French Valley for Breakfast

I planned all week for my flight to French Valley.  Woke up early Saturday and got weather at 7am and out by 7:30.  I sent mike a text message to find out what plane we were flying because they are on the opposite sides of the airfield.  Mike calls me immediately after, and informs me, my flight is on Sunday.  I woke up early for nothing.  So i went back inside and went to sleep.

I am glad it was not on Saturday though because there were thunderstorms at french valley.  So Sunday seemed like a better day.  There was only a 10% chance of thunderstorms on Sunday.  So i spent that day tracking the weather and making sure we were still able to fly on Sunday.

I have Fore flight on my IPad, and it is the best program i have ever purchased.  $70 a year, but you get charts, flight planner, procedures, weather, briefing, file of flight plans, GPS follow, route tracking, IFR procedures, and the list goes on and on.  The best possible program ever made for a pilot.

Sunday comes around and i repeat the same thing in the morning, wake up at 6.  Weather briefing at 7am.  They say VFR not recommended by the coast.  But sky broken at 12,000.  And wind was light and variable the entire route.  The proposed route we were going to take there was KVNY to KSMO's 132 degree outbound VOR radial over LAX SFRA (Special Flight Rule Area), to Saint Vincent Bridge, to the Queen Mary, to Dana Point, to Lake Elsinore, to French Valley.

I called Mike just to ensure we were going to go flying and he said yea.  To show up and meet at Pentastar.  I was unsure about the flight as it was raining at my house and cloudy outside, but the clouds were very high in the sky.

I got to the airport, and met with mike.  We talked about the flight and he liked the flight plan.  He said it looked very well put together.  We talked about the weather and any way out just in case the weather was not permitting.  We were going to turn back immediately if needed and come back to the Van Nuys, Whiteman, Burbank, or Santa Monica.  It was reported 3-7 miles visibility thoughout the route. and clear of clouds.

We performed the preflight and got her started and at the runway.  A few moments later we were in the air.  It was smooth.  Not one bump, or hobble, or anything.  On the flight over to santa monica, It was a quite amazing view from the air.  We were able to see the rain falling from the clouds but not quite making it to the ground.  It was falling from about 12000' but evaporating by about 1000'.  I wish i had a camera and could have gotten a picture of this.

We get to smo and make the turn to the 132 outbound radial at 3500' over lax.  All Lights on.  Squawk 1201, announce on cooridor traffic CTAF.  Same procedure we went through last time over to catalina. But instead of turning towards catalina at Saint Vincent bridge, we turned the opposite direction to the queen mary and followed the coast to Dana Point.  The coast was clear.  We were able to see the water, the land, and everything else. We were navigating using mainly pilotage since it was somewhat clear outside. There were some points that we got a little rain on the airplane for a much needed bath.  (Your welcome Uwe).

My flight plan was pretty accurate to this point.  We were only one minute off.  But the rest of the legs were right on par.  By this time we were on with flight following as to help keep a lookout since the weather was not optimal for a VFR flight like this.  It seemed pretty slow in the air today.  Not too much going on and not too many people in the air.

It was nice not having to worry about 100 other people in the same area we were in.  I think we got one traffic advisory the entire route there.  Which was a jet taking off from Santa Ana (John Wayne) airport.  We saw it taxi to the runway, and takeoff from where we were. Then pass in front and above us.

Once at dana point we being our treck inland, over the mountain and to lake elsinore. At this point we were getting into exactly 3 miles visibility.  And let me tell you.  For that being minimum VFR visibility, i would be scared to fly in that.  It was also raining at this point.  So the visibility was probally a little less than 3 miles, and once in that, your cant really see too much.

Im glad i got to experience it, but i can see how it can quicly become less than 3 miles and leave you looking for a way out. It is quite amazing how the water sheets off the windsheld slowly until it hits the curved part, then it just zooms past and off the window.  I can imagine how hard rain, can make it difficult to see as well.

