Srinath was on the left seat today and he started with a soft field takeoff and left downwind departure. At Tracy, winds were from 310@7kts where he did a soft field landing. The sink hole just past the threshold of rwy 30 is to be respected. There is usually an appreciable downdraft as the plane passes over the sink hole so anticipate it and increase the power a little bit. As you clear the sink hole and approach the threshold, ease back on the power and the word I keep hearing Steve repeat is “patience…patience” to wait for the runway to approach the aircraft. In other words, descend slowly for a gentle touchdown.

Next we headed for New Jerusalem by making a left 270 over the runway and passing over mid-field. The runways at both Tracy and New J were slick and wet from rains and that calls for extra caution while using brakes. We landed twice at New J, the second landing took up quite a bit of runway so we turned around. And since the winds were low (estimated 8-10kts), Steve asked Srinath to take off on rwy 12 so he can see how the tailwind leads to a significantly longer ground roll before takeoff.

Next, we headed to Byron against stiff headwinds from 310@15kts. We heard a Piper (58K from our club) on the radio practicing patterns and a glider coming in to land at the airport as well. This was a great practice session anticipating where the traffic would be as we executed a straight-in approached for rwy 30. Steve had a little fun on the radio with Mike (CFI on 58K) when he recognized the voice. Srinath and I both had questions for Steve as we were trying to figure out the spatial locations where the three aircrafts would be as we approached further. Since 58K was on final and we were coming up on 5 miles, we anticipated that we’ll land before 58K comes around for its next pattern. What we didn’t factor into the equation was the fact that we were going against a stiff headwind in a low power setting for landing and 58K would be gunning its engines for takeoff, followed by a stiff tailwind towards us on the downwind leg. Our ground speed was only 40kts and then 35kts as we got lower and closer.

Mike couldn’t spot us so we announced that we were a quarter mile shy of the second canal. What Steve meant was the second canal seen from our approach the runway i.e. the closer one to the airport. Mike understood that we were on the second canal from the airport i.e. the farther one from the airport. So he announced that he was turning base in front of us. We were all taken by surprise when he announced that and saw 58K turn directly towards us. Steve immediately took evasive action by banking left and as soon as we turned, Mike was able to see us and apologized for the mixup.  We let Mike land and in the meantime we did a left 360 and lined up to land on rwy 30.

Srinath capped off the training with a few touch-and-go’s at Livermore performing short approach landings.