8/3/2002
Jeff
C-172 99348
Hobbs: 1.7 hours
1.7 Dual
Preflight +WX: 12:30-1:00pm
Overcast + several scattered cloud layers + thick haze
This was an awesome flight. Took off around 1pm from OAK via 27L (which I requested) and towards Mt. Diablo. Towards the Oakland Hills, Jeff had me fly thru a cloud - I didn't freak out, but could see how some would. Only 20 sec or so checking instruments mainly - it was very cool. After the clouds, we were over the main ridge and around 3000'. The haze over the valley was pretty bad - couldn't even see Mt Diablo in the distance for a while. Did steep turns, slow flight, and both went pretty well - Jeff was happy with them. Went in to LVK after a NOTAM or AIRMET of 'small weapons fire' over a campsite (sat dish on the chart) up to 2500'. On the whole flight to this point, even with the good maneuvers, I was feeling rusty. I got us into the pattern, but due to LVK's crazy traffic - Jeff did much of the comm for me.
LVK
On the first approach, I was a bit shaky, but we were on glideslope with a strong XW with gusts to 15 or 19kts. A combo of wind gust and me being rusty took us off centerline by 1/4 of the runway width so I did a good go-around. The second approach had a good landing at the end of it! The XW didn't get in the way of me making a good wing-low landing, on centerline. Jeff was happy with this, but they were really busy - switched us to the second tower freq for the left runway, and Jeff had me request a downwind departure.
We went over to Byron - which I found based on the chart North of a lake. Making a large loop to the SE of the field to give room to parachute activity, parachute plane taking off downwind, and a glider getting towed off the angled runway. Called on CTAF: position, entering 25, etc... and on the first approach made a great XW landing. According to Jeff - this was near the XW limits of the C172, and he was really pleased with my XW landings. With the heavy XW and traffic, we headed back to OAK.
All the normal stuff, except with the low vis and haze, there were three other planes nearby - a cub above us, a C152 to the S-SE, and another 172 I think. It was comedy on the radio as Bay Approach asked each in turn: '99348 do you have the cub in sight' - 'negative 99348 - looking' - and this proceeded with all of the other planes and same answers! One by one we were transferred to OAK tower 118.3 except the S-SE plane going to HWD I think. For sequencing we made a turn to the left (S-SE) for a bit, then lined up wtih 27L straight-in. There were 3 directly ahead of us all straight-in.
#1 landed really long and was held on Papa (couldn't cross 27R, so holding short 27L). #2 landed and got off the runway (either short/U-turn or very long). #3 landed halfway down and was taxiing. ATC cleared us to land if we could land short! while another plane was still on 27L! I was surprised, but responded something confident like '99348 making short landing and the back taxi'. Came in with a moderate (15kts I think) XW a made a sweet short landing - braked a little too much w/o keeping the nose up so got a little buffet (skid?) but nothing too bad. Started the turn to taxi off on Bravo and the controller said 'Good Job 348' + 'taxi clear on Bravo and... 121.9'.
That basically sums up the flight - started a little rusty but built up the radio and maneuver confidence. Monday is a planned unsupervised solo to SP.Bay - will meet Jeff to go over the weather beforehand. Can't wait!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
Thursday, February 10, 2005
Journal #15 - First Solo!!!
First Solo!!!
7/24/2002
CFI: Jeff
C-172 99348
Hobbs: 1.7 hours
1.4 Dual
0.3 PIC
Preflight +WX: 6:30-7:00pm
Takeoff OAK 33 to Petaluma 'O69' "Oscar"-69.
Mostly routine flight, cruising at 75% power for a fast arrival at Petaluma.
Announced Petaluma Traffic at 10 miles, 5 miles, overflying the field at 2000', and the left u-turn to the 45 Came in for one good landing, one high go-around, another go-around (way-high from a simulated engine out on downwind), and then a really nice landing (somewhat long).
Taxied off of 29 and back to the start of 29 - Jeff did some paperwork (endorsements), gave me a mini-brief, and climbed out of the plane! He took my camera, and to my surprise, didn't have a radio. For that matter, he simply left everything in the plane (I would be back soon :).