Luckily it did not get any worse.  it was like that until we got to the mountain pass.  Then it stopped raining and cleared up a bit. But not much. Still roughly 3 miles visiblity.  We turn towards french valley and about 4 miles out were still looking for the airport.  It kinda popped out of no where just in time for us to see it and enter a tear drop pattern 500' over pattern alitiude to check the traffic, and then enter left down wind pattern to runway 18.  I used a little town just to the east of the airport to do my 270 degree turn over to enter the pattern. My pattern was a little off as i was a little too close to the runway on downwind and turned base a little early.  So i ended cutting power early, and we landed about 1/3 of the way down the runway as we were really high when we turned to final.

I didnt want to put her into a slip in this though, as i was unsure how the airplane would react to a slip in this kind of weather.  And we definately had enough runway.  The runway is 6000' so i knew we had enough room to land and make it off safely even 1/3 of the way down the runway. The landing was nice though.  Flew in the ground effect for a while, and landed with very little bounce or jolt to the plane.

We pulled off the runway and taxi'd to the transient parking.  Parked and ran into the restuarant, as it had started to rain very very hard at that point.  It was a 200' run and i ended up getting pretty wet on the way to the restaurant.  That's how hard it was raining.  Once in the restaurant it was nice and dry.  Warm and extremely busy.  Im not sure if the town is so small that's where people go for breakfast but for a rainy day at a airport restaurant it was really busy.

I had the breakfast buritto and it was pretty good.  They salsa there is by far the best part i think.  It did a good job at filling me up.  Mike got a chicken salad.  We ate our food, and talked for a little while about some stuff.  Flying, Personal Life, Events, and some other stuff.  We started to discuss the flight back, which reminded me i needed a weather brief.

Our proposed flight back was from French Valley, to lake elsinore, to lake mathews, to Pomona VOR, to El Monte, through Burbank's airspace to Van Nuys.  The weather briefing stated that corona was IFR and we needed to fly over corona to get back home.  So we planned to fly west of corona and if the IFR conditions were going to effect us, we would turn around and either go back to french valley, or play it by ear and get to where we could safely. Once in the air, we remained at traffic pattern alititude for about 3 miles just to be on the same level with everyone.  Picked up flight following and started our treck back home.

We got the occasional rain here and there, but nothing as bad as coming in.  It seems as if the IFR layer was just right over corona, at maybe 1000'.  We were already at 4500' so it did not effect us.  We still stayed west of the airport for safely reasons.  Dont want to get too close to IFR conditions and have a jet come out of a cloud and BOOM.  Directly west of us there was also IFR conditions lining the ground.  And the ceiling was at 12000' above us.  So we were ok for the flight back so far.

We had to be careful here not to bust into bravo's airspace on the way, as LAX has alot of shelves.  So we stayed northeast of the airspace unti we were over el monte.  Then we were able to turn towards van nuys, and be clear by a few miles of the bravo airspace.  Over el Monte we started our VFR descent, to 2500' as we didn't want to enter Burbank's airspace early.  They have a 3000' shelf that we just stay under and it gives us another 5 minutes of flight without having to be on with Burbank.  And i like to stay out when possible as there are a lot of big jets in there.  And im just a small Cessna.

We were handed off to Burbank, and contacted them to get clearance through their airspace.  The controller that day was kind of a "douche".  He was talking really really fast, and at a certain point my instructor started to take communication as the controller was confusing me and my flight instructor.  He was calling VFR checkpoints by the incorrect names.  Granted i know he might have been busy, but come on.  Does not help to also talk 100 miles an hour when you know people are having trouble hearing you.  After a few minutes he understood what we were doing and we understood what he wanted us to do.  Too bad it took a few minutes to get that established.  A few minutes was unnecessary as he just needed to slow down and talk!!

Now, thankfully out of Burbank's airspace, we contact van nuys and get cleared to land on runway 16L.  The approach was the best approach yet, and the landing was flawless.  No Bump.  No Jolt.  I didn't even feel the wheels touch the ground.  My instructor was very very impressed.  The landing was a little flat but ever so smooth.  I wish all my landings are like that from now on.

We did our debriefing and he was extremely impressed with the whole flight, and the few flights before that, that he mentioned most of my future flying would be by myself solo as that is mainly what i need to be able to get my license and take the check ride.  he said he can not see anything that he can critique me on as i did everything by the books and properly at the correct time.

Saturday im suppose to fly solo to the practice area for an hour to practice some maneuvers.  Stay tuned for the upcoming solo flight to the practice area.