Flew my coworker, Dustin, down to Independence to start his Mt. Whitney hike. Picked up a void clearance at PAO (this was at 6:30am, before the tower was open), just to punch through the fog.
LOC 2 WVI, ILS 32R NUQ. Planned to fly an approach at SNS, but we were unable due to an airshow. Definitely a bit rusty on IFR ops, so good to get some practice. Dan as a first-time safety pilot.
Dan, Chad Lunt and I flew up to Portland for a fishing trip with Adam Heder. IFR the whole way. Tried to get in a practice approach at Aurora, but they were landing the opposite direction, so I flew the visual.
Flew home from Portland, IFR. We took the coastal route due to icing concerns. Ended up being mostly VMC on the coast. GPS 31 practice approach at KPAO.
Dropped off 4WR for annual. Rob Curle flew a WVFC 182 up and brought me home. He flew a couple of practice approaches on the way home and as he was intercepting the ILS at Lincoln, we got to watch a couple of U-2s fly the pattern and land at Beale AFB.
Picking up N4WR from annual. Doug Allred flew Rob Curle and myself up for lunch at Auburn. I was safety pilot for a couple of approaches with Doug on the way up.
Legoland trip with the family. Entered the clouds around Bakersfield and picked up some ice over the Grapevine. The most I've ever had. Flew the ILS 24 at CRQ down to 300'. One of my more sloppy ILS approaches, unfortunately. :-/
Delayed our return trip one day due to a crazy storm in Northern CA on Sunday. Climbed out through a cloud layer in SD. Nasty headwinds the whole way. Re-entered the clouds on descent and picked up trace ice. Flew the GPS 31 at PAO.
Visited Fritz Glasser at Gnoss to check out his A36 and Avidyne avionics. Ate lunch at the Two Niner Diner in Petaluma. Buzzed Andrew Foley's baseball game in Benicia on the way home.
Flew home from SLC. Tom Wagner flew back with us just for fun, and took a commercial flight home from OAK. Dropped off my dad and Tom in Napa before heading home.
Flew with the family out to Castle Air Force Base to go to the aviation museum. We met up with the Haines family there. Had the door pop after takeoff on the return flight and had to circle back and land to close it. That scared Max!
Sophia and I flew to Vegas for the weekend, mainly to see Hamilton, but also to just check out Vegas. We dropped off the boys with my parents in Concord before we flew down.
Flew home from Minden. Decided to fly over Lake Tahoe. It was smoky due to fires and we had a very near mid-air collision with another plane over Spooner Pass. Terrifying. Shortly thereafter visibility dropped further and I picked up an IFR clearance.
Joe, RJ (from Tesla) and I picked up Dad in Concord and then flew to Eugene for an amazing Stanford football game. Popped through a layer on departure from PAO, and descended through a layer into EUG. Both legs were IFR.
