Solo flight with touch 'n' go from Oakland to Livermore and back. Flight #20

Solo flight, after endorsement, from OAK-LVK back to OAK

99348, 1.1 hrs hobbs

Thinking about ATC/calling up LVK with initial position report, forgot to do maneuvers and the ABCDE (not-low-approach) engine-out practice.

Called LVK tower with position etc, then instructed to make Left entry on the 45 for 25L! (this is the short runway) - and report 1 mi on the 45.

Right as I was turning onto the 45, I heard LVK say to another cessna that he didn't know where I was yet, and I told him I was 1mi on the 45. There was another plane (cessna I think) turning crosswind for left closed traffic 25L, and

I was asked to make a 'wide' downwind - well I was already about in the normal downwind and hadn't kept TPA perfectly (was about 250' low) so I slowed down and kept wide to let the cessna go ahead of me.

First approach - ok - T&G, but damn was my heart pounding, probably had 500-700' of runway before the end when I lifted off.

The second was a go-around.

The third was fine, but I asked for the back-taxi making this a 'full stop'

The fourth was a go-around - but by the time LVK was done chatting with another plane, he already pointed to my upwind position for another aircraft to see [so I didn't call go-around].

The fifth I asked for a straight-out departure to OAK and made a decent go-around, touching down early on the runway, keeping speed, and taking off with no delay!

This was all quite hectic, fun, and a good learning experience.

Coming into OAK was nothing unusual - ATC was calm and friendly. I asked for the 180-back taxi and they said something like they were already going to ask me for that.

I aimed for between the numbers and the 500' markings - touching down right on the 500' markings, and turning 180 before the 1000' markings - score one for the short-field technique.

(flaps up, brake) - although this time I braked more smoothly - was more concerned with control than a 'shortest distance' on 27L.

that's about it - an awesome day.

learned a couple of things with a few mistakes - this solo thing is awesome & good for learning (duh).

I left the carb-heat on at the beginning of one go-around and wondered why the climb was soo poor.

The ATC 'wide downwind': I should have asked clarification, or just thought about it before essentially merging with the normal downwind - oh well - no problem and they were nice to me.

Also: It was 34 degrees C in LVK - and I think 30 C in OAK - very hot - the plane definitely had a performance reduction - but nothing too bad.

Soft and Short Field Landings - Flight #19

9am-12noon (actual hobbs: 1.8 hrs)

Late again (bay bridge construction) to 9:15.

99348, C-172

Today was good. Started on soft-field and short-field landings, and did a short-field takeoff from OAK 27L. I did all of the comm (I think) and most of the decision making.

We went from OAK to LVK - it was warm, somewhat hazy, and calm winds, that changed to a slight XW at LVK.

At LVK we did 9 T&Gs and a go-around (give or take one) and they all went well - only one go-around - where I was bobbing up/down and slightly off-center while in ground effect.

The short-field landing was probably the toughest - I've got to read some more and practice. Soft field was fine - much like normal, but keep the nose up and add power if necessary for a soft touchdown.

We departed back to OAK, called bay-app after ATIS, straight in 27L - told them landing long, they said something more authoratative like 'cleared - ok to land long' and aimed for the 1500' markers of 9R (27L's opposing end) making one of the performance landings (soft field I think).

All went well - tomorrow if weather permits, I'll be endorsed + solo from OAK to LVK for some T&Gs where Jeff says I'll learn much from my own mistakes & learning how things feel.

Also: I really got to stop asking 'permission' / double checking everything with Jeff - I think it's annoying him, me, and slowing us down a little bit. For the most part, I got things down and will probably learn faster/better if I make some mistakes etc...

That's about it - tomorrow another step...

Morning VFR Flight #18

8:30am-11am (actual hobbs: 1.5 hrs)

I was late (8 planned) and didn't get WX.

1658F - we planned to go up thru clouds, but there were none - very clear, so once over SP bay, we started VORs...

Flying VFR to skaggs VOR was a good start - seeing how the needle really moves & getting the idea of 'what side' of the needle we're on in terms of the cardinal compass instead of nmemonics of 'fly to the needle' or 'turn towards the needle' or etc...

That went well, and I could see the Skaggs VOR building, so on went the hood. For anyone reading this in the future - yes: it really does block out the whole world, and you still can see the instruments decently.

For the first 30 min or so, Jeff had me maintain 2900' and tune, identify, twist to fly towards VORs: Skaggs, from Skaggs on a radial, to Sausalito VOR, back to Scaggs, to Santa Rosa (I think). All of this went well.

At around 30 of the 50 min or so of hood work, I got disoriented for the first time - nothing scary, but it was the first time I didn't keep the wings as level as I would like.

Looked at a chart, looked back, and what-cha know? We were at about 20 degrees of bank and I had no idea. Gotta keep up the scan.

No problem, but I can see for the first time first-hand, how the body really, *really* misleads you in terms of inertia, balance, etc... gotta trust those instruments (which I do by now!)

Things were going very well, so we tried going to Oakland's VOR and the reception was really iffy on both NAVs, so we went towards SCAGGS (we were up by Santa Rosa), then turned towards OAK and before taking off the hood, I asked about stalls.

It wasn't a normal thing to do for a VFR student, but what the heck - we tried one power off stall, and while nothing went badly, my recovery wasn't nearly as stable as normal (ended up climbing etc...).

Back to OAK - no problems - OAK tower was nice and asked where we were parking - Kaiser I said. They asked if we wanted a landing on 15... yes...

so we were cleared to land on 15. I responded back 15R thinking it was the opposing end of 27L (duh!) but they pretended not to notice.

Slipping to lose altitude instead of making an S-turn over bayfarm island, and in for a decent landing on 15 - right near Kaiser - cool.

Been studying almost every day - it's going well - almost done with the GFD private pilot manual book (big heavy one). Now it's time to

get working steadily thru the FAA written test guide. Jeff says we'll be doing XCs within a week - me probably doing solo XC in the next two weeks.

It's awesome!