of Livermore and making circles without seeing
us. Nothing more to say, cept putting 21 bottles of wine in the baggage compartment
is a challenge. The flight back was interesting routing. I'd filed IFR (though
it was a beautiful afternoon) Just Cuz. Initial clearance was D>Scaggs
Island D> Sunol, which is my usual route up and back and what I had filed.
About 14 miles south of Sonoma ATC changed my route to D>Sausalito D> RHV.
Nice, going down the other, San Francisco, side of the bay. We were at 5,000
steady the whole flight, right over the Golden Gate bridge, then put on vectors
for the rest of the flight. Passed just west of Downtown San F., and just
west of SFO. Got a good photograph of a Japan-bound 747 passing below us
on takeoff out of SFO. Kept us on vectors all the way down, basically follow
Interstate 280. Unfortunately down near San Jose got a traffic vector due
west for 3 minutes, so took us about 6 more minutes than expected aiming
west, then back. But only made the flight .9, not even an hour. Two great
landings.
Golden Gate Bridge over the nose at 5,000 ft.
10 October 2005 SCK RHV Time: .4 Landings: 1 Approaches:0
That took a week longer than I expected. Airplane back from Stockton with minor
things adjusted (see maint log). Most important
thing: I now have a panel clock that actually displays the time, not a random
assortment of LCD bars. So I can get rid of my yoke-mount stopwatch. Pretty
day, nice landing, not much to say 'bout a 25 minute flight. My parking spcae
at RHV is a little different, though. While I was gone they re-did the drainage
in front of my spot (glad it was done when I wasn't there) and my ole Cezzna
neighbor is gone, so I have plenty of room to park badly.
23 September 2005 RHV SCK Time: .4 Landings: 1 Approaches:0
Going out of the country on business, may as well tuck the airplane away to
get some work done. The parts for the alternate airbox mod have been in for
a few weeks, and I really want a clock that works, so up to Stockton to position
the airplane at Top Gun so it can all be done while I'm down in Tasmania.
Quick and easy flight, only interesting thing was the wind at Stockton. Listening
to the road traffic reports driving to the airport told me that there were
high winds around Sacramento (use any resource you can to find things pertaining
to your flight), Stockton was reporting (on the Garmin 306) winds at 24 knots
at 240. Landing runway at SCK is usually 29, so knew it would be some crosswind.
Was, nose very definitely to the side on final. Straightened up on landing,
still thumped in a little harder than I woudl have wanted, I think I had
too much flap by about 10 degrees for the strength of the crosswind. Not
a big deal, jsut a harder setdown than I would have liked.
17 September 2005 RHV O70 RHV Time: 1.3 Landings: 2 Approaches:0
Jackson California/Westover field for a Mooney fly-in. Filed IFR out because
there were some lingering clouds around the valley that I didn't want to
have to dodge around. ATC climbed me over SJC instead of just putting me
on V-195 and en-route climbing, which was unsual, brought me up to 5,000
ft. before putting me en-route. Other than that, well, straight and level
in clear skies to and from. Two very pretty landings, which is good since
I was landing in front of a bunch of other Mooney pilots and didn't want
to look like a rube.
1-5 September 2005 RHV LGB RHV Time: 4.8 Landings: 2 Approaches:1
Down to Southern California for Family Stuff.
Straightforward flight down to Long Beach Airport. Only little thing was being
held low (10,000) for about 30 minutes, then allowed up to 15k. Burnt a bit
more fuel that way. Controller brought us back down early, too, we were at
9,000 over Gorman. No special routing on this one, pretty much as-filed, then
vectoring for the ILS. One thing for you to be aware of, though. The Long Beach
approaches are to the big runway, 30. That means you will be vectored out over
the ocean at 1,600 ft. when you're making those approaches, so if that bothers
you go elsewhere. I did the full ILS in, while it was technically VFR vertically
it was not VFR hroizontally, so I ws very glad I could shoot the approach and
actually be on course before the runway appeared out of the Ellay smog/mist/fog
crap. OK landing, used Mercury Air for parking. Note that this is "Mercury
West" when you're talking to ground, Mercury East is a self-serve fuel
island. Nice kids. Got everything I needed, got the plane washed for me, car
out, nicely run.
