November 172 Hotel Golf

It was another busy day for MrGrumpy at the CubeFarm. Today was a little different as he was out and about a little during the day, that was much better than yesterday where he was in SolitaryCubefinement almost all day.

Normally he does not get chance to escape from the CubeFarm, so does not really know what the weather is like outside, it is generally a blue sky with sunshine. Today it was very hot as he drove back to the CubeFarm after meeting up with MrCrazyRunner for lunch, the weather forecast suggests 27C (80F) but he thought it felt hotter than that.

MrGrumpy left work early tonight, he had still done 10 hours (9 if you take out the semi working lunch). He went with MrBombsAway to Palo Alto airport, where they went up flying in a Cessna 172. Firstly they went through all the pre-flight checks, which MrGrumpy found quite interesting, bit like an MOT before flying.

Once in the air and clear of the really restricted air space around SFO they climbed to about 3500 feet and MrBombsAway demonstrated some gentle and tight turns. Then it was time for MrGrumpy to have a try, initially he found it tricky to turn and maintain a constant altitude, but after a few left and right gentle and tight turns he was very slowly getting better. It was a real challenge to try and take in all the info and also keep an eye out for other aircraft, it was pretty quiet towards the coast and the fog bank below made it easier to spot other traffic.

They were quite a way from San Francisco but visible in the distance, was the Golden Gate bridge protruding from the fog.
After what seemed minutes but was about 40 mins, MrBombsAway got MrGrumpy to turn and head towards Mount Diablo whilst descending from 3500ft to 1500ft ready to hand over control for landing. MrGrumpy was pretty nervous to begin with but really enjoyed the flight and was thrilled at being able to take the controls. Slow flight (about 60mph was the worst bit, he was much happier at 90-100mph).

Today has been the high point of MrGrumpy's time in the USA so far. Many thanks goto MrBombsAway.