Samurai Husky

Turns out the heat in the #4 cylinder was due to a faulty temperature probe; We were watching the temps bounce from 500F down to 420F and all over the place in seconds. So either the cylinder is bad and is overheating to the point where the probe is fried; Or just the probe is fried. Lastly, the date has been set for my club PPL check ride. July 25th. If i pass that, then i have sign off for the FAA PPL Check ride. Though i need something like 90 minutes of hood time between now and then :/ My CFI and I have a few lessons booked between now and then to simulate the checkride.. I see a light at the end of the tunnel! Finally!

Then Whats this? https://www.caviceprotection.com/products-services/ice-protection-systems/mooney-fiki

LOL,. you mean the one written by my CFI

yep; I was trying to find the actual requirements. Maybe it wasnt a rocket with FIKI it was probably just TKS.

oh thats good; I thought it was like $1500 per re-rig and that it should be done every annual or as needed. Time to update the spreadsheet; Though I would still do the O2 of the O1... because I like shiny glass.

Yea, i guess i worded that wrong; TKS is a technology, FIKI is just a certification.

@aviatoreb I guess you need to define why you want FIKI. Its either you know you want to fly into it or you accidentally fly into it; The Stock TKS system is the latter, its good for something like 45mins of de-ice, enough time to either climb up or turn around and go home. The problem i see is that i have yet to see more then 1 Rocket for sale that had FIKI and it was up in the 200's; All of the other ones were simply TKS or nothing. Even TKS on a Mooney has been hard to come by. Adding it really isnt an option, adding TKS is something like 35k adding FIKI was something like 65k (dont quote me on that, its just what i have gleemed off of other website posts.). Operating costs will be higher on the Cirrus; non turbo annuals will run about $2500 if nothing is really wrong, The turbo is about 4k. You have to fly disciplined in that you fly at 75% power or lower or you burn up cylinders faster. Up front costs will be a lot more because its simply a newer plane; Most of these planes are 2005 or newer. Where a Rocket you are looking at a plane that was built in the 80's up to the early 90's when the base model 'j' was discontinued and replaced by (someone step in, i think it was the ovation); You can trade the mainenance costs of the Mooney Landing Gear with the 10yr Parachute repack which runs 12-15k. I figure in 10yrs the re-rigging of the gear on the Mooney will cost about that. Which brings me to the next point; If you are flying into FIKI then you will be super happy you have the Parachute, so when you look at the value of your life, acquisition costs are not as important. In general its something I thought i would suggest since I started exactly where you are now and now have come full circle. I had the same mind set, buy something cheaper so my monthly payments would be lower, or if something doesnt work out then at least i can write off the loss. Now I more of the mind set of, what do i feel more comfortable flying. So why do i still consider a Mooney when I lay out everything for the Cirrus? Simple, a 'J' can be had for 100k and burns 9.5/gh at 150kts TAS. If oil suddenly blows up back to $100/b and Avgas goes up to $8/g, then that 9.5gh will mean a lot more than burning 12.5-14. I have also considered the Ovation2; But the one that came up for sale that i was interested in just went under contract. I see the Ovation2 as a good comparison to the Cirrus SR22, I was leaning more towards the Sr22 because i already have the training in the 20, so its better as fresh ink to fly what you know and then move up; The Ovation would probably still be over my head for another 20-25 hours. The 22 i can walk right into and be good to go. I dont want to walk into a plane where I can afford the payments, but then it sits on the ground because i cant put gas in the tanks. AT everyone else: Not yet... I was traveling for the last month; I literally did my solo work and was off again. I was going to ask during the weekend of the 4th, but then I got busy again. I just got back on Saturday and spent the weekend catching up on sleep. Today i had my first Check Ride Prep lesson; I did well enough that my instructor already put in for the club check ride. So we are getting close; I was told maybe 2 weeks... Actually the 'J' i was looking at is the: http://www.controller.com/listings/aircraft/for-sale/1434603/1986-mooney-m20j I like that it has no paint at all, means that there is nothing to hide, and i think based on the post the guy is saying that for the 90k he will include the paint job with my colors. So the hope would be to use toughGuard and do up an acclaim style paint job. 'Something' like this: though i dont like red, so maybe where the red is go with sliver, and where the silver is go with either a nice royal blue or red... Dont know; haven't really thought much about it other than the 15mins i spent googling paint jobs. It only has 300hrs on the engine and when i calculated out the UL based on the logs i think it was up in the 900's; Like 945 or something like that. So really good on the UL It also has no avionics, so i would probably redo the panel, but since it has no avionics i'm not paying up for them either.

