Weathered out again

Driving the baby to daycare this morning, it looked bad – low fog. Called up the ATIS at Van Nuys, and confirmed a 200 foot ceiling – not exactly VFR weather. Hopefully it would burn off in time for a 4:30 lesson. In fact, it did just that. I checked throughout the day, and the ceiling started going up. By 3:00, it was FL120, 4 miles visibility haze. Marginal, but flyable.

I headed to the airport to preflight before Kent showed up. Marv was out for more surgery, and I just couldn’t wait. By the time he showed, and we got airborne, things were deteriorating rapidly. I did my run-up and after a brief wait for a few Learjets (they always seem to get priority over Cessnas), was cleared for takeoff on 16R. Handled everything on my own, including takeoff roll (actually kept it on the centerline) and getting airborne. Even asked for (and got) closed pattern traffic.

Just as we made our turn downwind, and just shy of pattern altitude, I realized there was something I couldn’t see – the airport. We decided to do a touch n’ go and go around one more time. Got more of a hang of the approach procedure, round out and flare, and just about landed alone. Kent just had to help at the last second. Back up, and the weather was even worse than the first time. Decided to make it a full stop. Bounced the landing this time – another good experience, but not very pretty. Taxied back and logged a WHOPPING .3 hours in my logbook. For a city that has such great weather, this is really starting to eat my lunch for me.

.3 hours/5.0 total

Out over the ocean

Today’s weather was a bit more accommodating. 10 miles visibility, wind at 10 gusting to 17, but right down the runway. Marv figured that it would be too bumpy over the Gorman pass (where we go to do air work) so we headed to the ocean. Flew through the LAX special flight rules area – […]

History’s shortest lesson

Booked a morning lesson for today at 9:00am with Marv. Got there a bit early to start getting the plane ready. Cloud cover was bad – prediction was for lots of rain today. By the time Marv showed, the ceiling was down to 2400 – no problem for some pattern work. We preflighted the plane […]

A different perspective

I was out of town last week on business in New Orleans, so I obviously couldn’t fly. Side note – I think that the “8 hours bottle to throttle” rule should be changed to “80 hours bottle to throttle” if your drinking is done on Bourbon Street. I’ll bring it up at the next FAA […]

The Basics

Turns out that Marv had some minor surgery, so he can’t fly for a week or so. Since waiting that long is OUT of the question, I scheduled another lesson with Kent at 4:30pm. Weather was hideous in the morning (as hideous as it gets in LA), but it cleared up later. Called the Van […]

My first real training flight

I decided to interview 3 CFI’s for my training, but I wanted to learn as much as possible in the process. I prepared for my first flight by reviewing lessons in various training aids. Got up this morning and looked outside. After literally WEEKS of fantastic weather, it was overcast and looked like rain. 4 […]

Prologue – Getting Hooked

I started this endeavor about 4 months ago – September 1998. I was going to see a different kind of instructor – my golf pro. He canceled on me, so I thought I’d stop in at a nearby airport (Whiteman – WHP) a look around. Walked in to a flight school there and started asking […]