Flying after work

Managed to make it out flying after work tonight. 1.9 hours, four airports, lots of pattern work. I left work at about 4:30pm, made to Palo Alto by 5, and we took off around 5:30pm for Reid-Hillview. Probably the best thing about flying at this time of day is getting to fly right over all the poor souls sitting in their cars on the freeway.

We made a left downwind departure from KPAO toward KRHV, making a Class D transition over Moffett Federal Airfield, then a Class C transition through San Jose's airspace, and finally over to Reid-Hillview. The Class C transition was pretty cool, crossing San Jose's midfield at about 1600 feet. It's kinda wild looking straight down and seeing the terminals and taxiing 737's right below.

Reid-Hillview seems like a nice place to do pattern work on a Thursday afternoon.  There weren't really any other planes to speak of, so we made left traffic for runway 31 left. Final for 31 is a little interesting as we fly right over the top of a shopping center, clearing the roof by just a couple hundred feet or so. We clear the building, parking lot, a road, and a fence before touching down. Tends to get a little bumpy over the parking lot from hot air rising from the asphalt.

After Reid-Hillview, we headed to South County in San Martin.  This is a little strip right next to highway 101 down between Morgan Hill and Gilroy. We made a few trips around the pattern tonight and then headed back to San Jose, hugging the hills to the west of Morgan Hill to maneuver around the San Jose Class C airspace before getting clearance into San Jose for pattern work on runway 29. Again, I lost track of how many times we went around the pattern.  Soon enough it was getting to be nearly 7pm, so we headed back to Palo Alto to call it a night. 

Wow, what a way to spend a few hours after work. 1.9 hours, four airports, and credit for a couple landings.

Aircraft: 739TW

Landings today: 2

Total landings: 7

Today's flight: 1.9 hours

Total hours: 20.6