Doing “Research” at Sonoma Skypark Airport (0Q9)

So after over slightly more than two years of flying, I can still say that a pilot learns something new on every flight. Perhaps it’s not necessarily always something new, but in the process of the flight a pilot may be reminded of things he/she should already know. In the end, I’ve always believed that mistakes are only such if you don’t take the opportunity to learn from experience the first time. What’s the saying about “fool me once…”

Earlier in the week I realized that I didn’t have anything planned on Saturday. After a visiting China on business a couple of weeks ago and then returning to volunteer at Palo Alto airport, work on the project that took me to China, catch up with friends, and watch endless hours of US Open tennis and NFL opening weekend football (all in one weekend)…I hadn’t really have a chance to fly in the last couple of weeks. So I figured that I’d schedule the plane for the afternoon and wait to see where the wind took me. Well, as the day started, the wind was taking me anywhere. In fact, it wasn’t taking the clouds anywhere either. I headed to the airport around 1pm but there was still overcast over PAO. So I hung around for a couple of hours with my laptop enjoying the use of free wifi at the flying club.

By 4pm I was starting to get a little uneasy. I had dinner plans with a friend at 6:30p in downtown Palo Alto and would only have about 2 hrs to preflight, fly somewhere, return, and tie down. For a moment, I was thinking to just cancel the flight and call it a day. But the skies cleared and I didn’t want to feel like I’d wasted an opportunity to do something cool that day. I checked the weather in the area and saw that I might be able to get up to Sonoma Skypark to scope it out.

Going to Sonoma for “Research”

I grabbed the keys from the front desk at West Valley Flying Club and headed out for preflight. I’d scheduled a Warrior for the afternoon figuring that I could save a few bucks for my afternoon joy ride. It just so happened that I reserved N209J, the same plane that I flew to Napa twice earlier this year. I flew up there once to pick up my wine and most recently, to fly Kaitlyn up for a surprise getaway daytrip to Napa. This time I wanted to take a quick jaunt up to Sonoma Skypark to scope out the airport and the area. I almost flew up there a month ago for another psuedo-charter flight but cancelled it due to weather.

Given that I’ve been flying on my own for a little over two years now, I prefer each flight to be an experience or an adventure. This particular flight was for “research” purposes. I wanted to check out the airport to see if I felt comfortable landing at it (the runway is 2,500 ft by 40ft) and see if it seemed good to fly into for a day/night trip. Historical downtown Sonoma is about 3 miles from the airport, so it’s a good place to fly into for either an afternoon trip into town for lunch or a day/night trip. I’ve been to the downtown area and it’s a nice little town to enjoy a nice dinner and evening stroll, as well as a nice lazy day in the park or town square.

“Hey…I’ve Read Your Blog”

After getting out to the plane and completing my initial preflight, I noticed a fellow pilot starting his preflight on the plane parked next to mine – one of my favorite planes to fly…N343MM. As he began his walk around, we ended up greeting each other. Then he said, “Hey..I’ve read your blog.” I was like “what?”, “huh?” For a moment I was stunned and my brain began racing with questions about how he even knew about my blog. Eventually, he mentioned that he’d done a search online for the N number of one the planes that I’ve flown and my site came up in the first few listings. I was shocked and honored. Jeremy, the pilot, went on to say that he enjoyed reading about my adventures and looked forward to reading about the flight that I was getting ready to take. (If you’re reading Jeremy…thanks).

Punching Through for the View on Top

Shortly after that unexpected but amazing encounter, I hopped in the plane, received an abbreviated briefing from Flight Service, and headed out for departure. The weather in the area was getting better but there were still some low-level clouds reported over Hayward and Oakland. However, given the limited time that I had, I figured I’d try the direct route to Sonoma over Oakland and figure out my options in the sky if I ran into any issues. For the most part, the flight up was pretty standard. I took a Right 45 departure out of PAO and headed towards the San Mateo midspan. After the midspan, Oakland Tower cleared me up to 2,000 ft but I wanted higher. I could see there was a cloud layer over Oakland at about 2,200 – 2,500 ft and I preferred to get on top of it rather than fly below it. However, Oakland Tower can’t clear me into Class B at my requested altitude of 4,500 ft, but they did the best they could to position me well for an approval by NorCal Approach. No less than 30 secs after talking to Oakland Tower, they transitioned me to NorCal for the request. Time was critical at this point, since I either needed to descend or climb immediately.

Thankfully, NorCal granted me a quick clearance into Class B at 4,500 ft. I pushed the throttle to full power and climbed at my best climb speed of about 87kts. It all worked out perfectly because I was able punch over the clouds about a mile before I would have reached them. The view on top was breathtaking as always and yet it didn’t last too long. The clouds were literally only hovering about the SF and Oakland areas, so beyond the Bay Bridge it was practically clear.

Doh!

At about 12 miles out, I requested a VFR descent and frequency change from Oakland Center for my approach into Sonoma Skypark. However, since I knew that I’d only be doing a quick landing and then taking off again for my return to PAO, I requested to maintain my squawk code rather than switch to 1200 VFR. Oakland Center granted my request and let me know to just give then call once I was on my way back. It really shows that if they have time and you talk to them, they’ll do their best to work with you.

