ET's Info-Stew

At 7:45 I checked the KLVK ATIS from our apartment (I figured out how to get good signal). Information Quebec said winds were calm, the sky was clear, and visibility was good. No doubt about it - we'd be flying today. Jenny came along to take pictures. I feel bad dragging her along for this, but she said she really enjoyed herself. After dropping Jenny off at a place she could park and observe, Mike and I headed back to his hangar. After we walked around the Ercoupe and added some oil, he pulled out the plane and tried to get it started. For thirty minutes he tried to start the plane. The engine was cranking, but just wasn't firing. After a while, the battery was starting to die, and it looked like we would have to try another day. I felt bad for Mike because he really wanted to take me up, and because I can just imagine how bad it feels if your plane isn't working for unknown reasons.

We let it sit and got Jenny to let her know what was going on. When we got back the plane started right up. Just as Mike has guessed, it was simply a matter of over-priming. With the engine now up and running, Mike called me over, I climbed in, Jenny went back to the observation area, and we began the taxi. We went to the run-up area, did the typical checks, got clearance for take-off, and Mike gave me the controls, though he controlled the throttle. After aligning with the runway centerline he pushed in the trottle and we accelerated. At about 75 kts, I began to pull back on the yoke, and before I knew it, we were airborne!

Holding 85 kts we continued to climb, then I turned to the crosswind and shortly after the downwind leg, and we were off. Right about Springtown Mike had me turn to the north to fly a couple miles west of Brushy Peak. We continued on a north heading climbing to 3500 feet. There Mike reduced the throttle while I leveled off. We went sight-seeing up past Rio Vista with me in control. I wish I had a point-and-shoot camera for this. The view was wonderful, with Mount Diablo to the west and the snow-covered peaks of the Sierras far to the East. We could also see Sacramento not too far away, and way off to the north we saw the volcanic buttes in the middle of the Central valley!

During the whole flight Mike occassionally turned on and off the carb heat. He said he does this because he once had to make a dead stick landing as a result of carborator ice. After about 25 minutes I turned back to the south. I descended to 3000 feet and we headed for Discovery Bay. Seeing it from the sky the layout of Discovery Bay is much different than I expected. Every house has channel-front property, and there is no big communal lake. Next we headed to Tracy, being sure to stay East of Byron, where there is frequent sky-diving activity. Another tip from Mike is that once you are familiar with an area you can easily use landmarks to navigate where you want to go. His example was that on a very clear day, you could fly directly from Reno to Livermore because you can see Mount Diablo, a very distinct landmark from the air, from very far away.

After reaching Tracy I flew the plane to the top of the Altamont pass. There I made the call to the Tower: "Livermore Tower, Ercoupe 87336, over Altamont pass with information Tango, inbound for landing." "Ercoupe 87336 (...garble...) weak transmission (...garble...)" Thank goodness Mike was there because he took over the communication from there. We were cleared for the straigh-in landing for runway 25R. What happened was that the microphone had drifted away from my mouth, and I was also speaking weakly into the microphone. The lesson is that I need to speak with confidence and robustness, which I did later on the taxi from fuel to the hangar.

Mike took the controls after getting clearance from the Tower and took us in. He showed me what the VASI looks like above and on the glideslope, and he also used his NAV set to the ILS for guidance. The flare was a weird experience, especially when we hit the ground effect. With the engine at low RPM and with us mostly gliding, the ride turned very smooth, and the ground effect amplified this feeling. Mike made what felt like a very good landing right down the runway centerline, pulled off the runway, and we were cleared to change to the ground frequency.

He taxied to fuel and filled up. Standing outside was the line of Ercoupe owners, who were apparently waiting for a pilot who was coming to do a fly-by in a high performance military aircraft. On the taxi back we saw the fly-by by the T28C. After putting back the plane, the pilot parked the T28 near Mike's row of hangars (even from a distance you could get a sense of the power the plane had from the sound), so we went to take a look. There we met Chuck Wahl, the pilot of the T28C (see Chuck's website), who was surrounded by the Ercoupe group. The aircraft was pretty darn cool, and I took some pictures of it.

This flight was the first of my piloting career (the Pitts flight doesn't really count because it was more of a ride), and I learned so much already. Mike was amazed at my ability to control the aircraft without any previous experience. I was maintaining altitudes within 100 feet and maintained my climb at the specified airspeed. I was making the appropriate minor adjustements to attitude instinctively with finesse, and scanned the instruments and the sky like I knew what I was doing. I did all of this in a casual manner, exemplified by my having one hand loosely on the yoke most of the time. Mike said that of the hundereds of people who he has taken up their first time, I was the most comfortable and capable with the plane of them all. Now, he might have just been saying that to make me feel good, but I felt like I did do an excellent job. His comments have boosted my confidence significantly. He said I did so well that I am likely to have close to the minimum 40 hours of flight training before I take my checkride (if true that should save some money). If nothing else, this experience has solidified that I will love flying, and my confidence that I will someday be pretty good at it. He has already talked about taking me up at least a couple more times to work on other skills, like landing and navigation. I must say I am a lucky guy and that Mike is very gracious to want to spend this time with me. I also appreciate Jenny's enthusiasm and her willingness to take pictures while I had all the fun. Thank's Jenny!