In the air again!!!
Alright, I finally made it up again! The finger is good enough to fly, so I booked a plane for my lovely wife and I to fly up to French Valley (F70) to have a $100 hamburger. Unfortunately, the May Gray didn't cooperate. Low ceilings all over the place. They cleared enough for us to make it out for some local sightseeing, but I wasn't willing to tempt the weather gods by flying cross country and not being able to make it back due to ceiling.
We flew the coop to Proctor Valley, then flew down to Barret Lake, up over Loveland Reservoir, then down over the Southeast Practice area. I showed my wife a few ground reference maneuvers, then flew over to SDM to do 2 touch and go's (which, when combined with my landing at home base, would reset my proficiency counter). The T&G's were okay, but while we were on downwind and putting in the first notch of flaps for the second one, my wife told me she was getting airsick. I guess she wasn't ready for the previous ground maneuvers. She told me I could finish the 2nd T&G, so we hit it then made a beeline for home. One nice soft landing later, we shut the plane down and she got out. Luckily, she was only queasy and not truly sick. From now on I will treat her to nice gentle slow turns whenever possible.
For those of you who don't fly in Southern California, the May Gray (and June Gloom) is a thick marine layer of low clouds and fog that hangs right along the coast (due to winds and water temperature). If you look at a satellite picture of SOCAL, you will see a large cloud formation right along the coast that hangs around for most of this time of year. Some days it moves far inshore, so everyone in this area is stuck with low ceilings. Other days, it will retreat to just offshore and you have clear skies. It's a little frustrating to have 1200 ft ceilings at my home field (NZY, right on the water), while SAN two miles away is reporting clear skies. Our club has a 1500ft ceiling limit for day VFR, so if the marine layer is overhead, you're sitting on the ground, no matter what it looks like two miles away. Better safe than sorry, though. When the marine layer decides to close in hard (which can happen while you're in the training area for a short hop), the field can go from clear to 0/0 in about ten minutes.
I have another plane booked for Saturday to try and get back to French Valley for my first $100 burger, and my wife and I are planning our first "long" cross country, to Las Vegas in early June.
Keep the shiny side up!
Country
We flew the coop to Proctor Valley, then flew down to Barret Lake, up over Loveland Reservoir, then down over the Southeast Practice area. I showed my wife a few ground reference maneuvers, then flew over to SDM to do 2 touch and go's (which, when combined with my landing at home base, would reset my proficiency counter). The T&G's were okay, but while we were on downwind and putting in the first notch of flaps for the second one, my wife told me she was getting airsick. I guess she wasn't ready for the previous ground maneuvers. She told me I could finish the 2nd T&G, so we hit it then made a beeline for home. One nice soft landing later, we shut the plane down and she got out. Luckily, she was only queasy and not truly sick. From now on I will treat her to nice gentle slow turns whenever possible.
For those of you who don't fly in Southern California, the May Gray (and June Gloom) is a thick marine layer of low clouds and fog that hangs right along the coast (due to winds and water temperature). If you look at a satellite picture of SOCAL, you will see a large cloud formation right along the coast that hangs around for most of this time of year. Some days it moves far inshore, so everyone in this area is stuck with low ceilings. Other days, it will retreat to just offshore and you have clear skies. It's a little frustrating to have 1200 ft ceilings at my home field (NZY, right on the water), while SAN two miles away is reporting clear skies. Our club has a 1500ft ceiling limit for day VFR, so if the marine layer is overhead, you're sitting on the ground, no matter what it looks like two miles away. Better safe than sorry, though. When the marine layer decides to close in hard (which can happen while you're in the training area for a short hop), the field can go from clear to 0/0 in about ten minutes.
I have another plane booked for Saturday to try and get back to French Valley for my first $100 burger, and my wife and I are planning our first "long" cross country, to Las Vegas in early June.
Keep the shiny side up!
Country
posted by Big Country at 7:10 PM
1 Comments:
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