C.K's Flight Log 2007

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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 2-10. Stop by and say "Hey"! Latest flights first : Note: All flights since May 2004 are in Mooney M20K 231 N3636H unless otherwise indicated. Flight track graphics from FlightAware

And send comments,dang it, flight@ravenware.com

25 Nov. 2007 RHV Time: 1.0
Didn't take the airplane up for Thanksgiving, so got home yesterday and went out today to get some air time. Up the standard route, and did some steep turns. Nice landing.

5 Nov. 2007 BOI- RHV Time: 2.7
Must be November. Cuz it was 27 degrees f when I got out to the airplane. Spent 20 minutes scraping all the frost off the wings, then into the cockpit for startup. I've finally mastered exactly where my 231 throttle wants to be, even witht he airplane sitting for a week and (now) 30 degree OAT she started on the first touch of the starter. Took a little more time than usual to warm her up, then over to the runway. Again, very cold, so I was off the ground in 1,200 of the 10,000 ft I had available to me.
Unusually this morning the MOA's were apparenly cold, and I was cleared D> FMG (Reno) as soon as I was handed off to Salt Lake Center. As you can see fromt eh flight time there were no headwinds on the flight today (no tailwind either, just a 5 knot side load) so I made very decent time.
Down into NorCal Approach territory and they got me again. There are two ways to get to RHV IFR from V-113, MOD LICKE or ECA CEDES. Whichever one I file they end up saying "I have a reroute, are you ready to copy?" and they give me the other one. I think they just do it to irritate me. I think next time I'll just file REO SDO FMG RHV and see what happens. Not really.
Nice landing, then a 15 minute wait for a taxicab to go get my truck at SJC. 2011 2010

27 Oct. 2007 RHV- BOI Time: 2.7

Approach into Boise was the best yet, only had one vector which put me on base (effectively) 40 miles out, descend at 195 knots GS. Hd a Canadair in front of me and a United regional behind me, kept above 170 knots to 3 miles, speed brakes out, pull the throttle, nose up, quick drop to 130 knots, gear down, 95 knots, full flaps, and grease it down onto the runway.
Monday not so good. Boise was fine, but San Jose was showing an icing airmet, chance of thunderstorms and rain. Didn't want to get thunderstorm ice, so flew back commercial.

11 Oct. 2007 RHV Time: 1.3
Ice and work kept me on the ground, so time to play. Morning flight, just beautiful, clear and smooth. Motored out of RHV towards Los Banos for some air work. Los Banos cuz (1) it's not as crowded as the Sillycon Valley and (2) it's far enough to completely heat the engine and charge the battery. Only interesting thing was a Southwest 737 tear-assing into the Valley at 6,000 ft., I was listening to Norcal Approach so saw him coming. I was at 5,500, AC called me as traffic and he didn't do anything, so I turned somewhat hard left to be sure we maintained separation. He passed just fine. ATC asked him how fast he was going, which I was interested in too since it seemed awfully fast, and he said "270 knots". Too fast when your 20 miles from the airport and at 6k, kid. He also reported that he has a TCAS resolution alert. Sheesh, share the road. Hit his wake (just a few ripples) then Los Banos. Steep turns, really steep today, and a good bit of slow flight. Back, and a perfect no-wind landing.

24 Sept. 2007 BOI RHV Time: 2.5
Oil change done up at TurboAir, weather looking dandy, out to the airport. 7 AM and it's dark, fall is here, chilly preflight. And dang it, they didn't fill my tanks, fortunately the line guy walked out of the office just when I noticed and I hollered him over.
Got my taxi clearance at about the same time as two 737s and we're still using just one runway, so I hustled down my side, I got to the end before either ofthem had reached the taxiway they needed to take, so quick on the runway and up into the air. The 38 degree weather helped, we just leaped up, tower cleared me for a left turn and direct REO when I was 2,500 down the runway, I made a quick turn and the Delta behind me didn't even have to hesitate.
And then we get the season-change rare treat! A nice tailwind going back to California, actually keeping me above 185 knots groundspeed the whole time, even down at 14,000 ft. Nothing unusual, very nice pattern entry and landing at RHV.