As that famously quoted person that started on the same tack as you did, This is what i have learned in my 3 months of GA and being on this forums. 1. Get your PPL before you start looking at planes. You might be more than 6 months out before you even get your license. So why look now, you will just go nuts; You will be amazed on how many lessons are cancelled because of weather or rental maintenance or any number of factors. There was someone else on this forums that bought a plane and sat on it for a year before he could fly it. 2. As others have said, the Rocket is a great concept, but really you might as well look at a SR22G2 for about the same price. The difference is you will get FIKI, a parachute, same UL, and TAS of about 165knts at 15-16/gh. On the top end you can see 180's at full power and 23/gh You can use its little brother the SR20 as a trainer like I did. While i dont out right recommend learning in a SR20 as it will take considerably more time to learn in, it is doable and the cross training from a SR20 to a SR22 once done is like 2-3 hours. 3. Weather is no Joke. Landing with cross wind is very challenging for a new pilot, even now i have a 7kt XWC personal min on my 70ft wide runway. Also the bay area has a nasty marine layer that moves in and can sit around for weeks. Meaning with out IFR you might not be able to land here until past Noon when it burns off. There have been many accidents in the Livermore pass because people try to duck under the marine layer to land at Palo alto; Those hills are anywhere between 1000ft and 2800ft. If you have to be 500ft below the clouds and 1000ft above 'populated area' it means you need at least 1500ft of clearance, which means you are cutting grass if you are off. Overall the Rocket is very interesting, purchase price is good, the performance is great, the running costs are pretty low, But I personally ruled it out after a lot of debating. I just didn't want to give up the UL and distance to gain an extra 20mins. Really 20 mins in the air is nothing like 20mins on the ground. I will take the extra 20mins in the air any day! Then tack on the number of hours needed to be safe and I just kinda gave up; You really dont understand the difference in 50knts until you experience it and then hit turbulence. 4. You can always move up later. Focus on getting something you can handle then worry about getting something else. Landing a plane is hard; Landing a complex plane is harder. Personally right now Im looking for a J 82' and up or a SR22 NA. but until i am PPL its just looking.

ok; i will give it a shot the next time i am out; I already had the talk with my instructor before i left and that was what he recommended. He was the one that said to not pull power that it will keep the engine cooler. Maybe its because its a constant rate propeller, idk. So next time out will be my CFI check ride. If i Pass that then i can do the club checkride. If i pass that then its FAA check ride But i am in chicago all next week soooooo Now that i can do steep turns at least 4 out of 5 times i feel a lot better. BTW.... Any dates on 'when samurai husky become a pilot'

I was told that reducing power would reduce airflow and fuel flow and that was the reason to run at full power; At 65% power the engine will be running at about 10.5gph where at full power it burns 15. I tried to find something in the POH, but they do not have a recommendation in there. However, that doesn't mean that other planes cannot benefit from pulling power. My guess is if the plane is under powered and the TAS difference between 65% and 100% is a very small amount, then i can see where pulling power would help; On the SR20, it was a difference was a good 30knts or more, so i can also see the benefit there.

