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Jerry's 43rd Lesson: Hayward in the SunIt was an ideal flying day this morning. Warm, but not hot. ATIS wind was nine knots, but it sure looked more like five out there. The sky was clear blue with haze around the edges. He gave me a choice; we could stay at PAO, or scoot out to Hayward. I chose HWD. Going across the Bay, I lost 200 feet while I played with the radios :-(. "Hayward Tower, Cessna Two-three-two-four-November is inbound at Coyote Hills for the option with Foxtrot" "Cessna two-three-two-four-November, Hayward Tower. Make a straight-in approach, runway two-eight right or left. Confirm you wanted to work the pattern?" "Uh, Yes Ma-am. I, uh, don't suppose we could get a left base on two- eight left?" "Affirmative, left-base entry is approved, and report abeam the Toll Plaza" "Report abeam the toll plaza, two-four-November" Here instructorial correction was applied: "A little less casual on the radio, till you get ( garbled )". I'll have to ask him exactly what he meant by that... We got to Hayward and did our 13 touch-and-goes. They went very well indeed. There was only one "double-bounce" landing, maybe three or four "tailwheel-first" ones. One landing elicited a judgement of "perfect".... YES! Only once did I "choke the yoke", slowing the A/C up to 50MPH on short final.... all the other ones I held to 70 all the way down, with more or less power, as the approach dictated. As we went round and round, the tower kept us entertained:TWR: "Use caution, it looks like CHP is up there doing some practice maneuvers with motorcycles" A/C: "OK, how about if we just go a hundred yards ahead on the right..." TWR: "Actually it'd probably be OK if you go down by the compass rose..." A/C: "Uh Yeah... I just have a couple outstanding warrants, I don't want to get near'em." TWR: "OK, understood." ( background laughter ) A/C: "Well, I gave those two great cats a good home" TWR: "No kidding! What happened?" A/C: "I just took them.. My daughter's here from the summer, and she's just enamored with'em, and they're tearing my house up. TWR: "Oh I'm so happy, Charles, they were just adorable and they needed a good home like that. That's great!" A/C: "Yeah, as soon as they get big enough, right into the microwave they go" ------------------- Seeing other airplanes in the pattern continues to be a problem. Coming back to PAO, we were informed that we were "number five for landing". Where were all those other airplanes!?! A friend at work gave me a hint: "Start with "number one" at the runway and work back, instead of trying to find number four way out there somewhere". On downwind at PAO, he grabbed the yoke and turned the airplane. I figured he wanted me to turn base, but he just wanted me to parallel the runway better. Oops. So there I was, on base, too high, and too close to the runway. I overshot the extended centerline, then did one big S-turn, bringing us in just right for short final. All Right! Jerry "60.5 Hours" Kaidor |