Tonight I flew my first night cross country. Days were long being we were close to summer solstice so we agreed to meet Steve in the hangar at 9pm. After pre-flight we were anticipating a takeoff around 9:30pm (which would have made it a true night flight) and arriving back in Livermore close to midnight. The route was Livermore (KLVK) to Hollister (KCVH) to Gustine (3O1) and back to Livermore. I’d filled out my cross country checklist, listened to 1-800-WX-BRIEF and captured notes for preparation.

The departure route was to follow I-580 and then I-680S but instead we took off from 25R, turned left crosswind and decided to cut across over Mission peak to I-680. Winds were from 260 @ 9kts which was a direct crosswind on our course. Consequently we didn’t climb very well and the airspeed was only 65kts which bothered us. So we banked to the right into the wind to gain altitude. Thanks to ForeFlight on our iPad in the cockpit, we were able to identify a FedEx and a VirginAmerica jet that crossed our paths. In fact, we even felt a slight bump (turbulence) from the FedEx’s wake turbulence as we crossed its path about 2000′ lower.

Once we crossed over Mission Peak, we stayed just west and parallel to the foothills since further west would put us in the approach path for flights into San Jose (SJC). South County airport was in sight and would have been a likely location to land if we ran into any emergencies. US 101 was also beneath us and as we neared Hollister, Hwy 152 was another emergency landing option. Although, it was backed up with traffic and police cars flashing lights. We landed straight into Hollister and then flew a right pattern out and to the east towards Gustine.

Hollister to Gustine tracked us over dark no man’s land. Steve wanted me to closely follow Hwy 152 since we were flying over hilly terrain and a large reservoir. Gustine was a little bit hard to find, but not as hard as finding Kingdon when Srinath flew his night cross country last month. I had remembered the airport was just past I-5 on the eastside and keying the mike turned on the runway lights making it possible to spot. However I had gained quite a bit of altitude so we decided to fly around the airport to lose altitude, and also to note the state of the windsock. We couldn’t see it clearly but it appeared there were no winds. So I decided to land on Rwy 36.

The approach was not great. I was too high and not well lined up so I decided to go around. This time Steve was able to confirm that the windsock was limp. No winds to speak of. On the downwind leg it seemed that I was not parallel to the runway and that might be why I had trouble with the last approach. This time I managed to land but it was a bad one – we bounced.

The last leg back to Livermore was mostly uneventful. We followed I-5 up to Tracy and then cut across over Altamont pass. The night was so cool and the flight so smooth (except for a little bit of wind turbulence as we approached Tracy) that Srinath fell sound asleep in the back seat.