17 Sept. 2007 BOI Time: 2.1

Mondays' flight back turned out not to be so, as you can see from this cute flight track. I took off into some cloudy weather, but looked reasonably benign. Crossing into Nevada things started looking more interesting, which is OK, looked like there might be some bumps. But then on my XM weather and on the HIWAS radio oh, shucks, an icing AIRMET has just popped up in about 20 miles for 150 miles of my flight. And, the clouds were rising along the front line ahead, so I would almost certainly enter some clouds and my OAT gauge was showing -1 deg. C. Oh well, no pressing things need to get done in California this morning;"Salt Lake Center, Mooney 3636H, request clearance back to Boise" and back we go, better safe than, well, dead.

15 Sept. 2007 RHV BOI Time: 2.5
Nice quick trip up. RHV tower told me I'd have to expect a wait fo 3-5 minutes, then cleared me within 15 seconds. Stay alert kids, you don't want to be give a chance to get out and miss it! Winds were OK at 17k, but a little better further up, so I asked for and got FL190, which is my first break into the flight levels. Nice and speedy.
Boise is still down to one runway, so kept speed up at 170 knots all the way down to final, landed with the SJC-BOI Dash-8 flight a minute behind me on final so scooted off the runway pretty quick.

25-27 August 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 5.8
No speedy tailwinds this Saturday, had to make-do with groundspeeds in the 190's, poor me! Nice smooth flight, nothing much interesting except at one point between Mustang (reno) and Sod House it was so quiet that one of the commercial pilots got nervous and called to see if his radio was broken. 28R is still down to half-length (4,500 ft.) but this morning was pretty quiet and there wasn't any delay getting in. Only frustraing this was approach kept calling a Dash-8 on final for the parallel and I never saw it. Watched to, get visual seperation going, but gosh darn it I just could catch it.
Monday was OK, 150-160 knots across the ground. I was at 12,000 to get out of forcast winds, but 14k (which I got moved to for terrain above Lake Tahoe actually was quicker than 12k, which is rare. Nice landing at RHV.

18-20 August 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 5.7
Quick flight up, picked up a nice tailwind at 17k so managed to stay above 200 knots ground speed most of the time, and long periods over 220 knots. Very smooth comfy flight. Around KBOI we're down to one runway as they have 1/2 of 10R/28L torn up for new construction. That meant all the big guys were funnelling into 10L. When I started my descent I was going to be #6, so I slowed down some. Still put on a loooong downwind, then turned cleared for the visual. But my lil Mooney was still going to fast, controller asked me to slow down. Nice landing.

Of course, paid for it on Monday. I filed for 14k, got up and into cruise, and guess what! 139 knots ground speed. ick. After I made the first turn at Rome (REO) I had hoped for a little releif, but nothing doing. Asked for 12k, got it, and much better, at least I was over 155 knots. Cancelled IFR at Sacramento and on into RHV, which also had one runway closed. Kinda firm landing, but no bounce, just solid. Ended up being 3.3 hours, which ain't bad all things considered.

11-12 August 2007 RHV PRB RHV Time: 1.6
Justin Winery in Paso Robles, annual membership weekend. Easy back and forth, straight line flights both ways. Most interesting thing was all the fire tanker activity, Paso Robles is a tanker reloading station, and there were two big fires within range. These tanker pilots are good, and dang they fly a lot, averaged about 12 minutes from when they landed to when they were taxiing out to take off again. They were excellent at letting everyone know what they were doing ont he radio, and giving was quickly to one of the GA aircraft.
Not so much the other GA aircraft. There are two strips, so four runways, and folks were pretty much taking off and landing rahter indescriminantly on three of 'em. C'mon folks, the extra 1.2 minutes it's going to take you to do a crosswind leg instead of a straight out ain't gonna make you late for dinner.
And to the idiot who back-taxiing on 31 while someone was doing touch-and goes on that runway deserves the idiot of the week award. Back-taxiing to save maybe 3 minutes more of actually using the real taxiways.
But all the flying was good!

