Flight To Castle (082402)


Okay, I think I must get way too much drama in my flights... :-) But it is much more fun this way... :-) And, I'm definitely using my PPL as a license to learn. :-)

So, I originally was going to go to Castle last Saturday... But, I canceled because in the morning the weather was totally overcast... but it became non-overcast around 12pm (actually the TAF said it would clear up by 12pm but I haven't become experience enough to know how much to believe the TAFs)... Plus, the visibility was absolutely absimal last weekend too...

This Saturday, I decided to make that trip again... Okay, my original plan (the reason I say original plan is because it obviously didn't go as planned)... was to fly SQL->MOD VOR direct, then MOD VOR->MER direct. Then on the return trip, MER->3O7 (Hollister)->SJC, land... then left 45 from rwy 29 for SQL... I was going to start 10am and had the plane until 5pm.

Saturday morning I got up and it was totally overcast... but, remembering what happened last weekend, and how it was supposed to be sky clear SJC later on and how Merced's TAF said it would be sky clear and good visibility (well, it said greater than 6SM), I thought, I'll push the flight back until 11am...

As I drove up to SQL (I could only get 739SU...) I saw that some of the clouds were starting to burn off... not all though... in particular, the mountains to the east were clouded still... When I got the plane, I checked DUATs and it seemed like it might start burning off around 12pm but it was a slow burn off... I was almost going to consider just sticking around and do the pattern at SQL, when I looked out the window and noticed that, to the west, the sky was clear (go figure, it is clear on the coast but overcast inland... :-))... On DUATs, I also noticed that PIREP tops reports were 2300'. So I thought, I'd give this a try... SQL, bay meadows departure, Woodside VOR, and call up bay approach on the way there... request bravo transition 5500', go above the cloud tops around Woodside VOR which was sky clear, direct MOD VOR, and the continue as planned... It was sky clear around Castle and by the afternoon, I was planning to return via SJC which was going to be sky clear as well... I figured, let's give this a try, and worst case, if the tops were wrong or if he wouldn't give me the clearance, I'll just abort and come back to SQL...

So, that is what I started out doing... got to Woodside VOR, and they cleared me for bravo, but limited me to 4500' initially to expect 5500' later... oh, and apparently my idea of going MOD VOR direct was my own wishful thinking... :-) He vectored me to 080 and just keep going that direction at 4500' for a while... then vectors me to 120... so I go that way until I get to around PAO/Moffett... He then tells me cleared to 5500', resume own navigation, and oh... ;-) do I have SJC in sight? I say, yes... and he says, please stay south of SJC... (it wasn't until this evening when I was examining the SIDs and also thinking about it a while, that I realized the reason he didn't want me north of SJC was that I was essentially going to be a sitting target at 5500' for these jets going to SUNOL, etc. :-))... I get transferred over to another bay approach controller... I also noticed that I was going to be near mountains going from the south side of SJC to MOD... so I asked the controller for 7500'... he said to stay at 5.5 (his words... :-)) for a few more miles and then he'll see what he can do... eventually I get my altitude restriction lifted... go direct MOD (BTW, I brought my GPS V along... wonderful little toy even if it is non-aviation... but boy, it can get to be such a crutch too! :-) I found myself wanting to just follow the needle on my GPS more than I wanted to follow the VOR needle)...

Eventually, made it to Castle (BTW, >6SM visiblity doesn't mean a whole lot... :-) at least to me... it isn't flying blind, but checkpoints sure get a whole lot harder to see if the visibilty gets lower than 10SM)... Being my first time at Castle, I can now appreciate the hugeness of the place and also the emptiness of it... :-) When I got there, only one other plane was there and he was leaving... :-) It took me a while to figure out where to park... Being at Atwater sure is like being in the middle of nowhere! I can't imagine that Jeff, the guy from Gemini who drove me to get food (BTW it was 2pm at this point! I didn't actually leave until 12:45pm->1:00pm), actually lives at Castle! There's nothing there! :-) Had a Bomber Burger combo... :-) Bought a bear stuffed animal (with flight goggles) for Jinny, and an Albatros DV model to put together and a die-cast F-22 Raptor model as well (total cost $16. :-))... Then I decided it was time to get back... :-) It was about 3:15pm... got back to the plane at 3:30pm... got gas and preflighted... now it is about 3:45pm->4:00pm... Then realizing that it was going to take me an hour to get back (and I had the plane until 5pm), I opted out of the scenic route of Hollister to SJC and just went back MOD->SQL.

So, to take note, my flight plan from SQL->MER was already shot due to bravo clearance vectoring... :-) And now I was winging it back to SQL. :-) The trip back was relatively uneventful, except that I also discovered what 8SM visiblity around Livermore really looks like... :-) Made it back to SQL just at 5pm... :-)

But, all in all, it was a good trip... I learned many things:
1) Bravo transitions aren't hard... just have to ask for it and usually ask for a transition at a high enough altitude... and not right over an airport...
2) Bravo transitions are very likely to get you vectored somewhere you didn't want to go, especially if there is any cloud cover... climbing above the clouds works, but don't expect to go directly to where you want to go afterwards... :-)
3) Flying over even low altitude mountains (4000') can cause quite a bit of turbulence... along the same line, trying to climb a 172 on a hot day when Merced reports density altitudes of about 1000' at cruise climb airspeeds (80kts) doesn't get you anywhere near 500 fpm... :-) no wonder we have mountain checkout requirements... :-)
4) GPSs are a wonderful tool... but they can be a big crutch if you get dependent on them... I will definitely try to limit my reliance on them and try to do pilotage/dead reckoning/VOR navigation more...
5) >6SM Visibility, while looking good on paper/screen, looks WAY different in person... low visibility is really akin to instrument conditions since you have to believe your dead reckoning and VOR skills more than looking for landmarks.
6) If you plan to fly somewhere by airplane, especially without IFR, plan LOTS and LOTS of buffer time... it doesn't feel very good having to cut a trip short and fly back in a hurry...
7) It probably pays to figure out ahead of time where ATC, especially if you are asking for a bravo or charlie transition, will not want you to be... you can then anticipate where you will be vectored... :-)
8) An instrument rating would be a WONDERFUL thing to have! :-) If I was to do this again, I would have just filed IFR, flown at 10am and have had an extra 2 hours to eat, lounge, and look around the museum, and maybe even have had a chance to stop in an learn more about gliders in Hollister. :-) Doh! :-)

I think today's flight was a valuable flight... it taught me many lessons, showed me what kind of things can go awry, and overall was a neat trip that I hadn't done before. :-) Anyhow, enough of my blabbering... good night everyone! :-)

Michael.

PS. I also had the right magneto foul up on my both time (at SQL and at MER) and had to lean the mixture and run up to 2000 RPM to clean it up... hmmm... :-)

Last updated: 082502