Back on Monday. Expected the Anaheim 3 departure, and glad I was expecting it cuz thats what I got. I wanted to split off the transition after DARTS (thats what I filed), but I got the full departure with the Lake Hughes transition all the way. Took off, stayed over the runway climbing more steeply than usual (by a little) to not trigger the noise sensors. ATC was busy but professional, to save a little time they kept clipping the corners of the DP. Then Direct to the Lake Hughes radial that defines DARTS and own nav. Again, stuck at 10k so a Brazialia turboprop could give me a haircut passing directly over me at 11k, then 14k. Hand-off to the north-est SoCal approach sector, he gives me 16K, hands me off to Ellay Center. Center asks "3636H, would you like direct to any of the points on your route?" I answer "Direct to any waypoint up to and including RHV would be great" reply"Let me type it in; Look at that, 3636H you're cleared direct Reid-Hillview". And that was the flight, straight line from Lake Hughes to RHV at 16k. And, as I've said before, 15-19k altitude is Mooney and Bo' territory, and no-one else but me was using it. Which means I'm flying through Ellay Center with no radio traffic. I mean seriously, after 10 minutes I was pushing my squelch to see if my radio was dead. Hour later Oak Center picked me up, she gave me D> GILRO and started bringing me down. Over GILRO I canceled IFR. I like to stay IFR at least until GILRO even when I'm back in the valley since GILRO is the common fix for San Jose's approach, and I'd like to be in the system while interacting with the 737s. Pretty landing at RHV.
20-21 Aug 2005 RHV BOI RHV Time: 6.0 Landings: 2 Approaches:0
Been on vacation, then some airplane work (new fuel totalizer). Up to Boise
to start furnishing the house we bought up there.
Saturday at 7 nice and calm, with a solid marine layer at 600 ft.(note) Exactly the reason I got my ticket. Clearance was what I expected, took off and into the clouds. Pretty thin layer, broke out at 1,700 ft. and no more weather at all along the route. ATC held me lower than usual, down at 10,000 ft until Sacremento. Then she both cleared me to 17,000 and gave me direct Boise. And that about tells that story. Straight line, not a bump or ripple, and landed on 10R at Boise. Approach controller cleared me for the visual after I reported insight, and told me "maintain 4,500 until established". Huh? I can see the airport, it's a visual appraoch, I'm pretty much by definition established.
Sunday looked fine too, the breifer was not seeing anything along the route on paper or sat. view. Took off at 9 AM, my route was as filed down V-113. A little more activity here, between Rome (REO) and 80 miles north of Mustang (FMG), there were scattered to solid clouds along the route with bottoms at about 17,000. Lots of vigra, a nice area for thunderstorms sometime in the next few hours. I asked for permission to deviate side to side to avoid the lowest parts, granted. So I kinda zig-zagged back and forth across V-113 for 60 miles or so. Only spent one extended period of time in the clouds, about 10 minutes. Very little turbulence, though now (about 4 hours later) I expect some of those have blossomed into T'storms. 60 miles north of FMG everything cleared up and no more weather for the rest of the trip. Gave a pirep so's other folks would know about those clouds. Over Squaw Valley ATC lowered us, and gave us a new routing into the SIlicon Valley. Ug, he was taking us way out of the way (Through CEDES if you know the area) to the outer entry point for the GPS approach to RHV. The weather was bright and clear so I didn't want to spend that extra 10 minutes flying south then back up, so I canceled IFR and flew the rest of the way visual. Had there still been fog and overcast at RHV and SJC I would have stayed, but it was clear so may as well fly straight on in.
16 July 2005 RHV 1O2 RHV Time: 2.0 Landings: 2 Approaches:0
Up to Lampson field (Lakeport) for Lake Aero Styling's 30th anniversary. Hot
hot hot. 87 degrees at 6,500, 100 degrees at Lampson. Airplane was fine,
of course, the turbo is wonderful. Of course, lift gives out pretty danged
quickly when it's 100 degrees, so I splatted firmly on the runway at Lakeport.