I have been doing an insane amount of research; These are just a few items i would drop in. 1. You really want the SR22-G3 or higher, otherwise you fuel burn is higher and it doesnt handle nearly as well - spoken from experience. 2. If you get the Turbo SR22, Expect to pay about 4k per year extra in maintenance costs. This is because you burn through cylinders and exhausts pretty regularly. If you dont believe me look at all the SR22's for sale on controller. Almost all of them have had a full top overhaul prior to the 2000hr OH time. You can also join copa and see all the people complaining about it. 2a. Parts are really not that cheap; You cannot have it serviced at a Cirrus Service Center and use non Cirrus parts. It is not unheard of to hear of 8k-15k annuals. Average annual if nothing is wrong is about 4k. 3. To preserve your cylinders you really need to fly at 65-75% power at all times. Which means your TAS is actually a lot lower than you think you will get or you pay in cylinders. On the flip side. You get a parashoot which could save your life. That parashoot needs to be repacked every 10years at a cost of about 15k. There are cargo conversions to take out the back seats. It adds a ton of cargo room and 30lbs of useful load. So if its just 2 people it works out really well.

New post after follow ups. Next Chapter of "As the Husky fly's" FINAL XC to KSNS So today is what i would call a day of 'almosts' The first one. I almost didnt go. My plane was booked, my CFI was booked. Everything looked like a no go. But late last night someone cancelled on the other Cirrus and opened a window of oppertunity. I sent my CFI a email and even through he was 100% booked, said he would give me 15 minutes and review my flight plan. Everything checked out and i was 'released' but then....... winds were 35015 way above my sign off for XW, but it was still early and i know that the winds start to change the later it gets. After about 40 mins i called the ATIS and they said 32015. So good to go, but i was a little nervous the whole trip about 'what ifs' Just in case i looked at Livermore and SJC and both were reporting winds well within my tolerances and figured if i couldnt make it at KPAO i could divert there and wait until past 7 when the wind is supposed to die down a lot. Literally as i was zooming down the runway they updated the winds to 33017..... crud..... at this point i figured it would be better to go and come back later when the winds had a chance to realign, no use in trying to force the plane back down. Took off and the flight to KSNS was pretty uneventful. about 1000ft up they were exactly what i had on my flight plan 27008. When i got to Watsonville things changed,and there was a finger of clouds blocking my path to the airport; I couldn't even see the airport. Turns out, i almost missed it because It was closer and farther left than i thought. But there were still clouds. i turned west to get around the finger and by the time i got there i could see through them, so not what me and my CFI considered to be clouds. I was already in contact with the tower and he said to report mid field for runway 26. Well because of the clouds i was all turned around and still high. By the time i identified where 26 was, i was less than 1 mile from the numbers and no where near mid field. So i immediately turned down wind. I could have flown over the field and made left traffic like the actual airport directory says to do, but the Tower explicitly said to make right traffic.... sooo., i did. Tower saw me and just said 'turn for the numbers and make in, clear to land 26' knowing that not only had i failed to report, but also that i was dang close to the runway. So i kept flying out until i thought i was far enough out to make a tear drop since i ended up to close to the runway. I was still bleeding off speed and the winds were causing things to be very bumpy, 27015g17; so i was bouncing around on my turn, trying to kill speed and Alt, trying to get flaps in, making sure i was coordinated, making sure i wasn't slow.... basically making sure i didn't end up like that girl from Houston because with the wind, all my instruments were all over the place. About 1.5miles out and 800ft everything calmed down and i was fine. Landing was uneventful, thank god the runway is 150ftx5000ft and i could float longer and leave some power on for the wind correction. Tower asked intentions, i said taxi back for return to Palo Alto with flight following, he said ok and didnt make me talk with ground. Or at least didn't tell me to. He said taxi via Golf Charlie as i was still on the runway. I think he expected