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.