4-6 August 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 6.1
Nice clean flight up. Above Sacramento I asked for 17k to get the extra 10 knots, granted, and I was at 200+ knots ground speed the rest of the trip. I used teh mask with mic this trip instead of the cannullas, and it sure did keep my saturation levels up, I was showing 98-99% O2 saturation instead of the 94-96% I get with the cannula. Hadn't used it before, but now that I have and am comfortable with it (except a little pressure on the bridge of my nose) I'll use it more regularly, allows me to get up into the flight levels and catch some more wind. If you look at the flight track on FlightAware you'll notice that I stuck with V-113 the whole way instead of getting direct. This was OK, there wa a clear frontal area to the East of me and staying on-airway kept me from plowing into it. Still made in quickly. Beutiful landing at KBOI. Then I hadda wait for an A-10 and an Army KingAir intel plane to taxin by. Note to the Army: If you have a Reconnasance airplane, all grey and black with antennas everywhere, DO NOT have that airplanes callsign be "Intel 002". Sheesh, ground pounders (I'm a USAF vet, btw).

Monday promised to be more interesting in the Bay Area, the marine layer cloud deck had been thick and staying around long. The TAF put the ceiling at 3,000 ft. at my planned arrival time, so I thought it would probably be do-able. Filed Stockton as an alternate just in case.

And as you can see from the track the approach was necessary.

The trip was normal (except being at 145 knots gs, ug) until CEDES, then I flew the approach for RHV, added 10 minutes or so. Easy approach, only in the clouds starting about 5,200 ft and breaking out as forcast at 3,000 ft. miles and miles from the airport. Of course, this marine layer was causing everyone to ask form approaches to all the Bay Area airports, large and small, so the controller asked me twice for best forward speed. I gave him 150 knots 'til about 3 miles out.
Of course, if the ceiling was 3,000 ft. that meant that there were a bunch of VFR guys scud-running under the cloud deck, when I popped out it was suprising to see everyone scurrying South at 2,500 ft. Again, a very nice linding.

BTW, there were about 3 airplanes I heard taking off from South Lake Tahoe going VFR into Palo Alto and RHV asking for flght following. They did this knowing that the Bay Area was socked in, and later (as we changed frequency together) all 3 asked for popup clearances or an approach. Why not just file IFR, guys? It's not that much of a pain, is it?

28-30 July 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 6.0
Saturday morning San Jose is taking off to the south, so I know it'll be a little longer to get clearance. Interestingly enough, they send me to the 31 end (the north takeoff direction). Waited a few minutes (not maany) and the tower tells me to make a turn to 330, instead of the normal 290, on takeoff. Makes sense. Coupla minutes later he comes back and says "cleared to takeoff, ignore previous clearance amendment, left to 290". It's a severe clear morning, so I was fine with that. On takeoff NorCal asked if I can maintain VFR climb, I say yes, so he turns me to 330 and clears me to Victor-334. So ends up being the same thing.
Got cleared Direct>Boise way way early, only about 15 minutes past Livermore. Ah, but it didn't last (as you can see from the flightaware track) above Reno I got sent D> REO D>BOI because some military airspace had suddenly gone hot, so I still had a little extra airtime.North of Reno I asked for 17k, 15k was a little bouncy. 17K was smooth, but went through a nice smooth cloud layer for about 20 miles. Very nice landing at Boise.
Monday morning looked interesting, a little weather already built up over Middle Nevada. Started fun. A Delta 737 took off on the parallel as I was cleared to position and hold. A minute or so later the tower cleared me for" takeoff, caution wake turbulence, pilot discretion", never got that one before. "Well", thinks I," been long enough!" and throttle up. Up and away, 'bout 1,200 ft. AGL I feel a few little lumps (could just be normal ground heating) then Whoopsie a nice roll to the right at about 40 degrees as I hit the '37s wingtip vortex. Not an issue, just pulled her back smoothly, but a nice little warning, those vortexes really do exist, kids.
That same 737 called back to tell us all "I'm getting moderate chop starting about 6,500 ending about 10.5". I was heading about the same way as he had gone, so I tightened my belts and got ready for a good ride. Pffft, nah. A few little bumps, nothing to call home (or ATC) about. I called back in after 5 minutes and let ATC know.
Now, it did start getting interesting crossing the moutains 50 miles to the south of Boise. I was at 14k, the cloud bases were between 16-17k, and there was a lot of downdrafts. I hand-flew and went through a bunch of light-moderate bumps for about 60 miles. Nice to have a reason to hand-fly! Nothing in those clouds was showing up on NexRAD radar, and nothing more than bumps. Then things smoothed out. But ug, worse headwind than I've had. Never got above 146 knots until Sacramento on the descent, so golly it was a long flight.
I wasn't sure what the weather would be like (METAR was still showing a potental dense-enough cloud layer at 3,000) so stayed IFR all the way to CEDES (very close to RHV) and could peek over the hills into the valley and things were clear. I canceled IFR then and went to tower. Of course, the danged airport was landing backwards again (the 13's) I was cleared for left base entry which is what I was exactly lined up for. Only really issue was, well, I was at 6,000 ft about 12 miles out. And that's what Speed Brakes are for! Slide down the hill with all the boards out at 1,600-1,800 fpm descent (slow) and nailed pattern height right where I should be. OK landing, touchdown was sweet, I just used more runway that I would have liked.

