No flying today. It just looked too smoky up there from all the wild fires. ATIS said the visibility was 6sm, but I didn’t really buy it. It was mighty hazy on the ground and looked worst up above. Drew said it was clear above about 6000 ft, but I didn’t thing I would be able to see a clear horizon even from up there. It was hard enough just to see the hills across the highway at work! My first NO GO decision!
To make up for it I put in some time on the flight simulator at home. I hooked the flight yoke back up and practiced some slow flight and stalls. Just for the fun of it I landed at SFO. This was probably my best landing to date, so maybe the slow flight practice helped some. More likely, it was my focus on trying to keep the air speed at a constant 60kts with full flaps. It’s much easier to judge and adjust my landing point if I keep my airspeed constant.
Hopefully the air will clear up by Monday for my next lesson.