Hour 61

Hour 61 was supposed to be a quick lap around the pattern to establish currency, then an outing with Tina and Emilio.  We were going to go to Pismo if time and weather allowed or just hang around the SBA area flying over the harbor and such.

You know what they say about plans:

And Emilio says I never plan...

Well, there's that old Clausewitz quote: plans don't survive first contact with the enemy.  In this case, the enemy was wind.  Turbulence over the mountains, gusts at the surface and low-level wind sheer.

The turbulence map for this weekend.  Not too comfy in SBA

Two of my three passengers were known to get airsick, so I was concerned that they would have no fun at all if we went up.  I still needed that one landing to get current though, so I figured I'd go up on my own and see if maybe it wasn't as bad as it looked.

I'd reserved good old 37G, but she was late coming back from a previous engagement, so I went up in 93X.  I'd flown 93X a few times before, but it had been a while.  Between that, my overall rustiness (first flight in a month and first solo in four months) and the wind, I opted to take an instructor.

It was as bad as it looked.  Not totally unsafe, but a challenging environment and we were definitely getting buffeted around.  Updrafts and downdrafts and shifting winds were the issue of the day, not really chop.  It was a good time to practice the pattern as I found it difficult to hold altitude and avoid being blown in or out of my range.

We used 25 with a mostly direct headwind in the 14-22 knot range, but gusty.  Definitely an abnormal approach for the usually calm SBA.  I set up my approaches for a long final and started higher than normal with no flaps.  The headwind kept us in line - we were way above our normal approach airspeed, but ground speed was fine.  Crosswind turns were challenging as the wind was determined to take one of our wings.  We kept the bank angles low and the turns wide.

All in all, it was great practice for me and I feel much sharper in my skills.  The bummer though was that Tina and Emilio would have to wait for another day.  I have some other adventures coming up this weekend, so it looks like the other day might be a ways away.