SF Bay Tour - 6/17/10

I haven’t flown since getting my PPL two months ago. I was a bit nervous because of that and the fact that I have not flown a Bay Tour before. I went over the basics with my CFI about a month ago and I was going to take him along but decided I could do this myself.

I took off from LVK and headed north to Walnut Creek at 3000 ft. At the 680/24 merge I got flight following and headed west over Golden Gate Fields. Just prior to that I had descended to 2000 ft to remain outside class Bravo airspace.

I flew direct to the Golden Gate Bridge dodging a blimp in the area. After circling the bridge I headed back east staying north of the Bay Bridge. There were a few planes in the area that Norcal called out for me.

I then followed 580 east south bound where I was handed off to Oakland tower. I advised Oakland that I was going to transition 580 east to Livermore. Oakland advised I stay north of Lake Chabot so they wouldn’t have to hand me off to Hayward tower.

I then headed back east bound towards Livermore.

A shortened bay tour but with no job and it being my first time and all I wanted to keep it short.

Final Checkride - 4/26/2010

I departed Livermore at 9AM heading to Calaveras as a student pilot. The air was extremely smooth, not a bump on my flight there; the air was a bit hazy though.

I landed at Calaveras and taxied to the guest parking area and tied down the airplane.
I walked into the FBO and was greeted by the airport manager (Kathy) who was very nice. My examiner was also there and said hello and that she would be right back. I was offered drinks and some pastries they had out.

After waiting for about 5 minutes the examiner (Terry) called me back to her office. She was very nice and offered me anything to drink (could I have a beer please). We began by going over my logbook and she requested my FTN number so she could log into the FAA website to review my IACRA form. I had the number with me but left it in the airplane so I had to leave and go get it. I was hoping Terry didn’t think I was not prepared right off the bat.

Terry asked me where I flew on my long x-country and asked me to measure the distance on my sectional which I thought this was kind of strange. She also asked where I flew on my night x-country. The oral portion of the review was not at all what I expected. I was waiting for a bunch of question but they really never came. She asked about the inspections required on the airplane, AD’s, engine inspections, and a few questions about wingtip vortices. We spent some time going over my cross-country log and asked a lot of questions about weight & balance, CG, check points, determining fuel and airspace. Terry also asked me to tell her what the * meant next the RP for Hollister airport. She asked me to tell her what the density altitude was for Calaveras and Napa airports and to determine takeoff and landing distances. All went well and we were done with the oral.

I was given the option of getting all the takeoffs and landings out of the way or we could start out on the cross-country to Napa and do the landings and takeoffs later. I opted for the cross-country to start and the landings and takeoffs later. I was asked to do a soft-field takeoff out of Calaveras. I kept the nose up and the mains lifted off the ground and I pushed forward on the yoke a bit and we came back down on the runway! I have NEVER done this before in all my soft-field takeoffs. Terry was not pleased by this at all. I thought great, we haven’t even got off the ground and I just failed my checkride.

We headed towards Napa and at my first checkpoint she diverted me to Columbia. She was nice enough to let me know before I actually got to the checkpoint that we were diverting to Columbia. I got my new heading and determined time and fuel. After turning to my new heading I didn’t think about anything else. Terry prompted me by saying, “Now what would you need to do?” Stupid me! I said well I would contact NorCal if I was receiving flight following and advise them of my destination. I would also need to change altitude because we were now on a south/easterly heading. She said, “What about are time to destination?” I said that I had already determined it would take 22 minutes. Terry said, “Then what time are we going to arrive there?” Oh…forgot to look at the time when we diverted. She asked me what the traffic pattern altitude was at Columbia so I pulled out the AFD and got it. She asked me what the traffic pattern was. The sectional mentioned RP for two runways but I only saw one runway at Columbia. I pulled out the AFD again and figured out traffic pattern. She then asked me if there were any special noise abatements. Damn it! She said maybe you should just mark the page and keep the AFD handy. 