Finding Sonoma Skypark was pretty challenging. N209J has a Garmin 400 onboard, so that was definitely helpful in identifying the airport, but the area around the airport is so congested that I honestly didn’t pick up the airport until I was practically setting up for a midfield cross (about 2.5 miles out). While on approach I noticed reviewed my AFD info for Sonoma and recalled that runway 8 used a right traffic pattern. Yet, I was the only person in the pattern and there was no one on the radio. So the reported winds at Napa, I set up for approach and landing on the calm wind runway (26). I approached Sonoma from the south and radioed for my midfield cross over 26. However, since I’d recognized the airport late, I was still a bit high and not flying the best heading for the midfield cross. So as I crossed the airport and tried to setup for downwind, I could see that I wasn’t setup properly.

I radioed that I, instead, would head out at 45 degrees and reenter on a 45-degree downwind for runway 26. Ironically, this overflight gave me a chance to fly near the historical center of town. I made a standard turn back towards airport and set up for landing at Sonoma. As I mentioned before, Sonoma’s runway is tiny and it really looks tiny when you’re coming in for landing. The last time I landed on a runway this narrow was during my flight to Oceano back in April. Thankfully, this time I wasn’t dealing with 25 kt winds gusting to 32 kts. However, at Sonoma, I did need to make sure that I cleared the trees at the approach end of the runway. I did and I actually made a pretty smooth landing right down the middle of the narrow runway.

I was pretty proud of myself after that landing. As the aircraft slowed down on the runway, I noticed an older gentleman and lady (probably his wife) standing near the taxiway right off the runway. Just as a turned the airplane off the runway and began to enter the taxiway, the gentleman radioed me on a handheld to inform me that the traffic pattern for runway 26 is a left traffic pattern! Doh!! He wasn’t too upset but I could tell that he was either the airport manager or FBO operator on the field. I gracefully apologized for the error. In hindsight, I think I’ve gotten so used to doing right traffic patterns at most airports that I fly into (PAO, San Carlos, Petaluma, etc.) that I just naturally did so at Sonoma. Also, since there was no one in the pattern at the airport, I didn’t have the natural flow of traffic around me to make the mental correction.

Well, I Might As Well Do My Research

Since the gentleman was on a handheld and I didn’t feel like stopping, I used the opportunity to chat with him a bit while keeping the engine running on the taxiway. I picked his brain about taxi prices in the area, fees for Sonoma Skypark tie downs, courtesy cars, and local information. He didn’t hesitate giving me any answers and even offered to give me ride into town if I needed. I decline and just mentioned that I was visiting the airport to “scope it out” for a day/night trip someday. He simply wished me well on my flight back home and made sure that I knew the departure procedures out of the airport.

That Sinking Feeling Returns...

The flight back to PAO was pretty routine. NorCal must have had a light traffic day because I requested to fly back at 3,500 ft through Class B due to the clouds that were still hanging around Oak at 2,500 ft. They granted my request and put-putted through their airspace at a balmly 107 kts. Once I passed Oakland they forced me down to 2,000 ft and then 1,400 ft for the flight over the San Mateo midspan and approach to PAO. When I arrived at PAO, I was immediately cleared for landing and set up my approach for runway 31. The view of the late afternoon sky on final was just amazing and I remembered thinking…”boy, I’m so lucky to fly out of Palo Alto.”

Just after that thought I began to notice that my approach speed was a bit high and so played with the pitch and power to get slow the plane down. When I crossed the threshold, I could still feel that the plane had too much energy, even after I pulled the power. So I did what I normally do and just leveled off over the runway and gradually pulled back on the yoke. The plane started to settle just fine but I must have been a bit closer to the ground that I thought, since the plane touched down but immediately went airborne again.

Similar to my first trip in N209J when I bounced the plane, I had that sinking feeling reemerge. Yet this time, once the quarterback clock in my head hit what seemed like 3 secs (it was probably more than .5 secs), I pushed the throttle forward for full power, heard the stall warning horn, pushed the nose down to gain airspeed, and then pulled back on the yoke for my climb. Once I felt the plane was stable, I took out the last notch of full flaps and slowly worked out the rest on the climb out. I hadn’t done a go-around since my flight to Oceano several months ago, so in a way it was good practice.

Lessons Learned

This short flight of about 1.5 hours seemed to have it all – communications with controllers, punching through clouds, having to re-setup for an approach, opposite traffic patterns, and a go-around. Yet, each time I fly I grow stronger as a pilot. I know that my mistake on approach into Sonoma will cause me to think twice next time I setup into a new airport, just as my lessons learned on a previous trip to McClelland taught me about what to do when I have that sinking feeling.

So it’s true…on each flight a pilot is either learns something new or remembers something he/she should have known. In this case, I learned a few new things about a potential day trip to the Sonoma area and I was reminded about proper preparation for approaches into unfamiliar airports. Now, I look forward to taking my “new” knowledge and enjoying a nice getaway weekend sometime in the near future. Until next time…”keep the dirty side down.”