An 800 Dollar Chicken Taco

I took to the air in two flights last weekend. One was Saturday. It took 5.8 hours and over 500 NM (nautical miles) from San Jose (RHV) to Healdsburgh (HES) in the Napa Valley and then down to Santa Maria (SMX) which is south of San Luis Obispo and just north of Santa Barbara. This was a solo trip in a Cessna 172N that I used to build up my cross country time and meet one of the requirements for a commercial license. [Commercial license requires a solo cross country flight with one leg over 250NM straight line distance. HES to SMX is 253NM.]  The second flight was Sunday with my husband as PIC in the Bonanza we've been renting. We were going to fly to Harris Ranch for dinner and back. That's it. One would assume the very long cross country would be an adventure and the short flight to dinner would be rather routine.

In the end, the very long solo cross country was mostly routine. It was a gorgeous day for flying. Crystal clear skies, calm winds, warm but not too warm. Being a Saturday and a good weather weekend day in the winter I knew the airport would be very busy very quick. So I took off as close to 10AM as I could to avoid the crowds at RHV. The flight up to HES was smooth and beautiful. I got fuel at HES, met some nice people that helped me drag the plane up to the fuel pumps, etc. HES was very busy... people were flying in from all over to get the cheaper gas... and, I think, it was just a great excuse to fly.

Then I took off from HES towards San Francisco, I asked for, and got, a Class Bravo transition through SFO airspace. I was able to fly along the San Francisco Penninsula ridge line on the most beautiful day I've seen in a while. The Golden Gate Bridge shown in the sun, planes were flying around the Bay, flying to Half Moon Bay for lunch, etc. The ocean was beautiful and blue. I flew right over my town, Boulder Creek, before heading towards Monterey Bay and the Salinas Valley, down over Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo, over the dunes of Pismo Beach to land at Santa Maria Airport.  I listened to music and talked with ATC on the way.

I stopped at Santa Maria and fueled up the plane and my body. It was after 3 PM by the time I got to Santa Maria. Santa Maria was a strange airport, two runways well maintained, tower, ground and empty. The airports all around the area were hopping, but not this one. It had a huge GA ramp but only 3 planes on it. My 172, a 152 and a Mooney. Every door was locked, including the GA "terminal" building and the Raddison Inn. I was planning on eating at the Inn, but the restaurant was closed. So I walked with the two kids that arrived in the 152 towards the Commercial Terminal.  We finally got to the one gate we could go out. At which point we found we would have to call either the police or the fuel company to get re-admitted to the ramp. The kids in the 152 opted to call the police to get back to their plane. I went to the Mexican restaurant in the terminal and had a $12 chicken taco (actually a $800 chicken taco if you count the full cost of the trip - rental and fuel).  At lunch I discovered the commercial terminal didn't have wireless. So I got my return trip weather briefing via phone instead of my wireless only iPad.

It was getting late. I called the fuel company to refuel the plane and let me back on to the ramp. Fueled up and I was off again. Up til this point I was carefully flying the plan I planned. But now... I wanted to get home. I had a GPS that worked perfectly, I knew visually the route I needed to fly. Instead of going over Oceano I headed straight for San Luis Obispo, then a bee line for Paso Robles, a quick jog to the side to the BRALY GPS waypoint to ensure I got nowhere near the restricted areas and then up the Salinas valley to King City. The sun was setting slowly and I was listening to music, watching the shadows of the coastal range slip up the edges of the Pinnacles (the remains of an extinct volcano) as I cruised at 6500 feet.

Sunset at 3500 feet or so. Coming back to RHV.

My flight plan was to go up to Salinas then over to Hollister. After I got past the Pinnacles I decided to head straight for Hollister instead, saving myself maybe 10 minutes of flying. It was fun to fly the magenta line to Hollister over the central range.  My flight training focused on pilotage, dead reckoning and using VORs for navigation. GPS sure made things easier. Knowing where I was and how I would go if the GPS failed made me feel much better about the process. After Hollister I started my long (for a 172) descent towards RHV. I requested a switch to RHV tower from NorCal and made my 10 mile call. "Make straight in 31Right". So I did. I landed, taxied back and I was done.

I tied my plane down in the dark and went into the club where my hubby was waiting. I was exhausted and happy. It wasn't an exciting trip... it was mellow and smooth and good. Looking back at where I was six months ago to where I am now... I am very pleased with my progress and looking forward to more mellow and exciting trips in the future.

You may have heard the saying that flying frees the mind from the tyranny of petty things. It does. I have many stresses at work and family with problems that I cannot help. For those 5.8 hours I was in the plane with the engine running .. my work stresses and fears for my family didn't cross my mind. I flew. I monitored. I adjusted and maintained airspeed, heading and altitude. I practiced making minute changes and watching how the plane reacted. I looked for traffic. I talked to ATC. I laughed with other pilots. I watched the world go by. I was free. Next time I'm bringing friends so they can be free too :)

Short Flight Fun

After two days of cross countries, I expected yesterday's flight to be relatively boring. My flight was to fly my hubby up to Livermore Airport (LVK) so he use the gift certificate for an hour of aerobatic flying I gave him for his birthday. Livermore is relatively close to Reid-Hillview (RHV) and I was expecting a very brief and uneventful flight for myself. I was wrong.

The weather was perfect for flying and, being Saturday, everybody wanted to get into the action. RHV was hopping. There were five airplanes in the run up area for 31R, three planes behind me on Zulu and another two planes on Yankee. The planes in the run up were pointed all kinds of directions and there was limited room. After about 15 minutes of waiting and jockeying for position we got through our run up and cleared to take off.

