A few of us at work decided a couple of weeks ago to plan a fly-in to Sacramento Executive airport (KSAC) and have lunch at the Aviator’s Restaurant in the airport terminal. Earlier in the week, some of us met to discuss routing and other considerations for the fly-in. I was the only student in the mix and the rest were planning to arrive from Tracy, Reid-Hillview, Palo Alto and San Carlos. This would qualify for cross-country time in the logbook since KSAC was 51nm from KLVK.

My route would take me over the east end of Los Vaqueros reservoir, then directly to the Sacramento VOR and turning right to the airport nearby. On the way at Walnut Grove are three tall guyed radio towers which are each over 2000′ tall and one of the tallest structures in the world. Just for comparison, the World Trade Center towers were only 1368′ and the Eiffel Tower is 1063′ tall.

I met my CFI at the airport terminal at 8:30am to get a cross-country endorsement in the logbook. Previously I had briefed via Foreflight on my iPad for the weather and NOTAMS. It was going to get windy in the central valley starting around 11am but the winds were forecast to die down late in the afternoon at KSAC. The winds might still be right around my crosswind maximum of 10kts at KLVK so I discussed with my CFI that I will not takeoff until late in the afternoon and keep an option open to divert to KCCR Concord Buchanan airport.

To beat the winds I took off early and was airborne at 10:15am. Livermore tower now can initiate flight following and I had a squawk code dialed in before takeoff. Runway 34 is closed until Feb 15 and the winds were 320@7 favoring runway 30 and I was parked next to the terminal at 11:04. It took longer than the estimated 36 minutes for two reasons – the headwinds were stiffer than the forecast 335@17 at 5500′ cruising altitude and I forgot to lean the mixture for maximum engine performance.

Food and ambiance were quite good at the restaurant – I ordered a “$10 Pasta”. The seating area overlooks the taxiway and runway 02/20. We had a 13 people show up in 6 planes – one was a Lake and the rest were Cessna 172.

As we were lunching, the winds began howling outside from 320@17-28. Around 3pm the first plane (C172) from our group took off and we could see the wings rocking side to side as the pilot maintained runway course against the stiff crosswind. The rest of us hung out for another 30 minutes and slowly dispersed. I remained at the terminal checking the weather at Concord, Tracy and Livermore. Tracy was another option because the winds were generally lined up with runway 30.

Around 5pm I texted my CFI about my intentions to fly to Concord since the winds were from 360 and runway 01 would have been fine. Livermore had started to look better and he asked me to monitor that as well. I finished pre-flight, fueled up and called up ASOS one more time at both Concord and Livermore. When I took off from KSAC winds were 310@21-27.

KLVK 110053Z 01008KT 10SM CLR 19/M08 A2991 RMK AO2 SLP126 T01891078

The crosswind at Livermore was within my limits so I headed direct with the option to divert to Concord if needed. Climb out of Sacramento was bumpy but once I reached 4500′ cruise altitude, it was smooth air with a healthy tailwind. My airspeed was around 105 and at one point my ground speed was 138kts! En route, I saw the sun set in the west and in 25 minutes I was over Las Vaqueros reservoir. As I began my descent the winds picked up once again over the Livermore hills and tower first reported winds 340@8-21 and then 320@5-21 when I was on short final. The cross winds were quite stiff requiring full left rudder and right aileron to stay aligned with the runway on a forward slip. The landing was challenging but I was able to stick the landing. I was glad to be back safely on the ground, parked at 6:09pm, just within the 30-minute window after sunset at 5:41pm that my CFI had set as the limit.

In retrospect if I had had to divert from Livermore to Concord, it would have been a night solo for which I wasn’t endorsed. Departing 30 minutes earlier from Sacramento or heading only for Concord would have been safer options.