Taxied and did a left 360 in the runup area looking for traffic, called taking the active after another plane called 5 mile final, and lifted off. Wow - all alone! strange eh! Really exciting - and without the safety blanket feeling of having a CFI with me, I could see why Jeff always wants to stay near the field in case of engine failure. I had to push myself to get all the way to 800' before turning crosswind. Called out each leg, and after running thru all the good procedures (check gauges, flow check, check final, etc).
Did a very nice landing on the first try. Just past the numbers, nice flare, smooth touchdown. I just knew what to do after all of the practice and training - although I probably double-checked everything I was supposed to do (flow+gauges+rich etc).
The second landing (approach) had an OK approach, but the slight crosswind took had me drifting off center at about 50' - so I went around - no problem, and called it out on the comm. All the while, by this time, more people were entering the traffic - all with NAV+Strobes+landing lights on, and the sun was really in my face (near setting), so I decided to make this the last one so we could get back to OAK.
Pattern was fine - saw a cool view of a Piper making a right u-turn to the 45, and called my turn + having him in sight - which they repeated and had me in sight :).
The last landing was a fine approach, but I started to roundout way too early - this probably had a high stall/flare, and one bounce - simply didn't push forward, but held back. Jeff didn't seem worried at all, and was happy I came back before going for the third landing.
Taxied off the active - calling on the comm, taxied to Jeff, shut-down, he hopped in, and we were on our way back to OAK. Jeff flew the takeoff and climb to give me a break, and it was just after sunset for incredible views of the East-Bay, San Francisco, cities lit up incredibly. I did the calls to approach & oakland-tower no problem, and we were cleared 27L. Because all of the taxiways across 27R are closed, Jeff asked for short approach + back taxi - this went really well & was fun.
WhooooooOoooooo!
Tomorrow it's time for my first unsupervised solo - from OAK to the San Pablo practice area, and back. Can't wait. Soo many thoughts, soo little eloquency at this point. I'm incredibly happy that I finally got myself to do this.
7/24/2002
CFI: Jeff
C-172 99348
Hobbs: 1.7 hours
1.4 Dual
0.3 PIC
Preflight +WX: 6:30-7:00pm
Takeoff OAK 33 to Petaluma 'O69' "Oscar"-69.
Mostly routine flight, cruising at 75% power for a fast arrival at Petaluma.
Announced Petaluma Traffic at 10 miles, 5 miles, overflying the field at 2000', and the left u-turn to the 45 Came in for one good landing, one high go-around, another go-around (way-high from a simulated engine out on downwind), and then a really nice landing (somewhat long).
Taxied off of 29 and back to the start of 29 - Jeff did some paperwork (endorsements), gave me a mini-brief, and climbed out of the plane! He took my camera, and to my surprise, didn't have a radio. For that matter, he simply left everything in the plane (I would be back soon :).
Taxied and did a left 360 in the runup area looking for traffic, called taking the active after another plane called 5 mile final, and lifted off. Wow - all alone! strange eh! Really exciting - and without the safety blanket feeling of having a CFI with me, I could see why Jeff always wants to stay near the field in case of engine failure. I had to push myself to get all the way to 800' before turning crosswind. Called out each leg, and after running thru all the good procedures (check gauges, flow check, check final, etc).
Did a very nice landing on the first try. Just past the numbers, nice flare, smooth touchdown. I just knew what to do after all of the practice and training - although I probably double-checked everything I was supposed to do (flow+gauges+rich etc).
The second landing (approach) had an OK approach, but the slight crosswind took had me drifting off center at about 50' - so I went around - no problem, and called it out on the comm. All the while, by this time, more people were entering the traffic - all with NAV+Strobes+landing lights on, and the sun was really in my face (near setting), so I decided to make this the last one so we could get back to OAK.
Pattern was fine - saw a cool view of a Piper making a right u-turn to the 45, and called my turn + having him in sight - which they repeated and had me in sight :).
The last landing was a fine approach, but I started to roundout way too early - this probably had a high stall/flare, and one bounce - simply didn't push forward, but held back. Jeff didn't seem worried at all, and was happy I came back before going for the third landing.