me to take off before crossing 31, but i stopped asked for permission to cross 31, but forgot to say where i was. I just said 'holding short of 31 permission to cross'; He just said '2 papa golf holding short of runway 31 at charlie clear to cross'; So oops for got the at charlie. Taxi back and took off after getting my squawk code and watching someone else land. This is the part of the trip i wish i could take back. On leaving i ran into those same clouds, but they were broken. I ended up going between the clouds that might have been a little closer than i should have. But i dont have a tape measure so i cant be sure. I should have kept turning west and staying below 800ft until i was sure, but for some reason i thought i would be above them before i got there. They were only 50ft thick, so really thin. Either way should have played it safer there. Got norcal on 133.0 on the way out; He was not a very nice person. I missed a call twice, because there was someone else he was talking to going to palo alto with 'golf' as the last digit. He asked 'are you following shoreline to palo alto' Well i thought he was talking to the other guy about shoreline amphitheater which is a VFR marker to KPAO. Turns out he was talking to me about actually following the coast.... I asked if the call was for 532pg and he said 'thats you right?' 'i said yes, repeat the last call' and answered him. Well at this point between the winds leaving palo alto, the winds at SNS, the clouds the missed calls etc. I figure i should do less damage an just head straight back via Lexington reservoir. I orignally planned to follow the coast farther and take pictures, but things were just not going right the whole trip and decided not to force things. So thats what i did. Once handed off to norcal on 120.1 i had another guy that was mean. Coming off the hill line i was told to stay at or above 4500 which i was already at 4500. Then he said no and meant the other guy. Then I got another call this one for sure me, that said at or below 4500; So said ok an stated to descend. Then he said what are you doing i said at or above 4500. I finally just said 'THIS IS 5-3-2 Pappa Golf AT 4 thousand 5 hundred. Well the traffic ended up passing 1400ft below me, so i got the next call '2PG talk to moffet' said the numbers really fast and didnt say the first '1' just 19.5 then ignored me when i read back the frequencies wrong (because i wasn't expecting to talk with moffet)' Broke out my map found the frequency 119.55 (so not only did he not say the 1 but also the other 5); Got Moffet who was busy but actually really nice. There were a bunch of people coming in at once. First he told me to slow down for a Cessna and that i had 50knts on it.... I was like ooook so i started to slow down, got 1 notch of flaps in and pulled some power, but that didnt really help because i was at 4500 longer than i wanted to be because of norcal. Then he just said, stay east of 83 you can fly over the field. Excellent. So i continue my decent which i had to 'rush' because now i am over moffet field at 2000ft; 5 miles from KPAO's 31 and TPM of 800ft. after about 10 sec he said to talk with Palo Alto; (thank god); Call Palo Alto, and simple 'make straight in for 31, number 2 behind Cessna on final' Then some how the plane gods aligned and some how i nailed the entire approach. Was 100knts and 800ft over the amphitheater, 500ft 80knts at the chevron markers where we normally turn final for right traffic patterns, 0 wind it was great. But as soon as i passed 200ft alt Wham, wind. 33015. I was like great.... But something i should handle. Left a little power on and unfortunately didn't have my right wing down enough. I caught a guest in the flare that lifted the wing and i touched down on my left wheel first. I immediately knew i didn't have the wing down and corrected, the plane eventually out and while i was left of the center line by about 10ft, i was able to regain control and slow it down. Though i was a little worried there for a second, so another 'almost' Overall, not overly happy with this trip, but I guess not all flights are going to go quite as planned. I didnt get very good pictures because i was either busy dealing with norcal or figuring out clouds; so i only had time on the way out to take some pictures. Picture 1 Leaving San Jose - In the lower left you can see the new Apple HQ being built. Picture 2 Those Damn Clouds; You can see the finger of clouds dead ahead, they are basically pointing at the airport that i almost missed; The airport was VFR skys clear.. Picture 3 - Pretty? Picture 4 - getting out of dodge before i break something.

