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!