Tag Archives: Livermore

First solo cross-country

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I flew my first solo cross country to Merced (KMCE) and back. After left downwind departure and shortly after Livermore tower approved a frequency change, my first order of business was to establish contact with Norcal and request flight following. Per frequencies published, I tried 123.85 but no response. My instructor had mentioned that this frequency doesn’t work and to try 125.1 instead. But when Srinath flew last year, he had established contact with 123.85. Not only was there no response but there was no chatter on this frequency contrary to what I had expected from Norcal. Next I tuned into Oakland Center at 126.85 but again no chatter and neither was there a response to my request. I waited a while, was already climbing over the hills at 4000′ and was anxious to get in touch with Norcal. So I tuned back to Livermore tower and got the frequency as 125.1. Successfully established contact with Norcal on that frequency and got a squawk code for flight following. Why the charts do not list 125.1 is a mystery to me.

 

 

The course was to fly heading 84 (after wind correction at altitude) out of Livermore. That would have me skirting along the south end of restricted area R-2531 all the way to where I-5 meets I-580. At that point I turn to heading 121 to Gustine (3O1). I was doing 100kts airspeed with 128kts ground speed with a healthy tailwind at 5500′. My estimate was 110kts with an airspeed with 100 kts.

Along the way, I would pass Crows Landing airport when I cross radial 191 from Modesto VOR 114.6. Gustine is then along radial 328 from Panoche VOR 112.6.

After passing Gustine with the airport directly below me, I turned to a heading of 69 that would have put me straight into Merced. About 8 miles from the airport, I spotted the airport in the distance and set myself to enter on the 45 degrees for left downwind into runway 30. Winds were from 320@11kts, it was already warm at 27c and density altitude was 1600′ at the airport whose elevation was only 155′ MSL. It turned out that the airport I spotted was Castle (KMER) which is just a few miles to the north of Merced. I was growing suspicious because I didn’t see any traffic or aircraft at the airport and was beginning to wonder if it was even an airport at which point I realized it was not my destination.

Glancing at the GPS, I found Merced off to my right at which point I cross referenced with my notes that Merced was to the west of Hwy 99 whereas the airport I initially saw was on the east side of Hwy 99. The runway at Merced is 5914′ x 150′ which is plenty for a C172. The airport has a tower but it is no longer operational. I pulled into the transient parking area and reset my notes and instruments for the return trip.
Confusion at KMCE

On the way back from Merced, Norcal transferred me to 123.85. Not sure how the frequency is working now when I had trouble connecting on the way out of LVK. There was some aerobatic activity over Tracy about which the controller alerted me and requested I stay above 4200′. It was getting quite hot and turbulent over the Altamont pass. The controller at LVK was clearly overloaded with the traffic. He ignored my first call and asked me to stay outside Class D airspace on my second call before clearing me for landing on 25L. Another aircraft was asked to stay on downwind and it reported approaching Altamont when the controller turned them base!

The course I had planned had a 144nm (72nm distance each way). The actual course I flew was 164nm (85nm + 79nm).

Solo x-country KLVK-KMCE-KLVK

Solo stalls

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Today I set out to practice solo stalls for the first time. I had 737GM reserved and it was mostly a smooth ride as I flew over Byron airport at 2500′ heading to the practice area. At 3000′ I started practicing slow flight and making shallow turns at slow flight. But first, by making clearing turns.

After slow flight, in the landing configuration I tried a stall first and then dropped the nose before the stall was achieved. Tried it again and this time the stall was achieved with quick recovery. Very quickly I decided that was enough and proceed for a couple of touch and go’s at Tracy airport before heading back to Livermore. By the time I returned, winds had shifted and I landed on 7L as tower switched the traffic around to make up for a northeasterly wind.

Local patterns

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Srinath and I both flew patterns today at Livermore, one after the other. N906MD continues to have starting trouble.

The traffic controller lost situational awareness on more than one occasion – when I was taxiing off 25L back for takeoff and again when there were a few planes in the air. On the latter situation, he sent one of the planes on downwind and never called his base turn until the pilot radioed and said he had gone almost to Brushy Peak. He then asked for my position and turned me base in front of the other plane.

When Srinath took off, he was cleared for 25R but for a left pattern on 25L. The radio communication snippet will be helpful because it was confusing to me the first time I heard it.

During my pattern, I asked to be switched to 25R when I was cleared for left pattern on 25L. The controller accommodated me and that too is a helpful radio communication snippet.

Solo in the Tri-Valley

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Starting up 737GM was a bit of a bear but chose to fly it this morning because 906MD’s carburetor was being re-worked due to starting problems. Tower cleared me for takeoff on 7L. Winds 130@5kts but quite variable.

Flight to Byron was quite straightforward and it was a good smooth landing. On the flight from Byron to Tracy, I had still been tuned to the Byron radio and I was wondering why Tracy traffic wasn’t announcing on the radio. I was still hearing Byron traffic. While in the pattern at Tracy, I saw an aircraft taking off and one waiting to take off and I had not heard either of them speak on the radio. It was only when I was nearing base turn in the Tracy pattern that I realized my mistake. Landing at Tracy was also good. I next proceeded to New Jerusalem where it was a bouncy touch and go. The flight back to Livermore was uneventful.

apr-16-track-log

 

Patterns in 737GM

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The weather continues to be unusual. It is the middle of April and it rained overnight into early morning. Winds are expected to start howling in the afternoon. I woke up at 6am to notice calm conditions so I was eager to fly this morning. 906MD’s starter had finally gotten so bad that it was nearly impossible to start it up. Also, COM2 hasn’t been working for a while so the plane has been grounded for maintenance. Fortunately 737GM was available but since it has been almost two weeks since I last flew, I texted Steve to see if he will join me for a couple of patterns around the airport before I fly solo to Byron, Tracy and back. He was available and we decided to meet at 8:30am. On the way to the airport, I checked AWOS to note that there was a 7kts wind from 240 at Livermore, 9kts from 220 at Byron and 11 its at Tracy from 260.

