I had extremely vivid and bizarre dreams last night, a very busy day doing some business consulting and catching up on a bunch of our own accounting, it’s late, and I still haven’t posted anything today.
So have some cool pictures! In fact, pictures taken one day I was flying and we ran into a bit of weather.
The pictures were taken by my flight instructor using my camera on December 16, 2008. We flew out of Whiteman in Pacoima to do some practice on “ground reference maneuvers” such as turns around a point and S-turns. We flew out to our usual practice area over Simi Valley to get our work in.
I thought we wouldn’t be flying due to the scattered showers, but part of the lesson was also about the weather and the regulations. The cloud base wasn’t that low, the showers weren’t heavy enough so that we couldn’t see, so we were legal all the way. It was good experience for flying in less-than-perfect weather and getting a feel for what was “legal but marginal” weather just in case I ever get caught in it in the future.
A Cessna 172 doesn’t have windshield wipers. You’re flying at about 90 to 100 knots and the wind will keep the windshield fairly clear, but you can see the streaks on the glass.
Headed back home, we’re at about 2,500 feet or so coming east through the Santa Suzanna Pass back into the San Fernando Valley. We clearly have more than ten miles’ visability and the cloud base is up around 5,000 feet, so we’re legal, if wet. This is about the point on the way back where we call Van Nuys (sort of visible far off in the distance on the right edge of the picture) to get clearance to transition through their airspace to Whiteman.
This sequence shows us coming in to land at Whiteman on Runway 12:
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 