20-22 July 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 5.9
Went up Friday instead of Saturday for some business. Normal straightforward flight. Little bit of a delay getting out since I was in the middle of the morning rush, tried to do a visual sep but approach wasn't having it this morning. Notable was a scolding that one pilot got from Reno Approach because he (the pilot) had no clue where he was going once he landed, all he knew was "I have a rental car at Budget", which ain't enough, as you know. The controller tried to help, but the his supervisor got on freq and told the pilot it wasn't their job to explain all the FBOs to them, it's his job to tell them where he needs to go.
An interesting thing was that runway 28R at Boise is closed for resurfacing, so we're all crowding into 28L/10R. Had a bit of a vector sideways to wait my turn. Had a DC-8 (whatever they call them nowadays) close behind me on final, as I'm scrubbing speed off over the runway the tower says "No long landings 3636H". Well heck buddy, I wasn't trying to be long! Don't know what he was complaining about, I got off at E which is what I always do. Quick, smooth flight.

Back on Sunday mid-day because it looked like there were no thunderstorms brewing. They're weren't. I could of jolts of turbulence near some of the hills, but nothing important. What was important was the danged headwinds. Bad enough today down at 14,000 ft. to keep me below 150 knots ground speed, sometimes I was poking along at 143 (sorry cazzna 172 heads, but that's slooooow). Nothing of inrterest in my notes except I don't know who uses the call sign "Roller", lemme go look that up....dang it, can't find it. Ah well. Nice clean landing at RHV.

14-16 July 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 5.8
Saturday's flight up was normal, very smooth and easy. Changed from 15k to 17k ft around Lake Tahoe to see if the wind forcast was really going to give me the additional 5 knots, it didn't this time. OK landing.

Monday was a little different. ADDS was already showing some interesting radar returns across the Northern Nevada desert (this picture is hours later, so don't look at the weather), so I knew it might get interesting. Interesting enough on take-off in a slightly irritating way. You might be able to see a much longer line going east out of Boise, the controlelr kept me on a vector quite a while to get some 737's out behind me. The up to 14k, and I'm monitoring my XM weather on my 396 (bless it's heart). The returns were all to the left of my course, which was nice, which allowed me to plan an easy path.

Down to REO, then asked for clearance to deviate to the west. Did so (that curve back east on this track doesn't make sense) and was able to keep all the interesting weather more than 20 miles away, I only encountered a few small bumps along the way. The freq. was full of everyone, big and small, deviating around buildups. While the 396 is not going to let you pick your way between cells, it certainly is excellent for seeing where the trouble is and staying way away from it to begin with.

Headwinds were stinky, never got about 150 knots ground speed. Canceled IFR above Sacramento (as usual) and in to RHV. Again with the "amended clearance, pass over midfield at 1,500 and cleared to land 31L". This has only been in the last few months, must be some new controllers who don't know that us RHV residents are used to the madness of 7 airplanes in the pattern at different speeds.
Very nice landing, even got off at Delta instead of the end!

