Pascal DucheminKCCR KSTS KCCRFlight Following - scattered 4000' - -RA - landing CCR 260@16 G22
-----------------------
TAF was forcasting fairly low winds but scattered clouds at 4000 to 6000. My wife and I headed out to the north west and got contacted Travis approach for flight following. About half way, I could hear the ARIS for KSTS announcing sky clear. Our path was supposed to go over hills that were 2500 feet high, but I could see clouds in front of us around 4000. There were 2 options, fly though the valley and avoid the peaks or fly above the clouds. Even though the ATIS seemed OK at the destination, I still decided to deviate and fly through the valley. Oakland Center announced that there was a traffic right below me which he was not talking to. My wife spotted a helicopter for a few seconds, we stayed above it until cleared by approach to resume our descent.
At the airport (which had airlines terminal for Alaska, United and AA) we had lunch. During that time a small storm passed through, we had to wait for that to be over.
Radar showed that the storm was going east south East. Our way back was south east.
I decided to take off shortly after knowing that I could avoid the storm from the west if needed.
Shortly after take off, I could see the lilght rain spot (still good enough visbility and high enough clouds). I flew in between those rain spots but still got a little rain. I realized that I was still being deviated a little too much west and decided to head straight east an fly from a valley to another one. Our alititude being 1500, I and our path going through the Napa Class D airspace, I called out Oakland Center to confirm that I was cleared through calls D. My understanding was that if the controller does not say anything, in theory, I am clear to the transient airspace. Unfortunately the controller did not answer, I kept going until less than a mile from CLass D Napa when I heard the controller saying that I wasn't clear through it. I went around it and flew to KCCR.
By the time I arrive, the ATIS announced winds 260@16 with Gust 22, that is basically just around the crosswind limits. I was given runway 32R, which is the shorter runway, and parallel traffic landing at the same time. I purposely did an "arc" approach instead of the rectangle one in order to not get pushed too much towards the parallel runway. Landing was a little challenging, but uneventful.
This site uses cookies to maintain your authentication state, remember preferences, analyze traffic, and provide limited advertisement.
MyFlightbook Privacy Policy
