AvGas

Out solo again today…this time for normal, soft field, and short field takeoffs and landings. All in all my landings are pretty good…and it felt very good to get out and practice after being on the ground the past 9 days. I really need to try and get to the airport at least twice a week. I have been thinking seriously about buying an airplane…mostly for the business opportunity. I noticed today when flying 4335K that it has flown 10 hours in the last 10 days…so if that plane gets 25-30 hours of time each month, my bet is that the owner is making money (above whatever amount/payments are owed) of at least a few hundered dollars. Needless to say, this not only appears to be a great way to have a plane available at a low rate to the owner, but also to make a bit of money. If one were to have 2, 3, 5, 7, etc. planes that were leased back to a club like WVFC, that person might be able to make a couple of grand each month. Food for thought.Big things in the last week…working a “real” job again. All in all things are rolling along.

Today was my first solo outing (PA28-181 N4319D)…which involved getting up in a panic at 0330 to check the weather. Needless to say, the weather was fairly calm when I departed SQL…although a bit more wind when I got back an hour later (wind 360 at 10…landing 30). Nothing out of the ordinary about the flight, which was a Belmont Slough departure over to the Sunol Golf Course area (East Bay…near Pleasanton). My enroute portions weren’t very exciting…and during the maneuvers portion I did a few steep turns (why can I do a nearly perfect right turn but an awful left??), some slow flight for about 5 minutes, and a power-off stall. After that it was back to SQL for three trips around the pattern (2 landings, 1 go-around due to traffic). I did forget to turn my electric fuel pump on for the initial landing at San Carlos…which freaked me out a bit (caught it on taxi-back…checklist, checklist, checklist), but that’s how one learns.All in all, success…and a great sense of accomplishment.

I completed my solo phase check today with Logan Frasier, a fantastic WVFC CFI based out of Sacramento (we flew out of San Carlos). The phase check took 3+ hours, with about 1.5 hours on ground review and about 1.5 hours in the air. All in all I flew very well, and Logan was impressed with both my ground knowledge and my flying abilities (for my training at this point). I actually had to do a couple of things with Logan that I had never done before, including slow flight w/o flaps and departure stall, no-flap landing, and engine out at pattern altitude with landing (I had never actually slipped it all the way through to a landing before…but did really well). All in all a very positive experience. I am looking forward to getting back on track with the cross-country portion of training with Karl sometime next week. Hey…I can fly a plane.

At West Valley Flying Club (WVFC) there are phase checks (mini checkrides) which must be completed prior to significant events in training. The first is the solo phase check, in which you fly with a different instructor who tests you to verify that you are indeed ready for solo adventure (err…I mean practice). Needless to say, today Karl and I did our _pre_ solo phase check practice…in which he drilled me on a bunch of different areas, both on the ground and in the air. All in all I didn’t do too badly (I still need to work on emergency procedures and checklist use), and am feeling confident for the actual phase check.So…next time is the phase check…I’ll be glad to get it done and on to solo practice and cross-country lessons.