Taxied off the active - calling on the comm, taxied to Jeff, shut-down, he hopped in, and we were on our way back to OAK. Jeff flew the takeoff and climb to give me a break, and it was just after sunset for incredible views of the East-Bay, San Francisco, cities lit up incredibly. I did the calls to approach & oakland-tower no problem, and we were cleared 27L. Because all of the taxiways across 27R are closed, Jeff asked for short approach + back taxi - this went really well & was fun.
WhooooooOoooooo!
Tomorrow it's time for my first unsupervised solo - from OAK to the San Pablo practice area, and back. Can't wait. Soo many thoughts, soo little eloquency at this point. I'm incredibly happy that I finally got myself to do this.
Saturday, February 05, 2005
Journal #14
7/23 (Tuesday eve)
N99348 (172)
Khaled *pre-solo checkride CFI*
Hobbs: 1.5 Hrs
pre-solo quiz & ground instruction: 5-6
flight: 6-8 approx (less preflight and fuel etc)
This was a great day - good weather, moderate winds, unrestricted visibility. Met Khaled in the clubhouse - times like this I'm really glad to have a clubhouse - can meet people, ask questions, - in other words: being early doesn't suck.
We discussed several things: reading the charts, airspaces, Echo & Golf airspaces (mostly useful for IFR) make more sense now. Spin entry and recovery procedure (*not* a developed spin, just the initial and recovery from a stall/spin). One good piece of knowledge: if radio fails, first troubleshoot - if it failed for example over golden gate fields while departing from OAK, it's probably safest and most controlled to return to OAK while squaking 7700. If (as I first guessed) one were to fly to NAPA-APC squaking 7600, they would keep upwards of 3 ATC centers confused, busy, and they would still not know where I was going. If one squaks 7600 and returns to OAK, the bay-approach ATC would already have had me on radar, and know exactly where I was headed - simply flying to the mormon temple, then towards OAK north field, and somewhere near a good pattern entry circling above normal TPA looking for light-gun signals from the tower (as obvious: solid green for cleared to land).
I had already received the weather from WX-brief for OAK-APC-OAK, but Khaled decided to go to Livermore. He also recommended using PIREPs (informal- from other pilots etc) as the most accurate and useful near real-time reports. We departed OAK, turned to 050, and while climbing thru approx 1500' had another cessna on a nearly head-on course descending from the temple. ATC did warn us of them, but we reported 'looking' and never 'in sight' it was pretty close, and once I spotted them I entered a right downward turn (they were at least 100-200' above us. Calling out the traffic to Khaled, he continued the turn (more extreme + dive) and cut the engine to near idle. This all made sense, and while I did nothing wrong, it's ok here to make more extreme moves for safety. I'm 99% sure that we saw the other cessna long before they saw us, as we were in the diving turn before they even started their right-turn.
Ok - now for maneuvers - got over near Mt Diablo for some steep turns (pretty good), MCA/slow-flight, stalls, etc and all went very well. Then spins (initial+recovery). These were not all that scary at all, but Khaled pointed out that the skyhawk is very tame in this regard. Much like a stall recovery - do basically the same thing, except let the nose drop and cut the throttle to idle. We did an engine out procedure, and after ABCD (still at least 1000' AGL) Khaled had me recover and head to LVK. We did a few 360s while getting ATIS, then called our vector position from LVK. (note: vectors often much easier than cities/VFR reporting points etc). Went in for the first landing - a 'normal' 30 degree flap landing which was decent, the second was the same, until I chose to go-around - was a little low on airspeed, and slightly below glidepath. We practiced a no-flap landing, I think a 10 degree flap landing, and they all went well! I was much less focused on hitting the exact 'numbers' and more on the V-speeds, ground effect roundout, and centerline. The last landing was pretty nice - 20 or 30 degrees of flaps for a soft touchdown in the first 1000' (probably less) of runway.
One maneuver I left out was 'unusual attitude' recovery. These didn't throw me off too much, but I need to do things in the correct order:
1. Nose high: Full Power + pitch down + correct roll
2. Nose low: Idle Power + correct roll + pitch up
Back to OAK - everything went well - cool new stuff: OAK (or approach) asked us to 'maintain our current forward speed' so even though descending, we were at approx 60% power and 120-125kts (smooth air). All of the taxiways off 27L were closed, and we were straight in, so we were to land long. Worried about running out of runway, I came close to landing (roundout) but Khaled had me add power and stay in ground effect - it was pretty cool! we simply floated down the runway at approx 75 kts with 10 degrees of flaps (I think) and finally as I could see the end of the runway, we flared for a decent landing.
