Birds, Rain and Wind
Another business trip to Southern California, this time to see a prospective new client and try to talk some sense into a current client.
The weather was going to be marginal, so Graeme drove to Placerville so I wouldn’t have to do an approach into Auburn or Truckee to get him. This way I could launch into low weather and fly into clear weather as we flew south. But I didn’t get off the ground before we had a bird strike. I didn’t feel or hear it, but I clearly saw it coming and there wasn’t anything I could do. Fortunately it was small bird, but I did abort the takeoff, shut down and inspect the propeller. I also had to clean the windshield and pull feathers and stuff off the wing.
We only had short bit of flying in rain before we broke out and had a dramatic flight with lots of different layers of clouds. We had a meeting in San Diego, then a meeting at Santa Monica airport. You may have noticed I don’t have many aerial shots of cities. For one, they don’t have the same allure to me as the mountains, and two, I’m usually too busy flying to take photos. Especially in the LA basin, where I don’t have a brain cell to spare while flying, watching for traffic and trying to stay on the ever-changing IFR routing they give me.
So this time I gave Graeme the camera, and he got some excellent shots of the LA area.
We then spent the night and headed out to Las Vegas for a quick meeting before heading home. I almost canceled because the winds were expected to be 50 mph by the afternoon. So we flew in early and expected to be out by 12 or 1 pm. It was calm when we landed, but by 11:00 am I was looking out the window and saying, “we really have to leave. “. Everyone would keep talking. I just had to interject, “I’m sorry, but I mean it. We really have to leave.”
We took off in a 35 knot wind, with a 20 knot crosswind component. I had the control wheel cranked over and rudder mashed. Everything was fine until the last few seconds before taking off, when the plane plane started going sideways. Luckily we were in the air by the time we ran out pavement or hit a taxi light. As we took off, as planned, one wing dipped significantly and we swung into a sideways crab down the runway.
As we got in the air we could see a massive dust storm approaching Las Vegas. I wish I could have gotten a photo, but I was extremely nervous trying to get above the Red Rocks area so we wouldn’t get slammed by a rotor. We did get one good drop and we both hit our heads. Later I asked Graeme if that scared him, and he said not really, it was that sideways takeoff that did. Luckily that was it, and soon we were at 12,000 feet where it was extremely slow going, but safe. For once I took the very long way home, over by Edwards Air Force base, into the Central CA valley, then up.
The first photo is mine, the others were taken by Graeme.
Southern Sierras
No idea where this is.
OK, now I'm serious. I have no idea where this is.
A Quick Trip to Vegas, LA then Home
The recession has put a few of my clients that are selling their businesses into a holding pattern, and I thought it would be a good idea to visit them and see how they are doing. So I made a circuit of three clients in Las Vegas (Henderson actually), Temecula and Burbank.
It was very cold, so I preheated the plane before heading out to Henderson. The client was nice enough to meet me at the airport so we just hung around, looked at airplanes and talked. I then flew into the sunset and on into French Valley airport for the night. I met my clients the next morning for breakfast, and then flew to Burbank to meet my next client for lunch.
I didn’t have to because the ceiling as at around 7 to 8,000 feet, but I flew at 10,000 feet all the way home in the clouds so I could get some safe but good solid IMC (instrument) time. All in all a good trip. It was nice to connect with my clients, the plane ran well, and it was a fun challenge to deal with the cold, the weather and the incessant LA air traffic.
Mono Lake
Southern Sierras
Los Angeles Basin
Sea to Ski – California is (Still) a Nice Place to Live
There are going to be probably more than a few posts about flying to San Luis Obispo since my daughter Belyn is now going to Cal Poly. In this case, midterms were just over and it was a good time for Belyn and her boyfriend, Patrick, to come stay with us for a ski weekend. Doing so really brought home the point that California is an amazing place. I guess that is why so many people choose to live her.
I took my road bike to SLO on the plane and rode to Pismo Beach past vineyards, then watched the sufers for a while before riding back to the airport. By then Patrick was out of his last class and we headed home in time for a late dinner. Saturday we skied at a Tahoe resort and Sunday we climbed a peak in snowstorm and skied down. Then Monday morning we took off early to get Belyn and Patrick back to school on the coast for 8:00 classes.
Yes, I know having an airplane helps, but California is truly blessed with some fantastic natural wonders.
