Lesson 46 - Friday Aug 20th

Revisiting

Today was supposed to be a trip to Riverside, and we had reasonable weather, fairly clear skies, calm winds.

Unfortunately when I arrive, 8567C is not yet back from its 50 hour maintenance.  We go over to the mechanics (Kruger), and pick it up.  There are still some screws missing, so we wait a while to get them fixed, and by the time we are in the plane and ready to go, it's too late to make it to  Riverside and back.

So, instead Craig suggests we go practice maneuvers.   So we head over to the valley, and do some stepp turns, which actually turn out remarkably well.  I get a bit confused at first, as it's so long since I've done them that I think the 60 degree mark is the 45 degree mark, and try to bank to 60.  Once I realized that, it seemed a lot easier.

We then do an emergency engine-out procedure.  Where I pick a building site as my emergency landing field.  It looks like there is a lot of construction going on there.  It was basically just a graded hilltop, so should have been fine.  I've got problems on seeing if things are long enough though, everything looks too short from 4000 feet.

We then practice tracking and intersecting a few VOR radials. Criag also shows me a few things on the GPS.

It turns out to be remarkably clear, I look to the west and see Camarillo.  I point it out, and Craig says "ya wanna?"

Sure, I'm up for anything.  So this is in essence a mid-course diversion, where I'm just picking a new airport out of the blue (albeit a spectacularly easy one).

So, at Craig's suggestion, I put us into a gentle 360, while I figure out exactly where we are (we were a bit further north than a normal SMO-CMA route would take us).  I tune in the CMA VOR, get the CMO ATIS, and then call CMO tower, telling them we are 8 miles east (based on the DME).

We get cleared for straight in, and Craig gets us cleared for a touch and go, with a left downwind departure.  I fly in, Craig shows me some crosswind correction adjustment as we are approaching the threshold, which distracts me slightly, and I make a somewhat bumpy landing.  But not too bad, up and away we go.

Then an uneventful flight back, we use the GPS direct to SMO, not that we need it, as the mountains are very distinct, but good to know.

Home at SMO, I make a superb landing, very nice flight overall.