9 July 2007 BOI RHV Time: 3.0
Back down to San Jose. Nice flying at the start, but then it got very very smoky at 14k ft. I was actually IMC (ISC?) for a good 20 minutes, could not see the ground or forward, very glad I was on an IFR plan. The fires are still going, be careful if you're VFR! Canceled IFR around Sacramento when my XM weather showed the ceiling at RHV being unlimited on the METAR, and the sat view showed the clouds gone. You really need to try XM weather. The controller actually sounded hurt that I was cancelling. Straight over to RHV, nice landing, we were landing 13's today which is very unusual for July.

6-8 July 2007 BOI WYS BOI Time: 3.5
Wanted to go have some quality Geyser time, up and over to Yellowstone Nat. Park. Flew out Friday morning, very nice smooth air. Landed at West Yellowstone for the first time, this is a very nice airport that's seriously underutilized. Go there! When you land you're only 3 miles from the entrance to the park, the people are great and the field is in superior shape.

Stands out very well against the forest, you can see it from 30 miles away easily. Also far enough away from the hills that flatland pilots should be comfortable, jsut remember that it is a 6600 msl field, so you need to get out early.
Back on Sunday, out early in the morning. Which was good, quite a bit of light turbulence from the mountains on the eastern part of the trip, we started at 10.5k ft. and I moved us up to 12.5k to smooth it out a little. That helped. The Magic Valley (east side of Idaho) was starting to fill up with smoke from various wildfires.

4 July 2007 BOI Time: 1.1
Took a buddy up flying around the Treasure Valley, he hasn't been up in nearly a year. Flew out into Oregon and back, unusual for no heat-generated turbulence down at 6.5k ft., smooth as silk on a hot day. This was actually the first time I'd taken off from KBOI vfr!

30 June 2007 RHV BOI Time: 2.5
Silly DUATS had lost my flight plan, so had to call Oakland Radio from the runup area at RHV and file. Guy at the other end of the radio was a little unfamilar with our airspace, so I had to spell all the waypoints phonetically and slowly. 20 minute delay. But not bad, the flight up was only 2.5 hours. Nothing out of the ordinary.

29 June 2007 1O2 RHV Time: .9
Back from annual. Two new cylinders, so kept a nice steady power setting home. Actually picked the airplane up late, so landed after dark, my first night landing in a while. Just dandy. Fuel at the fuel pit to get ready to go to Boise tommorrow.

18 June 2007 RHV 1O2 O69 RHV Time: 2.2
Well, I guess flying 3.2 hours back from Boise isn't enough. Had to drop my airplane off at Lampson field for annual, and I had not set up a return flight, so I called and set up a flight back, and took off at about 2:30. Up to Lampson, some bumps around the Oakland hills. I went straight-in for 28 at Lampson, and made a very pretty landing. Got organized, and had one passenger to drop off at Petaluma (he was droppng his Mooney off for annual, too), and one pilot who would be flying 3636H back to Lampson.
Took off, it was hot as usual there, so climb was a bit anemic, but OK. Then down to Petaluma. I have never landed Petaluma before, so I didn't even know what it looked like. Finally saw it about 9 miles away, once you see it you'll never forget it, it really does stand out very well.
One more really nice landing. That makes 3 for one day, my quota must be used up. Dropped my passnger, then back up and out to RHV. And a fourth nice landing! Not quite as pretty as the otbers, but dandy.

16-18 June 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 5.6
Got to the airport and noticed that San Jose was taking off to the south. That means take off to the south, and that usually means a long delay getting a clearance. Got to the end of the runway, and the tower told me to expect a 10 minute delay for release. But they actively worked out a plan, I took off VFR and expected to pick up my clearance over SUNOL. Got close to SUNOL and ATC accepted me IFR. After SAC I was hitting 186 knots ground speed, and looking at my Garmin 396 I suspected I might get a bit more up top. Asked for 17,000, got it, climbed and wonders of, steady 196-200 knot ground speed. Thought about putting on the mask instead of the cannula and asking for higher, but said heck with it. Nothing much going on between Reno and RENOL, ATC didn't ask for me to descend until quite late, which was nice, power-dive towards KBOI at 247 knots gs. Very very nice landing, 2.4 hours, the quickest I've made it so far I think.
Winds give, and winds take away. Monday morning was a nice clear day, nice takeoff, and then into the wind. Stayed low at 14,000, but still was only making 149 knots gs. The turn at REO gave me a bit more, but it was still slow. I canceled IFR over Stockton (they gave me the cross-radial clearnace again that's just dumb (I'll explain in a sidenote)), went on into RHV. Very unusual, I was on the standard approach for right traffic for 31 R, and there wer two Taylorcraft going slowly in the pattern. I'm used to that, but we have some new controllers at RHV and they don't know that we know, apparently. This gentleman asked me to cross midfield at 1,500 and land 31L. Easy, and that was another great landing. 3 hours ten minutes or so, a long trip.