Truns out there is a squawk on the plane for that CH; So it wasnt the only one running into the issue. No on the cowl flaps; yes on mixture. I had already put it to full rich. Power reductions are actually discouraged as you want maximum air flow through the engine. So maintain alt and accelerate is what i was told. My CFI said i did the right thing, just that if it went any higher i should have turned around and headed back.

ha, I imagine the central valley is pretty similar to that of middle Nebraska. So it really wasnt all that scenic. Those pictures were just the highlights. It seemed once i got to altitude i was coming back down and starting my landing procedures. Our mountains are small, I think the largest peak in all of the bay area is 4400ft. Otherwise they are down around 2200-3500. If you want to see snow, you need to go to Tahoe or Mt. Shasta (which is 1 giant mountain surrounded by flat-ish land, kinda like a small Mt Fuji). So in general you are flying at reasonable heights. I was debating which way i should fly today. I think going down i will just go direct since the ocean will be on the left side. Might come back Via VOR along the ocean so i can grab some good pics with the sun hanging low.

Well, just flew in from my cross country and boy are my arms tired.... But in all seriousness, things went rather well, my stories are pretty uneventful but i will share anyway. First leg was to los banos. I decided to go though SJC airspace. So on take off they handed me right to nor cal they cleared be through moffet and san jose. At one point they had me level off at 3500 then handed me off to the next guy that cleared me to my 5500.... In all honestly, very uneventful. I thought it was going to be crazy like when we go to KRHV and you are talking to moffet tower, then SJC tower,crossing mid field then switching to KRHV, but nope. I went farther along and they told me to go higher, so instead of 5500 i ended up at 6500. At one point they asked if i was going to turn, because at that alt normally people just cut right over the mountains, i said 'nope, im a student and they want me to follow the valley road' he laughed and said he understood. Landed in Los Banos with no problems at all, its a narrower runway than PA, but longer. I took that oppertunity and left the power on a little longer and flew it to the ground nice and easy. Would have been perfect if the runway wasnt all chewed up like a east coast highway. I thought i landed funny but nope... Took off again headed for SAC, the temp wasnt oppressive.... yet..... Climbed up to my 7500 and thought, man its still toasty, sure enough OAT was still in the upper 20's C. But i said i was going to 7500, so there i stayed. Got to SAC and boy is that a interesting airport. 3 runways in a tee-pee type pattern. Called in expecting runway 32 because of winds being 300@5, but they considered that 'light' and said go to left pattern 20. 20 is huge..... Made my landing and started to taxi to transient. Let me say this,. The ksac guy was SUPER NICE. He was doing both tower and ground. I said i was new to the area and he gave me full taxi instructions. Some other guy landed and he congratulated him on his solo (no call signs just very casual); I jumped in and said i was on my solo XC, he congratulated me on that. Though here is the fun part: "Congratulations you two on your firsts, but why would you choose a day when its 110 on the ramp!" other pilot "got to want it" Me "im just here for my $1000 hamburger" tower "uh, bad news, I think the restaurant closed at 3" me "Whatttttt? ohhhh nooooooo" Tower "let me check" few minutes later "yea, thats going to be more than a $1000 hamburger, they are closed, you can still tie down and park if you want" Me "yea, its like 120 in here, i need to cool off" So I tie down and went into the terminal. Pulled out my phone and see that there is a burger king about 1/2mile away. I said screw it im getting my burger. So i walk to the burger king in 110F sweating bullets, got my burger, fries and shake and walked back. Get the plane all set to go and its the same guy on the radio. Tower "Cirrus 490CD clear to taxi to runway 20, also cleared through the intersection in route. Sorry about the hamburger' Me "Forget that, I got my hamburger, i just had to walk a mile to get it!" Tower "lol, If i known that, you could have borrowed my suburban!" Me "NOW YOU TELL ME! you guys need to up date the airport director 'hamburger transportation available, contact tower' Tower "hahaha, but you need to leave your plane keys with me' Me 'ok, its not my plane anyway' Was basically how it went on my taxi to the runway. On leaving i thanked him for the hospitality, he said to come back soon. Overall cant say enough on how nice it was there. KPAO is so busy its like a international airport. Very text book, be on your game type of place. This was so laid back it was refreshing. now the second part is a good lesson in density altitude. On leaving the temp was 42C; This thing took off like i had a load of bricks in the back. It was then i noticed that my #4 CHT was getting hot. So i leveled out a little bit. Still hot, like 430 hot. I increased speed until it was down to 400 then started to climb again. I was about 4 miles from the airport and still only at 900ft. I called norcal said i was going up to 6500. But the CHT just stayed hot, so i would back off the climb again. I had to maintain about 130kph to keep the temps from climbing. At 4000ft the OAT was still 37C, but at least the CHT started to back down; At 6500 it was down to 370 and all was good. Temps continued to drop the closer i got to the bay area. When i landed it was 21C and it felt like a winter storm to me when i opened the door. I managed to botch my first landing at kpao. Winds were 33015; Overall i think part of the problem is that i am not flaring to a steep enough angle, which causes these bounces. 2nd time was better, was still flat still got a little bounce going, so i just pulled back on the yoke and it stopped and came down normal. So i think thats the problem. Overall i think it was a good day. Now for the bad news..... Because my plane was overheating, i ended up finishing the last leg well ahead of schedule.... So I have to do another XC to finish it off. Which is a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. I was told to go to Salinas this time, which is only 51nm away and a pretty flight along the ocean. As always, Obligatory pictures; i dont have any good ones from early on; It was just so hot and hazy you couldnt really see anything. So these are the keepers