After flying for 5 minutes or so Terry asked me to do some clearing turns (very nice of her to tell me) and then setup for steep turns. The steep turns went “ok”; I lost my outside reference and turned back on heading a little too soon. We then did slow flight, stalls, and turns around a point. The winds were getting a bit strong at the surface so on my initial turns around a point I got pushed in a little too much so I tried again.

Terry told me to put the hood on and close my eyes. I was then told to make a gentle left turn and hold my altitude, and then again to the right. She then told me to put my head down and keep my eyes closed. She put the airplane in an unusual attitude and I recovered ok.

She then asked me to tune in the Linden VOR and fly to it. I tuned it in but I could not get the Morse code and the CDI was not showing a TO or FROM flag. Terry tried as well but, just my luck, the VOR stopped working. I had used it to fly to Calaveras this morning.

We flew back to Calaveras and she asked me to do a soft-field landing. The landing wasn’t as soft as it could have been but I kept the nose wheel off the ground and she was satisfied with it. I taxied back and did a short-field takeoff and then a short-field landing. All went good. I then did ANOTHER soft-field takeoff and this time it went good. The next trip around was a no flap forward slip to land, did ok there too.

We taxied back to the FBO and I wasn’t sure if I had passed or not. Terry didn’t say anything to me and I was afraid to ask! She helped me push the airplane to the fueling island and I refueled.

I went inside and she was in the process of printing out my temporary private pilot license. Until she actually handed it to me and said congratulations I still wasn’t sure I passed.

I got my updated winds aloft and flew back to LVK as a brand new private pilot using pilotage since the VOR was not working.

3’rd Solo Cross-Country – LONG – 2/15/2010

After 3 months of waiting for weather, I finally got to fly my final xc today. KLVK – KDWA – KSTS – KLVK.

Taking off from 7L I requested a left cross wind departure. Climbing to 4,500 I requested a frequency change from Livermore tower. I opened my VFR flight plan with Oakland radio and then switched to NorCal Departure after leveling off at 4,500. It took a couple of calls to NorCal to get a response and after getting a squawk code I was quickly handed off to Travis Approach. Flying up to Yolo County airport was pretty uneventful with a couple of traffic advisories from Travis Approach, which I did not have contact with.

As I approached Yolo I was asked by Travis Approach if I had the airport in site; I did not but knew I had to switch over to AWOS to get weather and then start announcing my position. I had some trouble locating Yolo until I was about 5 miles to the east of the airport. So I was just a bit off course.

After switching to the CTAF I announced my position and my intention to land on runway 34 with a wind of 360 at 4 or 5 knots. I was surprised to hear another airplane taking off from runway 16. I thought about it for a bit and decided to question the pilot. Just at that moment another airplane was approaching with the intention of landing on runway 34 as well. The pilot taking off from 16 said he would leave the pattern and reposition for runway 34.

I entered a left 45 for runway 34 and landed. This was my first landing in a couple of months and it was not my best, but not my worst either. I floated a bit and then came down a bit hard. I taxied back to 34 and had to wait for another plane taking off from 16 (what’s up; no one is listening to AWOS or looking at the wind sock?)

I took off and headed for Santa Rosa. I decided to go without flight following and just enjoy the silence and the views. I crossed over Lake Berryessa with St. Helena to my south and Mt. St. Helena to my north; a beautiful area. As I approached Santa Rosa, once again I had some trouble locating the airport. I called up and was instructed to report a left midfield for runway 19. For some reason I was totally lost. I reported a left base for 19 instead and was politely told that I was supposed to report a left midfield. I was on final for 19 when something just didn’t feel right. I had looked at the runway layout ahead of time but when looking at my heading indicator it didn’t seem like I was on final for 19. I aborted my landing and tried again. I did a stop and go and then took off heading south east back to LVK.

I again opted out of flight following back to Livermore and decide to take some deep breathes and talk myself down after getting extremely frustrated with myself.

