Today's simple flight made not totally simple.

I have a meeting with a client in Torrance. LVK to TOA is pretty much GPS direct, with a small diversion for the shoreline transition near LAX.

Unfortunately yesterdays clear skies have turned to not just IFR (Sloppy is VFK only, but you guessed that already), but below IFR minimums. I overheard several pilots telling ATC that they would have to call home to get recommendations.

Anyway, after a less sloppy preflight and departure, including a stop at the smoothy shop next to the airport open at 5AM? I launched with the hope that the weather would lift on the way. The flight down was one of the best ever for trips to the southland. Being early I followed the hills of the west side of the valley, with out the later in the day turbulence and was treated to some wonderful early morning colors reflecting off the worn hillsides. It was reminiscent of the desert southwest in the morning.

After getting a good look at the LA Basin, and hearing the before mentioned radio calls it was apparent the TOA was not to be the first stop. A little back and forth with ATC and VNY was selected with it's clear skies and large unfamiliar runway (better large unfamiliar than small in this case).

So now here I sit, not too sloppy, at Raytheon; wifi, coffee in hand and work to do. Not bad.

Two last things on how the transition to a new destination was made less sloppy. The radio, I've always enjoyed the radio part of flying and feel I have a pretty good and professional tone when using it. As I've read and observed, good radio will get you good treatment and patience fro the very busy controller. Next, the autopilot; vectors, altitude changes, getting new airport info, radio calls. All made easy with auto flying the plane. The more I fly the more consider this required equipment.(I know 50nm Saturday burger runs are different than 300nm business trips)

One of the usual suspects for being sloppy, at anything, is a lack of doing. As a recent Usenet poster stated being a successful long term aircraft renter is both daunting and rare. Just this week the plane I was planning on using for two future trips removed from the line, and an expired security badge preventing me from accessing the other club I can rent from. Fortunately I've managed to switch to another plane on one of the trips, but the other is looking more like a driving trip at this point.

Combine the possible unavailability with the daily minimums that preclude the use of rentals for family trips and it's just hard to keep myself in the air.

Thankfully I've been able to add some clients out of the local area and have been doing business related (read: free) flying.

My hope/plan is to continue to add enough of those kind of clients to justify( to me at least ) the purchase or share of plane.

Hi my name is David, and I'm a sloppy pilot...

The twelve step analogy wears thin even after one sentence. It's not where I want to go.

What that is, for me, is to be more of an “artful pilot”. An artful pilot is pushing for more, trying to improve themselves on each visit to the cockpit.

Another aspect of the artful pilot is awareness. I’ve seen this on the tarmac, the pilot who starts the preflight 100 yards away from the plane. They are already taking in the scene, looking for the large details. Condition of the tie down, aircraft exterior, ground, etc.

The sloppy pilot drives to the plane without a glance, is already loading the aircraft, dropping the flaps and missing something along the way.

Nothing serious has happened, no "Never Again" kind of moment. I just know I can and should do better.

Next time out I’m going to try for former instead of the latter, let’s see what happens….