737GM wasn’t easy to start either. It took a number of primes and then a number of throttle primes. We pushed the throttle fully in and kept pumping it while the engine continued to sputter. It gradually picked up RPM and was finally able to idle around 700rpm.

We did 4 patterns around Livermore before Steve declared that he had had enough and decided to get dropped off at the northwest tiedowns while I kept the engine running and continued on a solo. Two things I noticed are (1) that the throttle lever is significantly shorter compared to the one on 906MD and (2) that the throttle lever slips out very easily when the friction lock is not engaged. A couple of times I took my hand off the throttle to adjust trim and the engine rpm dropped as indicated by a change in the hum. Steve and I both lunged for the throttle at the same time to push it back in.

I got a clearance for right downwind on 25R and as I flew towards Brushy Peak, it got significantly bumpier. Clearly the winds were stronger the higher I flew. I chickened out and asked Tower to bring me back in for 25R. I appreciated that the Tower thought there might be a problem and asked if I need any assistance. It continued to be windy and bumpy but not terribly problematic so I did 4 touch and go’s back at Livermore before calling it quits.

Patterns after another hiatus

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It has been a while so Srinath flew dual today with Steve. School kept getting in his way. The day started off with calm winds and clear sky. It was a day of doing patterns around the airport and Srinath’s rustiness showed.

The variety today involved following a Champ which was significantly slower than us, and a jet that was faster and ahead of us. On one pattern, the Champ was so slow that Steve requested a right 360 (while downwind for 25L) to increase separation. The wind then shifted significantly and that indicated runway switch was impending. Sure enough, tower asked if we can take a 9kts tailwind or if we wanted to wait to land until the runways were switched. Steve decided to take the tailwind to show Srinath how that feels for ground roll. Then after turning crosswind on the next pattern, the tower changed direction and gave him instructions to turn right for 7R.

On that last approach a jet was turning base for 7L while Srinath turned right base for 7R and they both touched town almost in parallel.

First solo to another airport

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Today was my first solo flight taking off and flying outside of Livermore. I went to Byron, then Tracy and back.

As I requested frequency change approaching brushy peak, tower alerted me to traffic in the opposite direction which I never was able to locate. After touching down at Byron, I taxied off to reset for the leg to Tracy. On the way back to Livermore as I approached Altamont, tower first alerted me to a traffic 1mi south for straight in to 25R and asked me to report for a 2mi  right base implying I had to turn right towards brushy peak. Then tower changed the instructions to make a right 360 and then straight in for 25R.

March 24 solo track log

First flight on 737GM

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Srinath and I flew dual with Steve today on 737GM. It is a Cessna 172 modified with STOL capability and 40 degrees of flaps. The goal for today is to get us a feel for the aircraft especially with full flaps so we can fly that whenever 906MD was unavailable.

As we took off on a left downwind departure, the guy who was just ahead of us encountered a bird strike and declared an emergency (“Mayday”) and wanted to return for a precautionary landing. Srinath overflew Tracy at which point he practiced slow flight with full flaps and a couple of stalls in the landing configuration. He then proceeded to New Jerusalem to practice landings with full 40 degrees of flaps. The last two landings were short approaches. It was incredible how slowly and with a tight turn we could approach for short landing.

We taxied back to Rwy 30 at New J, watched a plane do a couple of touch and go before Srinath and I switched on the left seat. I had a chance to the same air work that Srinath did previously, then we headed back to Livermore.

As we radioed the tower over altamont, we were asked to follow a Mooney and then tower asked us to join downwind midfield for a landing.We later figured out this was because there was somebody behind us on an ILS approach. This was very unusual and it took me a while to regain my situational awareness. Essentially we turned north after crossing the altamont, west and then south towards midfield. Then turned east for right downwind pattern landing.

 

Radio trouble

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Srinath flew his first full solo at Livermore today running patterns to practice takeoffs and landings. We used two GoPro cameras today for the very first time, one mounted in the usual spot at the back of the aircraft looking forwards and the other one on the copilot’s window facing the PIC. They both had audio inputs from the radio.

It was a busy day and Srinath was asked to follow other aircraft, extend the crosswind and once even asked to come to a full stop to sequence other departing aircrafts. The solo was uneventful except for a brief period (9:07) on the downwind leg.

I had driven to the hangar to see Srinath fly the pattern. The club’s other plane 733BE had just gone through a 50-hour maintenance and our test pilot conferred with Steve on the maintenance items before he took it out for two touch and go patterns. He was in the pattern behind Srinath. On the ground, Steve and I were watching Srinath.

Tower communicated with Srinath that he was #2 behind a Pitt. No response. Tower tried twice more and still no response from Srinath. I was tuned into LiveATC listening to the ATC and mentioned to Steve that I was worried Srinath didn’t respond to the calls. Within a minute, I heard Srinath check his mic and soon he told tower that he might have a radio problem.

He called it quits after that pattern to my relief. Was there a problem with the headset? We squawk’ed that there might be a problem with the radio. Our club’s maintenance team looked into it and didn’t find any problems. The audio feed into GoPro caught the radio communications just fine. We have not encountered any issues with the headset since. Did Srinath simply get distracted for a while and missed the calls?