Lakeport's runway is like 60 ft wide, anyway, and I may have slightly misjudged
my height. No worries. Taxiied to the get together, searching for parking,
found a spot. And the party was over. Dang it, we should have taken off earlier.
Back down to San Jose.
10 July 2005 RHV Time: .8 Landings: 1 Approaches:0
Went up flyin. Had a vague hope that one of the coastal airports would have
some overcast or fog so I could shoot an approach or two. phfagh to that,
everything was bright and clear. So just flew out to the coast, did some
steep turns for fun, and came on back. Oil warm, battery charged.
2-4 July 2005 RHV BOI RHV Time: 5.9 Landings: 2 Approaches:0
Took off Saturday Morning @ 7:10 for Boise Idaho, everything from the Bay Area
to Boise looking clear and still, and that's what it was. Little irritating
at first, the clearance I got was a more complicated route to V113 than I
had filed. SJC was taking off backwards which probably caused that, and that
delayed my departure 10 minutes, plenty of time to reprogram the 530.
But it didn't really matter anyway. On departure, got up to about 6,000 ft
and the SUNOL intersection, and ATC says "N3636H, cleared direct Boise".
More than 300 miles in a straight line. Great to file /G and
to fly on the weekends when the MOAs are cold. Spin the 530 dials on the flight
plan past all my carefully designed checkpoints to the last one and hit Direct.Climbed
to 17k, and that was pretty much it. 170 TAS, between 193-200 knots ground
speed. BTW, my partner is now using an Aerox mask with a mic for altitude flying
and comfort, and looking at the Oximeter that kept her saturated at about 98%
the entire flight, while using about 1000 psi on 3 hours. Not bad.2:42 from
RHV to BOI, 37 some gallons of fuel. 28"mp/2500rpm, ROP.
Boise only has one runway open right now, landed 28L and off a the first taxiway to clear for a 737 on my tail. Parked at TurboAir (www.turboairboi.com). Very quiet, looked like I was the only transient in. Had car ready, good fuel price, and filled my two 22CF O2 bottles (the on-board system still leaks a full charge out in 5 minutes).
Same thing Monday morning coming back. Climbed out of Boise,
the *first* words out of the departure controllers mouth were "Direct
RENOL, then would you like direct SUNOL?". Yessir I would like direct
SUNOL. Another 364 mile direct leg. Absolutely still air and not a cloud
to be seen.
Came back at 16k since higher looked worse for headwinds. 3:09 back to RHV,
165 TAS, 150-153 knots ground.
29 June 2005 KSCK RHV Time: .6 Landings: 1 Approaches:0
Back from Annual, see maint log for $6,000
details. Flies nice. Well, it flew nice before I went it, so no suprises. They
tighted up the tail feather linkages a little, slightly noticable during flight
control check at runup. Oh yeah, very sweet landing at RHV even with some brisk
crosswind, settled in without a noise and off at the 1st taxiway.
13 June 2005 RHV KSCK Time: .6 Landings: 1 Approaches: 1na
Annual time. Flew my baby out to Top Gun at Stockton for their tender minstrations.
Small list of minor squawks, biggest thing is to put in a new O2 bottle (mine
is 25 years old, time for new). We'll see if there is anything else, don't
expect so since they did a major inspection in January. Easy flight on a
beautiful day, only interesting thing is ATC took me directly over the restricted
area south of Livermore. I thought that area was always hot during the week,
and I queried to be sure, but she said it was cold. Did the ILS 29 approach
for fun, nice ride down the beams, and a nice landing.
30 May 2005 RHV Paso
Robles Time: 2.1 Landings: 2 Approaches: 0
Took Karen out for her first IFR trip. Well, IFR procedures, it was a severly
clear day with almost no wind. But good to get her to listen to the different
steps involved in IFR flying. Controller was good, too, even before we had
passed Salinas he clear us direct to Pas Robles.
Ate at Matthews, a very good airport resturaunt. Karen had a new wine from Pretty
Smith winery down there. I had a beef sammich. Dang it, it was a cold
sammich, thought it'd be hot.
Listened to a Challenger and a Falcon 50 argue over who got to take off first
on my portable radio.
Back up, flew back VFR. Little bumpy in the foothills north of Paso. Wastonsville
air show was this weekend, so I flew back over the Priest VOR then up the valley.