Less than 10 minutes later I made my call to Livermore tower over the Sunol Golf Course. The skies were very busy there too. There was a Grumman about 500' overhead inbound for LVK and another plane off our 3 o'clock at the same altitude. The tower told me to maneuver to follow the Grumman for 25L. I immediately slowed the plane down to about 85 knots. Jeff suggested I should fly S-turns as well to give the Grumman more space. I'd never done S-turns before but I quickly got the hang of it.  I was told I was #3 for 25L (out of 5 planes coming in for the same runway).  My S-turns and slow flying worked and the Grumman had plenty of room to land and taxi clear of the runway before I was on short final.

After we taxied over to Attitude Aviation where Jeff's lesson was going to be held I was really happy. Dealing with the busy confusion at RHV and then the congestion coming in to LVK was a lot of fun for me. I remembered how much fun I had one time coming back to RHV with my CFI when things got so busy for the tower they told all other aircraft to just stay out of the airspace. This experience was very similar.

Jeff had a blast doing his acrobatic flight in a Great Lakes bi-plane. I got to wander around Attitude Aviation's hangars and check out the cool planes they had there. These guys definitely had some great toys.

On the way back to RHV things were still pretty busy. As we turned towards Calaveras and home we heard the following conversation on the radios:

Livermore Tower: N123, traffic 2 o'clock, same altitude.
N123: Traffic in sight, what should I do? 
Livermore Tower: It's a big sky, N123. Just don't hit that traffic. 

Jeff and I laughed and laughed. Yes, it is a big sky... sometimes it can get a little crowded though :)

A Brief Visit to Mariposa

I took the day after my birthday off too... that gave me a 5 day weekend! More flying for me!

The destination for this flight was Mariposa-Yosemite Airport (MPI). Far enough away to qualify as cross country, not too far, simple route and some interesting stuff to see on the other end. I rented 93K, the 172N I trained in the majority of my primary training. It is cheaper than the 172SP I have been flying and I didn't want to get too used to any one plane. No passenger this time and nothing else scheduled for the day so I thought I would fly there, get lunch at a motel bar and grill about 1/4 mile away from the airport and then fly up and take a peek at Yosemite from the air. No time pressures, just an opportunity to explore.

On the approach to Mariposa I had a bit of trouble finding the airport. The airport elevation was 2200 feet, I was cruising at 5500 feet. I thought I could see where it should be, but I didn't see the town that was supposed to be near. So I used the big picture skills I learned, recognized the granite formations of Yosemite proper, the layout of the ridges and the lakes in the area and decided what I thought was the airport should be the airport. Sure enough, it was.

I didn't like coming into this airport's environment. There were hills all around the airport which in turn lead me to not fly a good pattern. I got distracted trying not to fly close to the hills. I don't think I was actually close to the hills at any time but I was uncomfortable. I turned final and pitched for 65 and looked at the runway. The view down the cowling of the plane lead me to think I was aimed almost straight down at the runway! Like the proverbial lawn dart. I thought I was high too. I did a go around.

As I turned downwind I gave the runway a close look and realized it sloped down at the approach end and then back up again relatively steeply, similar to an elongated bowl. Ah ha! I was dealing with an optical illusion. I knew how to handle that. My method for handling runway optical illusions is to focus on the numbers and use that as my visual cue for when and how high to round out, all other visual information becomes secondary. That worked good... I came in on final, rounded out and then kept the plane just off the runway as long as I could. The landing was a little bit harder than normal, I think because I landed into the up slope of the runway, but I landed on the mains and under control.

I taxied up to the transient parking in front of the airport office, pleased with my identification and handling of the optical illusion. It would have been even better to figure it out on the first pass, but I was still happy. As I pulled up to transient parking I saw two King Airs parked there. They looked very new and shiny. I parked my little 172 next to one of them and took a picture. Then I checked my voice mail and found out my daughter hurt her hand and needed to go to the doctor. In spite of being over 100 miles away, it would be quicker for me to fly back and pick her up than my husband finish work and get her. So I had to cancel my lunch and sight seeing plans.

I still needed to eat something and went into the airport office to see if they had any snacks available. They had some chips, candy bars, water and sodas. I talked briefly with the woman who ran the office. She was really friendly and gave me a free bag of chips. She also said they have a crew car and a couple bikes to make it easy for people to get into town and get food when they have time.

I chatted a bit with the First Officer of one of the King Airs as I munched on chips. He pointed out I was eating the standard "lunch of pilots". He was a younger guy and still enthusiastic about flying. The Captain was a "grey hair" just as my CFI described. Obviously experienced and less enthusiastic about hanging around waiting for their clients who were late. I found out how much runway a King Air needs to take off typically loaded and fully loaded. The FO talked about flying a contact approach into RHV once in the plane I saw on the ramp. He made it sound pretty hairy... I'll have to look up what a contact approach is.

It was time to go so I said goodbye to all and promised to return and spend more time there. I did a quick preflight of the plane, took off,  and pointed our nose to the west for the return trip. On the return I plugged my iPod into the audio jack of my new headset and turned on some music. The headset has a feature that automatically mutes audio to ensure all radio comms are heard clearly and that worked great. I was also still able to hear the hum of the engine.

On the flight back I reflected on how nice it was to get out of the plane and explore even a little bit. I decided to try to get out and meet people on the other end of these trips more often. I've had a long life of road trips where I've focused on enjoying the journey. I think its time for me to allow the destination to add its part of the adventure.