Pismo Beach
Enroute from SLO
Going Up
Betsy Coming Down
Patrick's turn
We had a little event on the way down with our new border collie puppy, Ande. He isn’t that old (3 1/2 months), but he has plenty of energy so we decided to take him backcountry skiing. Everything was fine until he ran headfirst into a deep hole over a creek. Betsy literally jumped into the shallow water to get him out.
Ande and the hole he fell into
Bodie and Ande in the hangar
A Mid-winter’s Flight to Seattle
I enjoy the challenge, beauty and focus that it takes to fly around the west coast for business. However, I often can’t go very far in the winter – the weather is just to finicky and there is always icing to worry about. So I was surprised to find the forecast for clearish weather actually holding up as my business trip from northern California to Seattle approached.
The problem, it turned out, were the winds. I did my flight planning the day before and discovered although there were no significant clouds, snow or ice, there was going to be 40 to 50 knots headwinds. That meant a VERY early departure in order to get to Boeing Field in Seattle at 9:00 for my meeting. I thought 5:00 am would do it.
The forecast was wrong. I had at times well more than 90 knot headwinds, the most wicked winds I’ve ever experienced, not to mention some fierce up and down drafts near the Oregon Cascade mountains. At one point I was looking at my GPS with a ground speed of 94 knots, about to text my associate in Seattle that I was going to have to stop for fuel and would miss at least the first meeting. My plane holds 6 hours of fuel, but I like to land with at least an hour of fuel in the tanks since running out of fuel is kind of a big deal. I think it would upset my wife Betsy at home.
There were clouds and light snow over Oregon, but with tops forecast between 12 and 15,000 I figured I could go over. However with the winds I needed to stay as low as possible so I toed the line, clipping clouds and spending a short time in them. I called and picked up an instrument clearance south of Klamath Falls when it looked like I may not stay clear of the clouds.
Waiting for the frost to melt
The day before I looked up again the icing temperature range of 0 to -20 C, and was glad to see the outside temp right at -20 C (below zero F) at 12,000 feet because I wouldn’t have to worry much about icing. However the first cloud I went into the windshield and wings immediately frosted over. OK, perhaps I do have to worry much about icing. Fortunately it was clear above so it wasn’t really an issue, it would just be a lot slower should I need to climb.
When I descending into the valleys of Oregon the winds dropped and my ground speed picked back up to a more decent 160 knots. It turns out I was only 20 minutes late for my ride, and since it was the week between Christmas and New Years, the traffic was light and we actually made our 10:00 meeting in Kirkland, WA.
I was looking forward the flight back the next day, hoping the winds would stick around to pay me back a little for the slow flight up. I got to the airport at 7:30 am but the plane’s wings were completely and heavily frosted – a dangerous condition since it changes the point of separation of the wind from the wing and can destroy lift. So I had an hour delay while the airport folks pulled the plane into a heated hangar to melt the ice, while I preheated the engine. I have propane Red Dragon heater that I modified to run on smaller camp canisters, and I bring a 12v car battery that I keep to power the heater and a Christmas tree in the woods. But not at the same time.
First light over the Cascades and below 0 Degrees F
Sunrise Over the Cascades
Olympic Mountains at Sunrise
Mt. Rainier
Cal Poly SLO To Yosemite
For whatever reason they canceled all the rock climbing trips for the winter and spring quarters at Cal Poly. My daughter, a freshman, likes to climb and was disappointed since she had signed up for some of the trips. This presented an opportunity. She likes to climb, we would like to see her and I have an airplane.
So we thought of a plan. My wife Betsy would drive to Groveland, just outside the Yosemite park entrance, and at the same time I would fly to San Luis Obispo to pick up my daughter and her friends. I would land at the Pine Mountain Lake airport just outside of Groveland, and we could then drive together into Yosemite for a weekend of camping and climbing. On Sunday we would reverse the process to get the students back to the dorms. Sometimes airplanes and carefully thought out plans just don’t turn out, but in this case it worked. The loaner crew car at PCF Aviation in SLO was even available each time for me to use to run up to the Cal Poly campus from the airport.
I was nervous flying four passengers, since it is usually just me, one other person or my family. In fact I struggled to get the third row seat back in my plane since I had removed it about 10 years ago and have never used it since. Both flights were dusk/night flights, and each time I did full instrument approaches into Pine Mountain Lake and SLO, even though it was clear, so I wouldn’t have to worry about terrain.
