Tag Archives: night

$100 Hamburger

Aviation, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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.

Another first night cross country

Aviation, , , , , , ,

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.

First night cross-country flight

Aviation, , , , , ,

The days are getting long and that means sunset is later in the evening. A few days ago, Steve gave a route for Srinath to plan his night cross country trip. We were to leave Livermore for the Sacramento Executive Airport (KSAC), then Rio Vista (O88) followed by Kingdon (O20) and back to Livermore. We created a cross Cross Country Flight checklist as a PDF document with form fields and used this cross country trip as a trial subject. Anyways, we are now set with all the details and Srinath even received a full weather briefing through 1-800-WX-BRIEF. We were to meet Steve in the hangar at 8:30pm right around sunset. While night flying hours can be logged beginning with civil twilight, we were going to take off an hour after sunset.

Earlier this evening, Srinath had an appointment with the AME in Pleasanton to apply for a third-class medical certificate and it went pretty smoothly. It was a big relief!

We got to the hangar a little early and started the preflight checklist. When we flew a couple of days ago, we noticed that the landing light was not working and it had been placarded. It would be interesting to land without landing lights nevertheless Steve cleared us to go flying that night. We spent a good bit of time reviewing the planned details of the cross country trip with Steve. I set up Foreflight on my iPad so I could follow along the planned course.

Night flying is very different. First of all, there was no ATIS, no Ground or Tower controllers – it was past the operating hours – so we announced our intentions to Livermore Traffic on the CTAF. There were very few planes flying around at night and those that were flying could be spotted by their position lights. Depth perception wasn’t the same as while flying during the daytime. Thankfully this was a full moon night and the landscape was lit quite well. Watching from the back seat the moon rise over the horizon was quite a feeling. Photography was difficult due to extreme low light conditions. The GoPro picked up city lights but the rest of the time during our cruise it was pitch black outside and very dim inside the aircraft. The two massive towers (roughy 2050′ tall) northwest of Lodi stood out like sore thumbs.

Sacramento Exec airport was at first a little hard to find because it was engulfed by the city lights. There was another pilot announcing his intentions to take off from the airport while we were on the downwind leg. This landing turned out very smooth and we taxied off the runway to pause and regroup for the next leg to Rio Vista. En route to KSAC, we saw O88 to the west of the two massive towers so we simply looked for its airport beacon as we took off from KSAC. As I followed along on Foreflight, we basically tracked over the deepwater shipping canal. Suddenly we heard a high pitched sound and for a few seconds we were trying to figure out what was wrong. The terrain was almost pitch black so emergency landings would be impossible if needed. Thankfully it turned out be just a radio problem and we were able to resolve it quickly.

O20 Kingdon airport was almost impossible to find. It took quite a while to locate the airport in the darkness (see video). The airport didn’t have a beacon and the lights when keyed with the mike stayed on for just a couple of minutes. Srinath looked at the freeway and correctly guessed that we were almost overhead of the airport. Keying the mike proved it and we had quite a bit of altitude to lose. So we circled over the airport watching for any signs of winds as we shot for Rwy 30.The runway edge lights were placed quite far apart and that make it even more difficult to stay in the center of the runway. Finally the last leg back to Livermore was quite uneventful.

Here is the foreflight tracker. http://www.foreflight.com/s/track/1430886307-780FAB33-6427-4269-95FE-3B853966A072/