ET's Info-Stew

Today I flew for the first time in 2 1/2 months. With such a long break I was worried I would be very rusty, in organization, communication, and landing technique. But I actually did rather well, especially since it was the first time I've flown in a Cessna 152 in 5 1/2 months.

I had scheduled a C152 I hadn't flown before. When I got to Cal Airways, which had moved locations, it was in the shop (surprise, surprise). So they gave me a plane I had flown before, N4940H. This morning I skimmed through the 152 aircraft manual to re-acquaint myself. I went to the plane and (surprise, surprise) it hadn't been refueled. The truck came quick, and I was ready to go.

I did three touch-and-goes with a light-moderate (6 or so knots) left quartering tailwind, one great and two fairly good. Then I headed east for Livermore (KLVK), which had moderate winds (12 knots) from 020. So they had folks working on runways 7, my first patterns in that direction. The tower had me take a right 360 for spacing and report a 4-mile final for 7R. I did three touch-and-goes. On the second one the guy in front of me (cleared for the option) had actually slid off the left edge of the runway! They pulled off and taxied back instead of gunning it, probably to give some time to calm down :)

After the third touch-and-go I departed downwind and landed on 28R at Hayward. All seven landings were with decent cross-winds. I had a small porpoising issue on most landings, but that wasn't too unexpected. I had lost a bit of feel and, besides, the 152 controls are much more sensitive. It was a good feeling flying again, and I'm good to fly passengers in the daytime for another 90 days :)