A little more terrain to deal with, but the exodus of aircraft out of Watsonville
after the show can be scary, so I wanted some distance. Uneventful, back to
RHV.
25 May 2005 RHV Time: 1.8 Landings: 1 Approaches: 3
Instrument Check Ride Over, Instrument Ticket in hand! About 50 hours of training,
and as you can see many months. Probably could have cut the time down if
I hadn't had the gaps in training in December and January, but no matter.
I'm not going to do a writeup of the checkride, the IFR ride is very different
than the Private (see my private checkride here).
Private everything is new, many different things to integrate. IFR is all
about precision and following the procedures, so nothing on your IFR checkride
should come as any surprise. Now we'll just be IFR'ing all over the danged
place....
22 May 2005 RHV STS Time: 1.4 Landings: 2 Approaches: 0
Time for more wine. Up to Sonoma, quick 40 minute flight, drive around the
Russian River valley stopping at 8 wineries. Karen samples, I drive. parked
at the relatively new Sonoma Jet Center
.
Better than parking at Transient, that's along walk to the rental cars. Sonoma
Jet Center is a small building, but they've made a nice, open, inviting interior.
OK flight planning room, nice kids operating the place. Did not rent a car
there (because I didn't know they existed) but I will next time. Line folks
very quick to guide me to a parking spot. Don't really know if they charge
anything, no-one asked for money. Did buy fuel, so I guess that's all they
wanted. Beautiful flying day, unlimited vis, very minor bumpiness at 1,200
ft, smooth sailing the rest of the way.
7 May 2005 RHV SNS Time: 2.2 Landings: 1 Approaches: 3
Final pre-checkride tune up! Out and over to Salinas, ILS into Salinas. Lots
of traffic, a very good controller managing everything, and very smooth into
SNS. THen up and out, partial panel GPS into SNS. Fine. VOR/DME into Watsonville.
Fine, though we broke off the approach early because the Young Eagle were
there and it was busy as heck. Then out over the ocean to do unusual attitudes,
since we hadn't done that in a while. All of them went just fine. Don was
creative on the last one, without me seeing (of course) he covered the AI
and HSI, vacuum failure, then did a wing-over to set up and let me recover.
Of course noticed the AI covered at once, quick glance at the turn coordinator
and airspeed indicator and poof, straight and level!
1 May 2005 RHV SNS Time: 2.4Landings: 2 Approaches: 6
Nice spring day. Out over to Salinas, all my control/comm. Some cumulus buildups
along the way, bases at about 4,500, our alt was 6,000, so some nice actual.
Smooth, very little bumpiness. ILS into Salinas, GPS into Salinas partial
panel, VOR/DMW into Watsonville (DME arcs with Garmin 530 are pretty much
a non-event). Did that one again on autopilot, then LOC into Watsonville,
VOR into Salinas with a full stop landing there. Then back to RHV for the
GPS into RHV! Talked about doing the checkride, I want to do one more tune-up
flight sometime this week.
24 April 2005 RHV Time: 2.7 Landings: 1 Approaches: 7
Very good flying day. Solid overcast at 6,500, scattered between 1,300 and
6,500 various places, very smooth air, just like the 12th of March exactly
the kind of day I want my ticket for. 6 out of 7 approaches went very well,
the first VOR into SNS was too high. But everything else was to PTS rates.
Did 3 of the approaches (including 1/2 the ILS into SNS) on the autopilot,
so got all the kinks worked out of the autopilot/530 coupling.
16 April 2005 RHV Time: 1.7 Landings: 1 Approaches: 3
A few approaches, then home. Been a while, needed to do some good IFR.
10 April 2005 RHV Time: 1.0 Landings: 1 Approaches: 0
Don and I haven't been able to coordinate schedules, so just went flying. Out
of RHV, down over Hollister, then out to the coast. Nice, clear day, some
little puffy clouds. Winds on the ground were near calm, but once I got up
to 5,500 on a 120 heading, I was at about 140 indicated and 172 ground speed.
Really ripping along. Which is kinda weird, the winds aloft forecast is just
showing 13-15 knots. So forecasts are, well, forecasts.
