Bay Area Birthday Buzzin’

WTH…Where’d this Come From?

This morning, I woke up one day older…it just happened to be 30 years older. I’d originally planned a fly-in with my friend Patrick from Sacramento, but the weather forecast wasn’t quite holding up in our favor. So yesterday, I decided to cancel the fly-in and simply take to the skies for a little dip around the Bay Area with my roommate (and fellow pilot) Bradley. We woke up this morning to beautiful clear skies and gorgeous sunshine, and decided to head to Palo Alto at 9am to fly N43779 for an hour before the skies turned gray. As we appproached the airport, we were about no more than 1/2 mile from the airport when we noticed some very thick clouds. And trust me…it had been ABSOLUTELY clear up to this point…I mean like…CLR below 12ooo ft and visibility plus 10 miles-type clear. As I exited the highway for the airport, I could not see more than 1/8 mile. It was crazy! So needless to say, when we arrived to the airport, we cancelled the flight and scheduled the aircraft for later in the afternoon.

Flip Flopping & Plane Hopping

Earlier this year, I’d tried to take a friend (Aditi) up for her first general aviation experience during July 4th weekend, but that’s when my troubles started with the Warrior at Advantage. Given that Aditi attends law school on the East Coast, we only have so few chances throughout the year to arrange a trip. And last year during this time, I was in Spain celebrating my birthday and New Year’s (oh, the memories…they can be found here…Jarard.com – El Viajero). Anyway….once I knew I was flying the afternoon, I decided to send her a text to see if she was available to tag along with Bradley and I this afternoon. She was available and SO excited!

Bradley and I arrived at PAO a little after 2pm, after using the morning to run errands, and everything was set for our Bay Area Tour. Even though the low pressure system that was making its way into the Bay had turned our beautiful clear sky day into a gray overcast…the clouds were at 9000+ ft and the visibility was 6+ miles. But that wasn’t the only oddity of the afternoon. When I grabbed the keys to N43779, I asked if there were any additional squawks (or maintenance concerns) on the aircraft besides the couple of minor ones that I knew about. I was told that someone reported the flight controls a bit stiff…so I was sure to check this out before getting too far into my preflight checks. Vaya….Vaya…Vaya (or well, well, well…en Inglés)…lo and behold, the trim tab indicator had not been replaced and the flight controls were stiff. Those two things made me uncomfortable and as pilot-in-command (PIC or “HNIC” for those in the “know”) 🙂 I decided to scrub that aircraft.

Well...I wouldn't be flying this bird today. :(

Now, the privilege of being in 2 flying clubs affords me the ability to hop from aircraft to aircraft on the airfield until I find one that’s available and within my comfort range. So I decided to see if N343MM was available. I had just flown it last weekend…though I spent more time on the ground than flying it (a lesson learned about trying to do pattern work on a Sunday afternoon when there are SO many pilots returning from weekend getaways). Luckily, it was available and I grabbed the keys and we were ready to go.

N343MM...a '99 Archer III complete with Autopilot, 2 Garmin 430 GPS's, Air-conditioning, a CD Player, and a push-button start. Hence all the extra weight.

Then as I walked out to the aircraft, I remembered that the useful payload for the aircraft (or the available weight between empty weight and max weight) was considerably less in N343MM. Less by nearly 215 lbs, which makes a huge difference when flying with 3 adults, 40 lbs of fuel, and a few little bags. So I spent the next few minutes, performing weight and balance calculations prior to preflighting to see if we could get up safely. After a little conversative estimation, I figured that we’d be at about 2528 lbs and the max gross weight is 2550 (only a 22lb difference). Now this was a conversative estimate and as a result, it was too close for comfort for me. If it had been a 50 lb difference, I would have flown, but 22 lbs was below my personal minimums. I was all ready to pick a new aircraft with more available payload, but Bradley said…”don’t worry about it.” He resigned to say that I should just fly Aditi and he’d fly with me another day. I felt bad, since I really wanted to fly with him, but I appreciated his help. While I performed the preflight walk around, he greeted Aditi, gave her a tour of the airfield, took some pictures, and answered some of her initial questions.

Aditi...another newbie ready to take the skies with me.

Alright...let's roll!

I’m Loving this Archer III

I realized today that Aditi is the lucky number 7th person that I’ve been able to introduce to general aviation since I received my license last year. I always love taking up newbies, because I continually hone my knowledge and skills by showing and teaching them things along the way. And Aditi was great…she asked great, inquisitive questions. The flight itself was pretty cool, even though it was my first time flying a Bay Tour on a gray day.

Watch Our Takeoff on Runway 31

After taking off from PAO on runway 31, we climbed out to 1200 ft (pretty quickly in an Archer III climbing at 700-800 ft/min). After a being transferred to Oakland Tower, we flew to the San Mateo bridge Midspan before heading over the approach end of runway 29 at Oakland and climbing to 2000ft.

After passing Oakland, we hung out for a minute north of the Bay Bridge before turning towards Alcatraz and then south over downtown SFO, past SFO (the airport) at 1400 ft, and then back down the 101 freeway to PAO for a smooth approach and landing into PAO 0.9 hours later. I was SO pleased with my approach and landing, given that I spent last weekend flying N343MM and hadn’t been happy with my approaches. But this approach was smooth and the landing was not quite a kiss, but a nice small peck. And just like that, I had another happy passenger and a great 30th birthday memory.

Thanks, Bradley and Aditi!