Weathered out again

Driving the baby to daycare this morning, it looked bad – low fog. Called up the ATIS at Van Nuys, and confirmed a 200 foot ceiling – not exactly VFR weather. Hopefully it would burn off in time for a 4:30 lesson. In fact, it did just that. I checked throughout the day, and the ceiling started going up. By 3:00, it was FL120, 4 miles visibility haze. Marginal, but flyable.

I headed to the airport to preflight before Kent showed up. Marv was out for more surgery, and I just couldn’t wait. By the time he showed, and we got airborne, things were deteriorating rapidly. I did my run-up and after a brief wait for a few Learjets (they always seem to get priority over Cessnas), was cleared for takeoff on 16R. Handled everything on my own, including takeoff roll (actually kept it on the centerline) and getting airborne. Even asked for (and got) closed pattern traffic.

Just as we made our turn downwind, and just shy of pattern altitude, I realized there was something I couldn’t see – the airport. We decided to do a touch n’ go and go around one more time. Got more of a hang of the approach procedure, round out and flare, and just about landed alone. Kent just had to help at the last second. Back up, and the weather was even worse than the first time. Decided to make it a full stop. Bounced the landing this time – another good experience, but not very pretty. Taxied back and logged a WHOPPING .3 hours in my logbook. For a city that has such great weather, this is really starting to eat my lunch for me.

.3 hours/5.0 total