Here are some details:
Sept 12 to the Reno Air Races -
Lunch at the ribbon cutting ceremony at Paine Field with some delegates. Pick up Ryan Bielenda around 1:30 and about 85 degrees outside. Fuel up and around 2 pm, we're headed west side of Mt. Rainier southbound, slow climb up to 11,000 ft. passed Mt. Adams, Oregon border, The Dalles,and Redmond. We have to descend for a break at Lakeview, Oregon. This is where I flew in the 1992 Hang Gliding Nationals. Heading south, into California, and than Nevada. Storms ahead, we get flight following to navigate around Stead Field, Reno Airport then to Carson City with a good tailwind. This flight leg was 3.5 hrs, about 27 gallons. Ryan gets picked up by his buddy who will be getting married (he has other arrangements for getting home in a few days). I have a car and to go camp then to the Reno Air Races, Sept 13&14th. Great time here. Jeff Lavelle smokes his class with over 400 mph average lap time in his Glasair III. He was happy. Other races were also spectacular and met some great pilots and people like Aaron Pahs and other guys from Boeing. Terry, Bill, Dan, Keith and others flew down so we had a chance to visit.
Sunday to AZ -
Drop off the car and prepare for flight Carson City to Arizona. The plan is fairly direct to Prescott, AZ straight over high mountains and low valleys . Potty break at Beatty after 1.5 hrs, more very hot nothingland that is AWSOME then in the air again. I circle in some desert thermals. At this time, I think of a wire problem as a fuse is out. Turns out one of my fuses is too small and barely higher then the fuse amperage for a few minutes. I now know a better starting procedure in very high, hot places to use less voltage. I fly south of Las Vegas with flight following in contact with Centers. Flying further, overpass Kingman and under some nice cloud cover into Prescott airport for fuel at $5.69/gal. I squeeze in 21 gallons of fuel. Beatty to Prescott was about 2 hrs. I get a phone call from friend, Bill Comstock, who is hang gliding at Mingus Mt. with other buddies. Reminiscing my past life in Arizona, I fly a new course around the north side of Mingus Mt. low, past Jerome (a cool ghost town on the side of Mingus Mt.), then south in the Verde Valley over Cottonwood Airport. No gliders were there. I continue to Rimrock Airport and land, 30 minutes, to visit John and Julie for a few hours. They feed me a great meal than I notice the thunder clouds, with AUDIO switching the wind to the east so it's time to head towards Phoenix. It's only 34 minutes to Falcon field, Mesa where my mother, niece and nephew meet me, this lovely Sunday afternoon.
I had bought my mother a one way ticket from Seattle to Phoenix hoping to take her in the Glasair to Seattle but was having second thoughts. It was over 100 F outside and thinking of her squeezing into the plane, my thoughts were shifting to get her a commercial ticket and I would fly myself home. She will be 75 years old in November! Flying in the Glasair in turbulence isn't for everyone. I knew our plan was to leave mid day Tuesday, and it would be rough. Arizona is very hot. The plane is more like a tight racing offroad vehicle with bad suspension than a luxury bus. Mom was game and she had no trouble climbing in and out of the plane. She was ready and willing to go. Besides, she already told everyone she was going to fly with me (peer pressure). I could tell she wanted to give it a try. We were game.
Tuesday leave AZ to WA -
After mom's work with the Boeing wellness clinic, we get a ride with Ed to Falcon Field, Mesa A irport and try to depart as quickly as possible (100F + heat). We fly, 30 minutes to Wickenberg where the only cloud in the local sky is miraculously over the landing strip, and makes a shadow for us on the airport runway, tarmac and fuel pumps. I top off (last was Prescott) 9.6 gal @ $5.60/gal.
The next stretch is long. We talk to Albuquerque center, LA center, Joshua military radio and other areas as we head westbound. We have a headwind and dust below blowing from the west. All military restricted areas are HOT so we have to fly as south as Barstow, CA. We make it around the next restricted areas and over Tehachapi pass, the south end of the Sierra's, about 11K ft to the Sacramento Valley with flight following communication. It's smokey from the Yosemite fires recently. We fly over Porterville, Fresno and just keep heading north. My next way point was Lincoln Airport.
Mother asked if we should be looking for a place to stay or go eat? By this time, she's getting comfortable with Foreflight on the Ipad so I ask to look for an airport with yellow nearby (population=yellow), click on the airport and see what they have for food and lodging. Foreflight is such a great program for convenience. I see Columbia Airport where mom is looking. A quick deviation, we turn right to Columbia. It's getting near dusk when we land and tie down. We talk to a couple locals who are very kind. This flight leg was 3 hrs 50 minutes. What a cool place we land at!! The Cottage Inn hotel is walking distance and a Mexican restaurant a little further so we trek out staying off the nature trail as they said "there'd been a mountain lion out recently". It's a very nice walk into town, beautiful with fresh air and a full moon. We have a great dinner and a good sleep.
The next morning, we get up....whenever..., go to the plane and prepare for a 30 minute flight to Lincoln to fuel up ____gallons at $5.30/gal. The next airport north is Beale Air Force Base. We take off around 10 am and a few minutes we call the tower and they flight follow us northbound for a while. We fly direct to the west side of Mt Shasta, Siskiyou Oregon, Medford, the mountains north of there and decide on a last minute descent to Cottage Grove for lunch! What another beautiful place. We descend from 9,000 ft around the cumulus clouds and you can see the green landscape, rivers around the airport and planes getting ready for the morning. From Lincoln was about 2.5 hrs. We land, taxi in and talk with some guys who recommend a few restaurants. We walk off the airport grounds and have a great Thai lunch, then back to the airport. Cottage Grove is another nice place that I would recommend to land at.
From there, we fly 30 minutes to Albany for fuel, 18 gallons @ $5.49/gal to top off around 3:00 pm for our last leg home to Paine Field. Other planes have been flying around since the morning but we don't see many in the air, just on the radios and taking off/landing at the airports.
We stay below the clouds for a while leaving northbound from Albany but I can tell its smoother above, so we climb from 4,000 ft to about 6,000 ft and much smoother all the way, flying by Olympia talking with the tower, by Tacoma Narrows Airport, talking with the tower, flying down the Puget Sound even below 500 ft to look at the shoreline with no wind on the water for a while then back up 1500 ft across the water to Seattle. We fly into Paine Field and park the plane about 1hr 40 minutes later ~4:30 pm. We had a great flight.
No comments:
Post a Comment
I welcome your constructive idea's and comments, thanks.