yea, i think that was my mistake; the wind was coming from the left/center; which is unusual, normally its always coming from the right. So i didnt have my left wing down which explains the ending up right of the center line.

having a steerable nose wheel would have saved me about 3 hours of hobbs time

Separate post for the original topic. So i went out today and boy, trim is everything. I think that pretty much solved all my right turn problems. I didn't figure out the exact trim level because it was windy and required constant adjustment depending if i was with the wind or into the wind, but i was easily able to keep it +/-50ft. Once or twice i scraped the lower boundary for 100ft, but recovered before the end of the turn. With not having to chase and focus on how hard i was pulling, i was able to react quicker and more accurately to the changes. For instance, i started one turn at 65% power at 120knts. Well that quickly dropped down to 115knts and was going lower. Because i wasn't chasing my altitude i was able to add in some power get that speed back up and keep turning with out dropping down to bad. On a few of the turns i even for got to roll out and ended up running into my own wake. Good thing you guys told me about that because each time i hit it I was like 'what was that... oh yea' I still cant use the horizon as a guide, even when i was out in the central valley it was just too inaccurate for me. But scanning my speed, my angle and my altitude (not my VSI, because that it too laggy) i was able to keep a lot of it in check. Early on the wind was only like 8knts, but when i got out to the tracy area it spiked up to 23knts, but consistent, so it was not choppy at all (except over the hills); I think the bonus of the day was my landing back at the airport. When i left the winds were only 33012 for runway 31. by the time i came back they were 30017 on the ground, On final my wind speed indicator said 30024; While it wasnt a perfect landing by any means, high wind has always given me issues. Today not so much; I had it on the center line and used a combination of crabbing and some slipping, idk why but that just come more natural. Entered level flight a little high and had about 10% power on, then lowered it to 5%, plane floated a little and then came down nice and easy on its own and basically did a soft field landing. Pulled the power and the yoke back and coasted. The only problem i had with the landing is that after touch down i started to get pushed right and was about 10ft off the center line before i realized i was still trying to use rudder to steer and not brakes. Started to use brakes and was able to regain the center line and actually stop the plane (i also wasn't slowing down fast enough ) All in all I think it was a really good day!.

Everything i read says you (the plane or the wing) needs to be stalled and the plan needs to be uncoordinated. A wing can stall and drop, but from what i understand it will not inherently enter a spin unless you are uncoordinated. The plane doesnt want to stall, its the pilot that makes it stall. There was a good video online about turning stalls for the check ride.

