Flight 9 - From Palo Alto to San Carlos and patterns

My first flight to another airport! Feels a little strange using the radio to call a different ATC, and it's also strange looking at at a different runway on the approach and takeoff. It was also a very windy day, ealier in the afternoon KPAO had winds from 350 degrees at 15 knots gusting to 22 knots, more about that later.

The graphic above shows the GPS track for the whole route, and is annotated with some of the notes about the radio calls I used and some of the landmarks for navigation. The basic route was to head of of PAO requesting a "Straight out departure to San Carlos". This gives PAO ATC a hint that I will need to change radio frequency as soon as possible, which they will permit me to do with "Frequency change approved". From there we follow the edge of the bay looking for the Cement works. During the journey we radio KSQL ATIS to learn about the wind and to understand the current winds and 'code' e.g. Foxtrot. Next we radio SQL and request "the option", our current location being "just departed Palo Alto". The option means we have the option to land, do a touch and go, or do a go around.

While at KSQL we did 3 loops around the pattern (go-arounds only, no actual landings). Much like KPAO it's a right hand pattern at 800 ft, crosswind turn is after the diamond water shape and after 500ft. You also pass what seems to be very close to a number of buildings including the Oracle offices. The air here was extremely bumpy, after 3 goes around the pattern I was starting to feel a little motion sick. The bumpyness in the air was partly due to the winds that day (which were extremely gusty), but also in part to do with the geography at KSQL and the buildings etc. Interestingly the crosswind here was from the left during approach and takeoff, which is the opposite of the typical wind in KPAO.

On return to KPAO we request a "Downwind departure to Palo Alto", and before arriving in KPAO air space we hope they offer us a "enter left pattern" or "enter left downwind" entry. A few more loops around the KPAO right pattern, lots more crosswind landing practice! One of the approaches had the windsocks showing we had a 90 degree crosswind which may have been as high as 16 knots. We were at the limit of crosswind correction and decided to do a go around. The other two landings went ok, still lots of crosswind to learn practice in.

Crosswind "slip"

I finally felt like I understood how do a crosswind slip. This is where you have a lot of pressure on one rudder to keep the nose straight, then use aileron as necessary to steer and level the plane. For a strong crosswind from the right, this would mean pushing all the way down on the left rudder pedal, and using some right aileron to keep level/straight (crossed controls).

Lesson highlights: Approach and travel to a new airport, go-arounds, crosswind 20-90 degrees at 18 knots, lots of radio practice and slips. 1.1. Hours hobbs, 3 landings.