29 May 2007 BOI RHV Time: 2.7
Much nicer day for flying. Up and out, like 4 airplanes off the ground in 40 seconds, kinda cool. Stayed down at 14,000 ft. because of some very unusual low-level westerly winds help me scoot along very respectably.
The whole inland trip was uneventful, but RHV and SJC were reporting 1,200 ft. ceilings, so I was prepared to divert to Stockton. And my silly XM Weather wasn't refereshing METARs fast enough, it was a full half hour behind when I got near Sacramento, so I didn't know if things had opened up yet or not. ATC asked if I wanted the visual or an approach and I asked him for ceilings, he said "scattered at 1,500" so I said "put me down for the GPS 31". BTW, this all happened 80 miles away for RHV, which was very nice, ATC seemed particularly mellow in NorCal today. Motored on towards CEDES, which is the ATC entry point for the approach, and saw that the clouds were clear for about 10 miles around RHV. Cancelled IFR and landed on 13R since the winds were from the south, unusual in the spring here. OK landing, slightly cockedeyed in the crosswind, but OK.
Back to my hangar row and a Cezzna is bloking it on the way out, so an additional 5 minutes of engine run time to let him get all fired up and gone.

19 May 2007 RHV BOI Time: 2.6
Cloudy today, nice solid layer to take off through. Up, and in the clouds got a turn to the left and a 737 just taking off from SJC got a turn to his left. We both popped out of the cloud deck at the same time and saw each other (great deal of seperation), so we both got turned back on course.
I went up at 15,000 ft. this time, unusually the winds were slightly more favorable there than at 17k, I was hitting sustained ground speeds of 210 knots, which ain't shabby. Landed, parked TurboAir.

Monday my normal flight back day, well, not so much. An icing airmet sitting on top of Idaho, and some very nasty activity just to the west. I booked a Horizon flight on Sunday, then, as I was drinking my coffee and looking at ADDS I heard myself think "Well, if I get lucky...." and decided to leave my airplane in BOI and pick it up next weekend.

12-14 May 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time: 5.4
Out Saturday for the flight up to Boise. Racing to the airport to get there before the morning overcast burnt off so I could get at least a little actual IMC! Takeoff out of RHV was a little bumpy, and I barely got into the clouds at all, more's the pity. Leveled off at 5,000 ft. for a 737 passing directly overhead at 6,000, then climb up to 17,000. Very nice tailwind all the way along, made high 190's to 200's knots ground speed, which got me up there in 2.5 hours. Expected some turbulence because of the strong winds, but only had 4-8 minutes of light chop along the way. Only interesting thing was around Tahoe where the mountains max upwards, had some gentle rollercoastering up and down, almost like the beginnings of a mountain wave. But very smooth and comfortable.
Had to turn tight in at Boise to land in front of a regional jet, but give me a 10,000 ft x 150 ft. wide runway and I can cut things pretty tight. OK landing. We had a bit of dancing on taxiing as me, a Maule, a Falcon and a King Air were all trying to share the same taxiways. But Boise has a lot of space, so it worked out fine.

Monday morning I got a treat, I was going to have a slight tailwind going back, too! That's rare. Up and out, pretty much nothing to say at all on the flight down. Got north of Sacramento and ATC said "I have a slight reroute for you..." and cancelled IFR to get away from the re-route. Actually to save 10 minutes. Good landing.