N99348 (172)
Khaled *pre-solo checkride CFI*
Hobbs: 1.5 Hrs
pre-solo quiz & ground instruction: 5-6
flight: 6-8 approx (less preflight and fuel etc)
This was a great day - good weather, moderate winds, unrestricted visibility. Met Khaled in the clubhouse - times like this I'm really glad to have a clubhouse - can meet people, ask questions, - in other words: being early doesn't suck.
We discussed several things: reading the charts, airspaces, Echo & Golf airspaces (mostly useful for IFR) make more sense now. Spin entry and recovery procedure (*not* a developed spin, just the initial and recovery from a stall/spin). One good piece of knowledge: if radio fails, first troubleshoot - if it failed for example over golden gate fields while departing from OAK, it's probably safest and most controlled to return to OAK while squaking 7700. If (as I first guessed) one were to fly to NAPA-APC squaking 7600, they would keep upwards of 3 ATC centers confused, busy, and they would still not know where I was going. If one squaks 7600 and returns to OAK, the bay-approach ATC would already have had me on radar, and know exactly where I was headed - simply flying to the mormon temple, then towards OAK north field, and somewhere near a good pattern entry circling above normal TPA looking for light-gun signals from the tower (as obvious: solid green for cleared to land).
I had already received the weather from WX-brief for OAK-APC-OAK, but Khaled decided to go to Livermore. He also recommended using PIREPs (informal- from other pilots etc) as the most accurate and useful near real-time reports. We departed OAK, turned to 050, and while climbing thru approx 1500' had another cessna on a nearly head-on course descending from the temple. ATC did warn us of them, but we reported 'looking' and never 'in sight' it was pretty close, and once I spotted them I entered a right downward turn (they were at least 100-200' above us. Calling out the traffic to Khaled, he continued the turn (more extreme + dive) and cut the engine to near idle. This all made sense, and while I did nothing wrong, it's ok here to make more extreme moves for safety. I'm 99% sure that we saw the other cessna long before they saw us, as we were in the diving turn before they even started their right-turn.
Ok - now for maneuvers - got over near Mt Diablo for some steep turns (pretty good), MCA/slow-flight, stalls, etc and all went very well. Then spins (initial+recovery). These were not all that scary at all, but Khaled pointed out that the skyhawk is very tame in this regard. Much like a stall recovery - do basically the same thing, except let the nose drop and cut the throttle to idle. We did an engine out procedure, and after ABCD (still at least 1000' AGL) Khaled had me recover and head to LVK. We did a few 360s while getting ATIS, then called our vector position from LVK. (note: vectors often much easier than cities/VFR reporting points etc). Went in for the first landing - a 'normal' 30 degree flap landing which was decent, the second was the same, until I chose to go-around - was a little low on airspeed, and slightly below glidepath. We practiced a no-flap landing, I think a 10 degree flap landing, and they all went well! I was much less focused on hitting the exact 'numbers' and more on the V-speeds, ground effect roundout, and centerline. The last landing was pretty nice - 20 or 30 degrees of flaps for a soft touchdown in the first 1000' (probably less) of runway.
One maneuver I left out was 'unusual attitude' recovery. These didn't throw me off too much, but I need to do things in the correct order:
1. Nose high: Full Power + pitch down + correct roll
2. Nose low: Idle Power + correct roll + pitch up
Back to OAK - everything went well - cool new stuff: OAK (or approach) asked us to 'maintain our current forward speed' so even though descending, we were at approx 60% power and 120-125kts (smooth air). All of the taxiways off 27L were closed, and we were straight in, so we were to land long. Worried about running out of runway, I came close to landing (roundout) but Khaled had me add power and stay in ground effect - it was pretty cool! we simply floated down the runway at approx 75 kts with 10 degrees of flaps (I think) and finally as I could see the end of the runway, we flared for a decent landing.
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