Journal #13

7/18 (Friday eve)
N99348 (172)
Jeff
Hobbs: 1.4 Hrs
5pm-7pm

note: on 7/17 (thurs) was to do pre-solo phase check incl. oral exam, but he was late and it was getting IFR quickly... murphy's law again.


got the weather, dispatch, and started the preflight on my own. Met Jeff @ Kaiser. We went to Livermore LVK for just a couple of T&Gs, did maneuvers (power on, and off stalls, steep turns) over the Mt. Diablo practice area (south of it, north of LVK). Did a really good ABCDE engine-out procedure - got to double check with the checklist, and although it would have been a strange teardrop turn from downwind to final, Jeff simply had us recover with a "good job" on the whole proc.

finding LVK for the first time, I mistook a very small body of water just South of LVK to be the much *much* larger body of water to the North-East of LVK (probably 8 miles) and we were only 5-6 miles from the field. not soo much embarassing, but frustrating - reading charts & relative sizes etc...

ok: landings at LVK - beyond a couple of mis-statements to the friendly LVK tower, we were in right traffic for 25R. I said all kinds of garbage on the radio there: "27L", kept saying "number 2" when we were cleared & number 1 for landing/t&G. There was a 16kt head/crosswind coming from 290 (coming from 40 degrees to the right). Basically - I came in high from the pattern, and got low every time. I thought I had everything worked out as far as downwind, base, final, power settings, sight picture - the thing I didn't do here was: think about physics. With a 16kt headwind, simply going from memory on sight picture and power would have us short every time. The glidepatch doesn't move for the wind, so with wind, I need to compensate to stay on glidepath (at 70kts in 348 with 10deg flaps).


This was reason # 1 today to (a) fly the airplane, and (b) think of physics


On the way back at 2500' past the 680/580 interchange, past dublin, I was busy looking at charts when Jeff spotted a low wing aircraft on head-on course, probably less than a mile away. They had already started their right turn making them much easier to spot, but it was uncomfortably close (for me). Jeff didn't wait for me to make the right turn and simply started it. He had already commented on this being a high traffic area. In retrospect, flying towards a hazy bay-area, just a couple of hours from sunset, and already pretty certain that we were out of LVK's class-Delta, I should have been scanning and looking outside. Probably could have found a good reporting point from the great view!


This was reason # 2 today to (a) fly the airplane.


Got some extra-harsh comments from Jeff that my power settings on final were all over the place and usually too low. Sounded like solo potential for next week may be limited, but hey - I'd rather learn safely, than have a thrill ride and bend some gear, land short, or generally screw up. This is still awesome!!!