About 20 miles out I began listening to Livermore tower and was surprised by the non stop chatter..wow it was a busy day at Livermore. I called tower over Danville and was instructed to report a 2 mile left base for 7L. The voice I heard on the radio put chills down my spine. We have a controller at Livermore who is aptly known as “Mr Grumpy”. On busy days like today if you do one thing wrong this A-HOLE will ream you a new one live on radio for anyone listening to hear. Today was my turn.

I have decided to not go into details right now about what happened because I plan on submitting a report to ASRS.

All in all it was a good flight with just a few issues.

2'nd Solo Cross-Country - 11/4/2009

The visibility was 8 miles with haze at Livermore (LVK) and 10 miles at Calaveras (CPU); however visibility along my route of flight was only 5 miles in haze. My FBO’s minimum visibility for students is 7. My instructor and I discussed in length whether or not I should make the flight. After talking with other CFI’s and looking at the weather in more detail he thought it would be ok. I was confident as well that I would not have any problems.

After my preflight I called CPU’s AWOS and got one more weather update as well as calling to get an abbreviated briefing for visibility along my route. Again, everything looked good with no PIREPS.

As soon as I climbed out of LVK I could now see how thick this layer of haze was. On my climb to 5,500ft. I called Rancho Radio to open my flight plan. I could see the ground and my checkpoints so I wasn’t too worried. After leveling off at 5,500ft, I called NorCal Departure to get VFR advisories. I wasn’t going to take any chances on just me looking for traffic in this haze.

I flew direct to the Linden VOR and then direct to CPU. This was my first time flying to CPU and I had studied the sectional quit a bit. Traffic was light with no call outs from NorCal. At about 10 miles out from CPU NorCal asked me if I had the airport in site; I “thought” I did and confirmed. They terminated radar coverage. I tuned in AWOS and unfortunately some information was missing. Wind speed was available but wind direction was not; 8 knots with no direction.

As I got closer to what I thought was CPU I soon realized I was wrong. I descended to about 4,000ft. and finally saw the airport. I had planned a 45 right entry for runway 31. After making my initial call on the CTAF a friendly lady came on said winds were 180 at 8. She didn’t tell me “why are you using runway 31” but a nagging voice in the back of my head was telling me “I don’t think I want runway 31 if winds are 180.

At this point I was setup for a straight in to runway 13 so with no traffic on the CTAF I decided for this. I turned for 13 and realized I was way too high. I could have slipped it but decided on a go-around instead. I made left traffic and a great landing on my second attempt.

I taxied back and got my nav log out for my flight back to LVK. The sun was quickly setting so I had no time to waste. I took off and climbed to my altitude of 4,500ft. I quickly realized this was going to be a bit of a problem.

With the sun now directly in my eyes and the haze getting worse; I could see the ground but not very well. My first checkpoint was Linden VOR; I could see it going to CPU but heading back I could not. I waited for the flag to switch from “To” to “From” and then made my turn to home. I called up NorCal to get VFR advisories, again, knowing I would for sure need them this time.

I flew my outbound VOR heading hoping it was correct. My next checkpoint was Stockton Metro. I’m glad I had NorCal because they called out several traffic that I could not see; one of those was a jet taking off from SCK off my left wing. I saw it and knew I was getting close to Stockton. Within a few minutes of my calculated time; I saw SCK and was a little relieved.

My next checkpoint was Byron airport, shortly after passing SCK I saw the sun shining off a body of water and I knew it was the water that lies right next to C83.

Wow, this flight planning stuff is really working! Just short of the Altamont Pass NorCal terminated me and I got my ATIS info for LVK, tuned in tower and announced my position. I knew exactly where LVK was but in the haze I could not see it yet. I was told to report a 4 mile final for 25R. I had a fast plane behind me doing 170 knots on the ILS so I was asked to stay north of 580. I reported my 4 mile final and was told to keep my speed up and I was cleared to land on 25R. Another great landing and I was home!