Pulling my laptop out of my bag this past Friday, I was excited with the prospect of a good relaxing day of hacking on whatever I pleased. Having fulfilled the Thanksgiving family obligations, and negotiated an errand-free day with my wife, I was pretty excited about a full day of tinkering.

Santa Rosa’s current conditions are overcast with plenty of fog. The forecast and the weather brief confirm that it should start to clear up around 10-11am.

After a week of utterly painful patience, my wife and I were finally able to get up in the air this morning, undertaking our first flight together with my new private pilot’s license.

One of my favorite aviation sayings is “you start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.”

Early on in my flight training I wrote that one of the most difficult aspects of the endeavour is summoning the strength to humbly, and realistically, self- assess your own performance.

One year ago today, my wife and I made the drive down to Hayward for the first time to take an introductory flight/bay tour with California Airways. My scheduled instructor for the flight was busy, and so another instructor picked up the flight.

It’s 6am on a dark Tuesday morning. I sip the bland coffee I bought from the donut place, wince at the taste, and get back to my flight log. Having just called to get a weather briefing, I rotate the whiz wheel every which way, computing my wind correction angles, estimated ground speeds and fuel burns.

Note: I half-finished this blog post, I’m posting it as such. I ended up becoming so busy I didn’t write for over a week, and now I can barely remember what I ended up doing, other than getting beat up by the wind.

Cell phone, wallet, laptop, helmet, keys; check. My pre-commute checklist that I run through before leaving the house in the morning. I unlocked my bike, bid farewell to the dog in the backyard and pedalled towards the train station.

I’m killing time in the California Airways office, re-re-re-reviewing my charts, going over the visual checkpoints I can expect to see today. After yesterday’s successful solo cross-country to Modesto, I had arranged to fly a longer solo cross-country today. This time around, Hayward to Santa Rosa, on to Sacramento Executive then returning home to Hayward.

“Check out the photos on the camera” I told my wife as we pulled out of the California Airways parking lot.

My alarm starts screaming. I stand up out of bed, walk to the dresser to turn it off. I’ve never woken up well with alarms, placing my phone across the room forces me out of bed, greatly increasing the probability that I’ll wake up. It’s miserable. My eyes sting from tiredness.

I’ve fallen a bit behind on my flight-related writing recently. Believe it or not, blogging tends to fall lower on the priority list than things like sleeping or eating.

After my less than desirable landing performance the day prior, I set out this past Sunday to get some needed practice on my own. Since I’m cleared for solo pattern work at the field, what better way to start a Sunday than with some circuits?

After a brief hiatus, this past Saturday my instructor and I embarked on the next part of my flight training: cross-country flying. Up until now, everything has been within 20-30nm (nautical miles) from Hayward (KHWD). I originally planned a flight up to Santa Rosa, but an airshow this weekend caused me to look for alternative destinations.

With increasingly foggy and overcast weekday mornings, my flight instructor and I have had a few missed lessons due to clouds. This past Tuesday he decided to file an IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) flight plan to get us out of Hayward and to another part of the region with clearer skies.

After a completely stressful week filled with project deadlines and a summons for jury duty, this past Saturday I finally managed to get back up into the air. Like the weekend before it, which I neglected to blog about, I was flying in yet another plane in the California Airways fleet. With a couple planes of the fleet in for annual maintenance, the only bird available was 733PV

Wiping the crud from my sleepy 6am eyes, I shut off my alarm and grab my tablet off the nightstand. As is becoming increasingly common, my days are starting with weather before I even leave the bed. I open up the forecast for Hayward: clear skies, winds at 0 knots.

After almost ten days of foggy mornings and scheduling mishaps, I was finally able to get back up into the air this morning, in 738VU. Unfortunately the Ugly Duckling has been having its annual maintenance done for the past week, leaving the California Airways fleet one plane short, and forcing yours truly into a less welcoming bird.

Thus far I’ve never received a dual lesson with my instructor on a Sunday, as it’s his only day off. Today we managed to get up in the air on a Sunday afternoon for some instruction covering steep turns, stall recovery and spin prevention.