30 March 2005 RHV Time: .5 Landings: 3 Approaches: 0
Been traveling (flew commercial to Spring Training instead of myself cuz of
weather), airplane was lonely so I went out. 1/2 hour in the pattern. First
landing was the best, the others I flared a little bit too early. Still need
to hone that. Updated Garmin card installed. Put updated SF TAC and sectional,
updated AF/D in airplane. Took out a bunch of garbage from my VFR kneeboard
which stays in the airplane all the time, still had a VFR flight plan from
October in my kneeboard....
12 March 2005 RHV SNS WVI MRY Time: 3.3 Landings: 2 Approaches: 9
This is exactly the kind of day I want to get my instrument rating for. Solid
cloud cover at about 1,000 ft, no wind, no rain, just clouds. Great day for
training. We took off, off over to Salinas. Cloud tops were about 2,300,
so the cloud layer was 1,000-1500 ft thick. Again, this is what the rating's
all about to me, not fighting storms at night carrying FedEx packages, but
not being grounded when there's a cloud deck. VOR approach into Salinas first,
partial panel, went well. By the way, with this cloud deck all approaches
today were in actual conditions. That's great, gave me 9 break-outs, that
point where the clouds thin and, oh good, there's the airport, right where
it should be! Out to the hold at MARNA, spun there for a few turns, GPS into
Salinas on autopilot. Then the LOC/DME into Watsonville twice. Watsonville
ceiling was 700 ft, and there were VFR scud runners out! Took low for me
without controllers! Up and out, down to Monterrey, did the ILS there 3 times,
honing my control. Back up to Watsonville, did the LOC to landing, broke
out into the clear at about 800 ft, circled, nice easy landing on 20. Executed
the departure procedure, back over for a GPS 31 into RHV. We were under the
clod deck there at about 1,800 ft, so easy straight in landing. Hmmm, missing
one approach, I'll look in my logbook. 39.5 hours instrument now!
Almost forgot; Great temperature inversion today. On the ground it was 67 degrees, up into the clouds it was down to 51, then breaking out on top at 6,000 ft it was 75 degrees.
5 March 2005 RHV SNS WVI Time: 2.9 Landings: 1 Approaches: 7
First time in a week and a half the sun has been out and the clouds few and
high, beautiful day. Must be time for a few hours flying blind under the
hood. Honing my skills and getting ready for the next step, only about three
hours short of the mandatory 40 hours, time to really get proficient so I
can hit the checkride ready to go. Flight over to Salinas was no commentary
by Don, he was just watching what I was doing and I'm flying as if he was
not there. Made a few mistakes, and ended up high over SNS. Understand what
I did incorrectly, which is Good. Up the coast for the LOC/DME into Watsonville,
this one was nice because there was a good cloud layer over WVI, with WVIs
ceiling being right above minimums. Ran the approach well, broke out with
airport in sight and would have been an all-around successful flight. Back
down the SNS for another VOR, nailed that one. Watsonville again, SNS, then
back over to Reid-Hillview and the GPS 31. Everything went smoothly. Not
perfectly yet, but smoothly.
26 February 2005 RHV Time: .5 Landings: 1 Approaches: 0
Just a little flying, Don's in Hawaii. Cloud bottoms at 3,500, so flew south
at 3,000 to see if things would open up. Little bit bumpy. Down to South
County, and the sky opened up vertically, but not broadly enough to do much,
so turned around and landed. Nice landing!
13 February 2005 RHV SAC OVE CCR Time: 3.9 Landings: 4 Approaches: 4
IFR Training Cross Country today. Not a great day for it, says Don, but OK.
In other words it was just a solid cloud layer, not much rain or wind. Pretty
straightforward. Filed all 4 legs with DUATS in the morning, and each was
on-file and ready when we picked up, which just goes to show it Works.
Out to Sacramento Executive first, ILS in then circle-to-land the other way.