The climbing was great. Betsy and I are more experience with rope handling, protection, etc., but for pure athleticism on the rock these students had us beat and it was fun to watch them. A highlight of the trip was a hike to a semi-secret spot where you can see five major Yosemite waterfalls at once (Nevada, Vernal, Illilouette , Upper and Lower Yosemite Falls).
Belyn
Somewhere near Paso Robles
Cody moving up through the finger crack
Cody, Atai, Patrick and Belyn with Vernal Falls in the background
Descending from the semi-secret spot
Mt. Hua (Huasan), China
I have a prospective client on the west coast, but their manufacturing facility and one of the partners is in China, so off I went to China for a visit. The first stop was Hong Kong, where I had a few hours before continuing on to Shenzhen on the mainland. I kind of trashed my camera lens when I took the photo of Mt. Shasta you see at the top of the blog (it turns out 200 mph bugs CAN chip a lens), so I decided to devote my time in Hong Kong to buying a new Canon G12 camera to replace my G10. After that mission was accomplished I spent a day in Shenzen touring the factory and meetings.
That was Thursday and Friday, and I had another meeting in Shanghai on Monday, so I had a couple of days in mainland China to myself. I remembered seeing some wild photos of a place in China somewhere, somewhere on granite in the mountains. Could I possibly find that place and visit it? In a weekend? And still make it back for my meeting Monday morning in Ningbo outside Shanghai?
It was a challenge but I did it, and Huasan is indeed a wild and interesting place. Of course, the cool thing is the “boardwalk” with the wild 1,000 foot drop-off below your feet. It isn’t part of a major trail, but only a spur trail that goes out to a temple of some sort carved in the rock. They now have harnesses you wear, a good thing to have especially around other people! No one wants to get bumped off the platform. The boardwalk itself looks like it has been there hundreds of years, so even though it looks scary I figure it was unlikely to fall off at the moment I was on it.
I had read that they have hostels on the mountain so I just brought a day back with a change of socks and underwear, and sure enough that worked out and I got a place to stay. The day pack was a hydration pack so common here, but apparently not so common in China. One person that spoke some English, said, “Ah – Oxygen!”, so probably everyone thought I was sucking oxygen while on the mountain. I spent Saturday night on the mountain, then got up early to hike up to East Peak to see the sunrise, apparently something you do when on the mountain. The sunrise was very anti-climatic because of clouds and smog – it just got lighter and grayer with no real sunrise.
Then it was a rush to make it to Ningbo. Trail running, trams, rickshaws, taxis, planes and buses and I only knew yes, no and thank you in Chinese. I did ten different travel segments in total and although I missed a train in Shanghai I was still able to get a bus to Ningbo. Whew. My business companion, waiting for me in Ningbo, was pretty certain I wasn’t going to show up so I was happy to have made it.
Wow, this place really does exist!
Yes, it pretty much goes straight down. Very cool.
Passing people head-on was the most exciting
You can see the harness and cables used for safety
Main trail, cut into granite
The main trail (to five separate summits) is VERY popular
A few scenic shots - this is the "Playing Chess Pavilion"
Moonrise
Sunrise - Kind of
Flying to San Diego / Catalina Island
I had a couple of meetings in San Diego (I live in Northern CA) and fortunately both were fairly close to Carlsbad airport. An early winter storm had rolled through the previous evening, leaving snow on our deck and debris clouds in the sky. I took off late morning from Placerville and assumed once I negotiated my way above the clouds that it would soon clear up, but I ended up flying above a broken deck of cumulus clouds the entire way.
The LA basin had a thick marine layer above it but I was prepared for that. I had filed an IFR flight plan from the Lake Hughes VOR into Carlsbad, so I picked up that clearance shortly before reaching the VOR, and spent about 15 minutes in the clouds while doing the ILS approach into Carlsbad.
I had brought my road bike in the plane for a ride later along the ocean, but I hadn’t really th0ught through the fact that it gets dark about 5:00 pm. I got out of my meeting about 4:30, took one look at the setting sun and left my bike in the plane. Maybe next time.
I had an all day meeting the next day, and ended up taking off from Carlsbad late afternoon. I wouldn’t do this with passengers without more preparation, but I decided to take a journey out to Catalina Island on the way home. If you look at a map it really isn’t much out of the way as you travel north from San Diego, Catalina and then Pt. Magu, but it is slightly risky since I didn’t have any life vests with me. But there were a lot of ships within gliding distance so I wouldn’t have to tread water for long if something happened.
