So I finally went on my first flight as a Private Pilot! One of my buddies called and wanted to have lunch so I suggested we do that then go on a short flight since he had never been on a small aircraft before and seemed interested in doing so.

After work, I met him at the 94th Aero Squadron for lunch (a great place to eat off the runway regardless if you are into planes or not). After that we went over to my FBO and I prepped the plane for a trip to Oxnard. Oxnard is only about a 25 minute flight but it was about 20 degrees cooler than Van Nuys was.

I was concerned about the visibility due to the fires but our trip to the west was hardly affected. We took off with a right crosswind departure  and followed the 101 straight to Oxnard. The whole trip I warned my friend that we might have a rough landing since it’s been about 3 weeks since I last flew. On a long final approach, the tower told me I was a bit high and offered me a go-around which I kindly declined. I was used to coming in high and knew I had more than enough runway. Not only was it a good landing but it was a greased landing. The plane didn’t even feel like it made contact with the ground.

After a short break and a drink, we took off towards Simi Valley and went direct to Van Nuys. I am embedded a video of the landing at Oxnard. Sorry for the music but there was so profanity being tossed around and I would like to keep the videos classy.