Lesson #9 - Landing practice

Finally back in the air.  Again, the weather wasn't great, but it was good enough. Headed over to SJC again today for pattern work and landing practice. I got credit for my first two landings today. To be honest, I didn't even realize I had made any landings on my own until we got back and Dave filled out my logbook. I guess I'm just too busy doing what Dave tells me to check to see whether or not he's helping me. I started to get the hang of the pattern and final approach, and even got a "beautiful" out of Dave once or twice. 

I lost track of how many times we went around the pattern. We did a number of touch and goes and got a lot of practice with "cram, climb, clean", climbing to, leveling off at, and holding pattern altitude. I think I like practicing landings and pattern work at SJC. Although a class C airport, it appears to have less general aviation traffic than PAO. Maybe GA pilots stay away because of all the heavy metal flying in and out of there. We were one of only two or three planes in the pattern, and the long, wide runway seems to make practice easier. There are just so many planes constantly in and out of PAO that it seems more stressful.

After nearly an hour of pattern work at SJC, we decided to take a break and just fly and relax, since I hadn't flown in two weeks. We headed out to the East Bay and did a nice little counter-clockwise loop around Mount Diablo. I got reacquainted with flying the plane Dave introduced me to using the autopilot in VFR flight. I learned how to set a course in the autopilot using the heading bug and use the autopilot to make descents. 

We had an uneventful flight back to PAO, did a trip or two around the pattern there, and then called it a day since I was pretty much worn out. 

Aircraft: 222MF

Lesson #9: 2.1 hours

Total time: 14.2 hours

Landings: 2