Lessons 57-63

Oct/Nov

Mostly Short and Soft

For varius reasons I've not been updating my journal here with every flight, and now I find a whole page (seven flights) of the log book has gone by without an entry.  So I'm playing catch-up with an all-in-one.

Lesson 57  10/13

A mixed bag, we fly out to Simi Valley under the hood, and do some steep turns under the hood.  Craig gets me lost, and I find where we are using the VOR radials, then do some finding of airports and heading towards them.

Lesson 58 10/22

We practice short and soft field takeoffs and landings.  Only do four though.  I can't remember why.

Lesson 59  10/26

Five more short or soft TOLs.

Lesson 60 10/29

Somewhat more interesting, we fly to EMT (El Monte), and to POC (Brackett).  El Monte is a fairly small airport.  Brackett somewhat bigger.  Neither have real problems.  The funnest part is flying directly over the top of downtown LA.

Lesson 61 11/8

Six more short or soft.   But this time with power off 180s, where Craig simulates an engine failure when we are abeam the landing point, and I have to turn base and final appropriately to land on the lines.

Lesson 62  11/9

Bad weather, so stuck in the pattern, more short or soft.  At least I'm getting the hang of it.  More power of 180s

Lesson 63 11/12

Fun.  We fly to Santa Ana, a Class C airport, AKA John Wayne airport.  Into the special flight rules area as usual, and over LAX, then contact Socal on 127.2 when we get south of LAX.   They direct us to Huntington Pier, which Craig says is a bit unusual.  Then when we get there they make us to right base for 19 right, then change us to 19 Left, so we fly across the 19R final, which makes me a bit nervous.

Big Jets at SNA, they tell us to look for a DC3, which I see eventually, huge plane, passing beneath us going the other way.  

We land, and ground tells us to go the midfield run-up area, which is right next to where we are, making me look stupid when I ask for directions.  We then have to contact "Departure Control" to get a VFR Clearance to fly home.  This is very new to me.  They tell me something like "Fly heading 220, at or below 2500 feet, squawk 0245", and I actually write it down, and read it back to them and they say "readback is correct", yay, just like IFR.

Even taxiing is fun at SNA.  There's about ten 737 sized jets, and we have to avoid them.  We taxi and hold short of 19L (the short runway, 2887x75 feet).  Then they have us cross 19L and hold short of 19R (5700x150), while a 737 departs.   Then we get "caution wake turbulence, cleared for takeoff, early turn approved.  So I take off, fly 220 (that's a 30 degree right run from runway heading of 190), and to what Socal wants me to until I get to the SFRA, and I'm home.