Flight 18, N14008, 1.2 hours (27 total). practice for presolo phase check

I wasn't able to get the phase check done as originally planned and now it's scheduled for the coming Monday, 2 weeks after I last flew. So today again we were practicing for the check ride. We'll have a short flight then some ground time going over charts and stuff.

It was overcast, but visibility was OK and ceiling was high, plus there's almost no wind at all, so still a pretty good day for flying. We made a left 270 departure towards the practice area. The other side of the Santa Cruz Mountains was completely covered by clouds as hight as the ridges themselves, so the practice area was just a white blanket. I made quick work of slow flight and power off/power on stalls. I was pretty happy with my performance today. Good pitch adjustments entering slow flight, and therefore kept altitude pretty well. Mark was pleasantly surprised, too. I didn't do well last time, and after 10 days of no flying he had expected me to be even rustier.

Mark then asked me to fly to SQL without the help of GPS. It's kind of tricky today since I couldn't see the ground and therefore didn't know exactly where I was. I pulled out the chart and put the plane into a shallow turn while I try to guestimated where I was. I could see some coastline so I knew I was somewhere south of HAF. Turned out the course I guessed wasn't off by much. It's kind of cool to see the entire bay area covered by clouds, with peaks like Mount Diablo sticking out. My course was about right towards Mount Diablo. I should remember this for the check ride on Monday.

Lucky for me SQL was clear of clouds. I started descend after crossing the ridge line. At times I had to descend pretty fast (over 1000 fpm) to get down to 1200 before crossing 101. I overflew midfield at 1200 then turned downwind and descend to pattern altitude of 800. At non-towered airports descending into pattern is an absolute no-no, but it's OK at controlled airports. Although I still don't feel comfortable about it and kept trying to look down for any traffic. The first landing was a normal one and I have to say I did quite well. Not my best one but I'd be happy if I could land like this consistently. I remembered to keep the nose higher than I used to when flaring and it worked out beautifully. Mark was again expecting me being rusty and was quite happy with how I performed. The second landing would be a no-flaps landing. We extended downwind a bit for spacing (note to self, tell the tower you want to extend your downwind. Although I thought the tower would have asked me to given the plane I was following wasn't too far ahead.). 101 played a little trick on me there: the runway runs about parallel to 101, but 101 turns slightly so as I extended my downwind I actually flew over 101 on my base, which confused me quite a bit. Other than that the no-flaps landing was pretty good, too. It's just faster than a normal landing, in a more nose-high attitude.

After a touch-and-go we departed downwind towards PAO. PAO tower was the busiest I'd ever seen (or heard, rather). I couldn't get my request in for a while, then when I finally find a break and stated my request, it went unanswered. The same lady who's at the tower during my first solo was on duty again, but this time she sounded like she's practicing tongue twisters. There's just not enough time for me to put in my request. We were almost entering PAO's air space and we still hadn't got anything fro tower, so Mark asked me to turn toward Stanford. He tried again a couple times just saying "14008", and finally tower asked us to state our request. She must be happy to hear that we were coming in for full stop (sounded like at least 2-3 others were doing pattern work). Downwind got extended just as always when the airport was busy. The landing again was a good one.

After I taxied back and turned off the engine, Mark asked me to push the plane back all by myself. Turned out this might be the hardest part of flying solo, and he had to help me with it in the end :P