Date: 8/13/02
Usual CFI
Cessna N99348
5-8pm
1.3 Hobbs, 0.5 Hood
mVFR, short-field TO, landing on 33 (small pattern, appch, etc)
Today we had planned on a long XC to SAC and 2Q3 (Yolo). I had done much of the planning sheets (checkpoints etc),
but several factors 'sounded like an ntsb story' according to Jeff. I told him that anything he said 'sounds like an ntsb story'
would cancel our flights!
factors:
I had a meeting from 4-5 that went to 5:15, and we had planned like usual to meet at or before 5pm. I arrived at 5:30pm.
The aircraft binder (keys, checklist, W&B, etc) was missing. It turned up at OaklandFlyers, but after 6pm.
The weather was getting poor, and forecast for IFR at 9pm. 99348 is *not* IFR certified to (AFAIK) to lack of DME.
Finally: we were rushed for time, and even prior to the IFR forecast, it was really poor visibility etc.
what we did:
We went up for some hood work over San Pablo bay.
It was quite uneasy for me, but Jeff reminded me often enough to 'look down' - even though the overcast/haze layer
was (to me severe) thick, you could still see the ground for a few miles, so we weren't "in overcast".
I requested a climb to 6000' and we climbed to 5500'. This was really awesome. The horizon started to re-appear,
with a blue-sky, and Jumbo-Jets cruising around like they were floating on top of a white carpet - they looked really-black against the white layer.
So - off to San Pablo bay - we did two power-on stalls, and then a steep turn each direction by my request to keep those current.
Then the 30 min of hood-work.
now, with the card-gyro-heading-indicator blocked, we:
Started with turns to a compass - this was cool, and I need to memorize the 'north/south' cardinal headings and lead/lag degrees.
Triangulated our position correctly just over the Carquinez bridge (crockett?).
We did a bunch of unusual attitudes - and as I was 'doing well' - Jeff covered up the attitude indicator completely!
I had to rely on the electrically powered turn coordinator, and the altitude needle. Looking at the vertical speed indicator
was almost useless, as it pegged at 10+ or 10- which looked the same. Most times I over-compensated on the recovery, but eventually got back to straight-n-level.
This was fun, and for the first time during training, I became acutely aware of my stomach - no problem though, didn't even mention it (not queasy).
Triangulated our position correctly just over point Richmond (still hood-on). Called Bay-Appch who kept messing up our tail number - Jeff even tried to correct him to no avail.
Then he gave another instruction and I repeated it, ending with "99 *3* 48" for emphasis and he finally got it right.
Proceded on a course Jeff gave me of approx 130 degrees at 2500' to the M.Temple as instructed - switched freq.s to
OAK twr, which made me think that we were closer than we were so I lost a few 100'. Took off the hood 2 min before the
temple and the vis was poor - I was glad to have a CFI and be 'for landing' right about now.
On decent for RP 27L like usual, twr asked if we could take 33. I accepted and they told us we could overfly 27R (no construction at this time - 7pm or so).
Jeff had me keep North or above 27R for practice, where I made one smooth turn to a half-decent landing on 33.
This was a short flight, but really awesome - even mVFR haze can be disorienting. Scanning the instruments, and the partial-panel simulation gave me confidence in the
equipment vs. my inner-ear. Twr thanked us for taking 33 'helping them out' - and I'm beginning to feel comfortable with
new/different instructions, and in general - being accommodating to the situation in addition to being safe/flying the airplane/etc.
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