28-30 April 2007 RHV BOI RHV Time:5.8
Finally the ice is gone from my weekend route! Up Saturday morning, out and preflighted. Start, taxi, get my clearance and repeat it back rather fast since the Boise clearance is always exactly the same. Get ready to go, tower tells me NorCal is estimating 3-5 minute wait. In abou;t a minute he comes back on and;
"3636H, can you see the 737 on final for SJC?"
"Affirmative"
"Maintain visual separation from the aircraft, 31R cleared for takeoff"
Dandy Up and out, 27 minutes of climb (with one level off under the Oakland corridor) to get to 17,000 ft. About SAC I asked for a direct clearance, ATC gave it to me in about 4 minutes. Nice tailwind, clipping along at 190-200 knots ground speed. Stayed high longer than usual, waited until my "pilots discretion" descent became a mandatory to take full advantage of the winds. Not a bump or ripple in the air. Parking at TurboAir again now, forget Western, don't like their attitude.

Back out Monday morning, preflight then off. As usual, Monday morning means the MOAs are hot so no direct. Got to about 20 miles north of Stockton and cancelled IFR (you can see the jog) and landed at RHV. Not a great landing, but OK.

27 April 2007 RHVTime:1.1
Some Flyin' Slow flight over Los Banos.

13 April 2007 RHVTime:1.0
Some Flyin' Steep turns

6 April 2007 RHVTime:1.0
Danged airplane's been getting more flying that I have! The WAAS upgrade took longer than expected, got the airplane back this week. Went up to fly around at lunch roday. The terrain display is very nice, I did not have a chance to do an LPV approach.

2 Mar 2007 RHV 1O2 Time:1.0
My line position for my Garmin 530 upgrade to WAAS has arrived. Flew up to Lampson Field to drop the airplane off at Lakeside Aero to do the upgrade and to fix some small squawks while it's there.
Beuatiful clear day in NorCal. North of Napa there was a lot more turbulence than I expected. Nothing big, just lots of small jolts. Straight in to Lampson, nice landing, I guess the landing drills I did with Don really have worked!

2 Feb 2007 RHVTime:1.2
Out and about. Very hazy in the Valley up through 4,000 ft., but otherwise smooth as silk. Down and in to Los Banos, did some slow flight for a while. Back to RHV, hazy enough that I didn't see the airport until 5 miles. Wonderful landing, though.

15 Jan 2007 RHV SQL SCK RHVTime:1.5
Another weekend where the weather made it prudent to go commercial. Though this morning at Boise the icing wouldn't have been the airplane, it would have been me, it was 8 deg. F. when I walked out my door. I can guaruntee the preflight would have been abbreviated.
But had a nice flight today anyway, one of my fellow Mooney pilots needed a ride out to Stockton to pick up his airplane after annual. Suprisingly enough, this was my first landing at San Carlos (SQL) where he's based, and I hadn't run the procedure before.

Image courtesy Skyvector.com. I drew the red line....
VFR, up out of RHV then contact San Jose Airport's tower, get cleared in and cross midfield, then hand off to Moffit fld, then Palo Alto, then SQL. All in the space of about 8 minutes. I'm glad I've done so much IFR flying, the changes were a non-issue. San Carlos is a 2,600 ft. long field, shorter than anything I'm used to, also. But no worries, just nail airspeed on final, good landing. Off to Stockton, pretty good landing there. Back up aimed back to RHV. Sun was in a bad spot in the sky, and there was mist all through the Sacramento Valley, made for interesting viewing. Even though I've been through that corridor countless times (well, you can go count the times if you want), the change in visibility really changed the view.
Into RHV, had to go long on downwind for a Archer slow in the pattern ahead of me. I don't actually remember that landing.

6 Jan 2007 RHV Time:1.0
Two more weeks of so much ice on the weekends that it't not feasible to go anywhere far. Ah well. Hour up and around to keep everything moving. Winds were up, so there was continuous light turbulence, with some good solid jolts every now and again. Didn't cross the mountains out of the Valley, didn't want to get beat up too much, so just down past Hollister and back.
Wind right straight down the runway at 15 knots, and if I do say so myself about as perfect a landing as one could make. I wasn't even sure I had landed, I felt nothing!

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