Wed 24th April
Didn't sleep well, too excited after wonderful flight (I'm like a little kid at times), and also had a mild stomach upset (too much lunch in Santa Barbara?). Didn't feel that great in the morning today, but flying to Catalina with Sergio, a CPL with about the same number of hours as me; met him a few days ago here, and he too likes to fly with someone else and chat, so planned to go together. So I figured I'd be safe to fly with someone else along. Had the instrument R22, which I'd never flown, so Sergio flew us out. Nearly didn't go as it was raining!!!!!! Not allowed; this is sunny southern California, not the UK. Having discovered you can phone and get a wx brief and talk to a Real Person, not like in the UK, I now make the most of it. I phoned and said although all TAFS and METARs looked fine, it was raining hard, and did he know anything. He gave me latest reports, of a low to the west, with details of cloubase etc, and it sounded OK - Catalina's only about 30 miles anyway. So Sergio flew us over the ocean to this beautiful island, with a runway on a hill at 1600 ft - slopes at both ends and must be hairy for f/w, as Flying Lawyer pointed out. By the time we got there the sun was shining, and we had lunch looking out over this absolutely beautiful island. Then I flew us back; by now I was feeling better, or I did as soon as I started flying anyway. Managed to get all the radio calls right and land without scaring either myself or Sergio. A good day.
I'm doing an hour's night flying over the city with an instructor tonight, just to see what it's like. Tomorrow I'm going on the Robinson factory tour; I may fly the 0.3 hr to Torrance to save a long drive, other than that I'm having a day off flying; I've done about 42 hours since I've been here and I'm really really tired. But less than a week to go, and so much I still want to do!