Nice landing. Then up and away to Oroville, GPS approach, then c-to-land on
12. Lumpy runway, but not a bad landing. Up and away, after takeoff Don failed
my 530 so my primary comm and nav was gone. But the navigation was simply SAC
VOR then CCR VOR so it was hardly a chore to switch over to running the needles
on the 2nd Nav. ATC kept trying to be helpful by giving us direct CCR, but
we wanted to run the leg and turn on the 2nd nav. LOC approach into CCR, stopped
for a bio break. Back up and into RHV, planned on doing the ILS 12 into SJC
then peeling off for RHV (since planes were landing "backwards" today)
but as we passed through 2,000 it was clear below, so we just canceled IFR
and went into RHV.
Not much narrative beyond that. Pretty straightforward day, pretty "simple", no issues. If Don had not been in the plane I would have done everything pretty much the same, so almost ready!
10 February 2005 RHV SNS WVI Time: 2.5 Landings: 1 Approaches: 8
VOR Salinas - VOR Salinas - VOR Watsonville - GPS Salinas - LOC Watsonville
- GPS Salinas- GPS Watsonville - GPS Salinas. Ping-pong between two airports,
fun! Controllers were having a great time too, lots of people practicing and the
Pebble Beach Pro Am is this weekend, so there were a whole lot of ExecJets
and Citations in the area. We avoided Monterrey for that reason. But we still
had to dodge a blimp parking at Salinas for the night. Pretty good, not perfect,
but nothing would have killed me or busted regs today, which is great. Oh
but gosh, were there a few jerks on frequency today. Here's an interchange
on CTAF at Watsonville (note first that there were multiple airplanes in
the air at Watsonville);
Sheesh what a dope. Airplanes in the pattern for 8, he's not on an approach, he's coming in VFR, and he wants to reverse the pattern. Just fit in, people, just because you can land on any runway you want doesn't mean you should.
3 February 2005 RHV SNS WVI MTY Time: 4.1 Landings: 1 Approaches:11
My shoulders are sore, my legs are tired, I'm hungry....oh, I just flew approaches
for 4.1 hours! Went to the coast this time, GPS and VOR into Stockton, localizer
into Watsonville. localizer into Monterrey, ILS into Salinas, the GPS into
RHV. Busy day with lots of people on the approaches. Many holds, some long
vectors, good day. Most approaches went OK, but the LOC into Monterrey was
not so good, have to do that one again next time we're out. The close spacing
of the step-down fixes was a new aspect, and the controller asked me to keep
my speed up to 130, which I couldn't do this first approach. Anyway, 3/4
of the way through my regulation 40 hours (you'll note that none of this
was simulator time), close to the goal! Now I have to go eat, that's tiring
work.
1 February 2005 RHV SCK TCY LVK Time: 3.6 Landings: 1 Approaches:9
Back to work. Very nice VFR day, so time to put on the hood for 3.5 solid hours
of approaches. Out to Stockton, did the GPS, VOR, and ILS. All pretty much
OK. Departed for Tracey, Tracey came up too fast (heck, it's only a few minutes)
and I wasn't ready for the approach, so that didn't go all that well. Back
out, did the VOR-A a few times into Tracey, with setup for the ILS into Livermore
in between approaches. VORs were fine, flew two with partial panel with no
issues. Set up for Livermore in the hold, then ILS into Livermore. Blew the
localizer, not quite sure why (maybe just 3 hours of approaches fatigue),
circle-to-land, very pretty low approach then back to RHV. Nice landing at
RHV! Oh yeah, little excitement. On one missed out of Tracey as I was headed
back to the hold, the controller called with an urgent "traffic-if-you-see-it-avoid-if-you-don't
DECEND" . I lifted my head a little so I could see from under the foggles
and, fortunately, saw a twin at my 11 o clock headed almost at us. No factor
in the end, he appeared at least 500 ft above us and slightly off to port,
must have been someone tracking into the Manteca VOR.
31 January 2005 SCK RHVTime: .5 Landings: 1 Approaches:0
Airplane's Back! Steve from Top Gun flew out to RHV to pick me up, he flew
it back to Stockton, landed, paid bill, then back to RHV. Beautiful flying
day, clear as a bell above the mist, all the hills solid green. Could only
do 1/2 hour, have to get to work. Back to the IFR grind tomorrow!
13 January 2005 No flying, took 10 days in Mexico over Christmas, and the airplane is still out at Top Gun.
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