I ended up getting teh Acc U Rate® Premium; It was the only thing in stock close enough to get today. The ones at CVS and Walgreens were slammed in revies for being in accurate. This one cost $24 plus $5 shipping from amazon. Ok; I am always coordinated, so i dont think i would have entered a spin; there was also no buffeting which i am normally used to feeling. Either way without thinking i acted appropriately, released pressure on the stick to drop the nose, left rudder (opposite) wings level, full power, pull up to level. It wasnt super smooth, but the steps were right.

I tried going around several times the last time i went out; Except about half way though the second turn the wing dropped and for some reason i thought i was entering a spin; I asked my instructor and I was doing 105knts when i looked down. He said i wasnt stalled and so wasnt entering a spin; He didnt have an explanation on why the wing dropped. What ever it was, it freaked me out. After that happen i tried one more time and gave up because it was too busy. After watching that video, im always a little paranoid when i feel the wing drop for what ever the random reason is. IDK, maybe i will get a gopro tomorrow and show you all what it looks like. I wonder if i can have my checkride done out in the middle of nowhere, Like Modesto. That would take a million things off my mind with the crazyness of the bay area.

Its electric trim and incredibly sensitive and the trim levels are behind the stick, so they are not the easiest to see; So i have 0 chance of setting it while in the turn. I wish it had a trim wheel because i think i would get a lot more feedback from that then a tiny little multi-directional switch. Basic example below, through its from the right seat. I never tried trimming it out before, I have always mussel it; So it will be interesting to see if i can trim prior to rolling in and seeing if that makes a difference. Per the instructions i enter in at 65% power and 120kts. I get about 3/4 around and things go fubar from there. IDK, i will try it again out in the Tracy area, maybe it will be easier out there. My only problem is, i dont know where the DME will tell me to do it. If its over LVK then im hosed.

I have 9 hrs PIC right now; I need 3 more hours of XC (5hrs total); I have 2 hrs hobbs (thats what they use right?) in my last XC. So yea, from a FAA standpoint i will be done with all of my requirements after this. I have to meet the clubs expectations prior though. I will talk to my CFI about it. I still cant do a right hand steep turn within regs..... I always end up low. So i think there will be some more PIC time in there of just steep turns. Here's a question. Prior to rolling into the turn, If i trim back and push forward will i feel the load on the stick decrease as i slow down and start dropping? I dont know if I am explaining that right. The logic is, when i roll into the turn, at some point i need to start pulling back and keep pulling back in order to maintain level flight. By the time i am about 3/4 around i have a good 25lbs of back pressure on the stick. If i trim back and push forward so that i am providing say 15lbs of forward pressure during the turn, will i feel the pressure slowly release though the turn, which would be a good indication that i will need to start pulling back more? I realize that rolling out i will need to be extra careful as there is the chance of ballooning depending on how far its trimmed back, which is why i am choosing something in the middle. Depending on how hot it is and if i hit a thermal, i am normally about 125ft-300ft off (300ft is when i fly over a lake or something and the thing just drops); some times i can do 1 with in regs. but its rare. I just dont have the confidence to pull one off on the day of the test.

I cant, i need to save my PTO time for the week of the check ride. As it is i am taking a half day off to do this. Right now the legs look like this: 73, 92, 71. I need this to take 3 hours otherwise i need to go out on a 3rd XC, so i think climbing is a good excuse to burn time.

Any recommendations on a oximeter? Do they all require something on your finger? I have been searching amazon for one for a while and just dont know that much about them. Overall it sounds like high is the best way to go, So i think that settles my direction of flight. I was going to fly from KPAO>KSAC>KLSN>KPAO. But going in that direction takes me through livermore and cant climb that high until about 25nm out when i finally get out of the bravo. If i head south first i can climb over SJC and stay above the approach. On the way back i can time my decent so that i cross under each ceiling. Welp, back to the drawing board as they say