Small Cumulus Buildup over Sierra Foothills
Somewhere Enroute
Catalina Island
A sight I rarely see, lots of water
Modesto Lights, Reflecting on Wing
Parent’s Weekend in San Luis Obispo – Weather Flying
The weather was supposed to be good for the weekend of October 16, so my wife Betsy and I were looking forward to going down to Cal Poly San Luis Obispo to visit our daughter for the first time since she started school as a freshman. She likes to climb and since we’d have a car, we planned on taking her and some friends out to Bishop’s peak for some rock climbing.
Wouldn’t you know it, but a “cutoff low” storm system started to wander around the state, and finally parked itself off the central California coast. San Luis Obispo was clear as we took off, but half way there the field essentially went IFR with a ceiling of 1,200 with hills all around. Betsy, to put it mildly, does not like to fly in clouds. In fact she never has – until that day. I hated to do it to her, but the safest way to get into to SLO was to do an approach through the clouds. Legally it was VFR and to the south there were some broken/scattered clouds so it may have been possible to scud run in, but not safe especially since I don’t know the area.
The approach into the clouds at the coast was right at sunset and it was spectacular. I wish I could have taken some photos, but it was far better to keep my focus on the airplane and Betsy.
The cutoff low hung around and also bothered us on the Sunday return, even to the point of bringing strong thunder and lightning. Luckily that passed and it cleared up enough to get out. Still, Betsy wanted no part of running into clouds so she rented a car and started driving. I took off and, of course, could have easily stayed out of the clouds and VFR. For practice I stayed in the IFR system and did some IMC time (in clouds). Then over the central valley it cleared up, so I spent some time with my books trying to find an AVIS rental car place that would take the rental car. I found one in Modesto, so I texted Betsy, diverted to land, and we met there to return the car and fly the rest of the way home – with no clouds…
Moments from Entering Clouds
Sunset near Modesto
Rainbow in Flight
Boys to Zion: A Weekend in One of my Favorite Places
This trip really starts with two friends of my son, Alex and Evan. Alex works in a bike shop and gave my daughter a vintage Schwinn Varsity bike to go off to college with, and he would not take any money for it. Evan works at his father’s powder coating business, and together they worked on stripping and buffing an old propeller spinner (mine had cracked) so I wouldn’t have to buy a new one. I felt I owed each of them something.
So off we went to Zion National Park for the weekend, one of my favorite places in the world, with Alex, Evan and my son. We left right after school on Friday and I timed it so we would land about dusk at St. George, Utah. Why dusk? Nevada is one of the most mountainous states (in terms of actual number of mountain ranges) and very desolate. In between each mountain range are dry lake beds or sage desert, not bad for an emergency landing. Although engine problems are very rare, it is much preferred to be able to see where the mountain ranges are, and where the dry lake beds are.
A great introduction to Zion is to hike the fantastic Angels Landing trail, and also to hike the Virgin Narrows in the water. Angels Landing, to me, is second only to hiking Half Dome in Yosemite as the best day hike I’ve ever done. I also wanted to do some canyoneering, but with school schedules and homework that wasn’t going to happen.
I met a gentlemen at the top of Angels Landing who asked where we were from. California I said. He said that he was from Salt Lake City, only four hours up the road. He was feeling pretty good and it would have been rude to tell him that with the hour drive to St. George and the two hour flight home, we were as close as he was. So I just let it go.
Now all they need is deeper water for jumping
Angels Landing
Virgin River Narrows
The Narrows
Ausangate Trek, Peru
OK, I didn’t fly myself to Peru. For the first time in 6 or 7 years, instead of flying somewhere in the Cessna 210 my family went much further than is possible in the plane and we went to Peru . We spent 4 days in Cusco visiting ruins, doing the Macchu Picchu thing and generally having a good time while we acclimated to the 11,000 foot altitude.
Then we headed out for the 6 day Ausangate trek. I was very nervous, since the entire trek was above 14,500 feet and some nights would be spent above 16,000 feet. That’s high and I really didn’t want to run into altitude problems, especially with my 16 and 18 year old kids and miles from help. But we seemed to have done a good job with the acclimation, and didn’t really have any problems other than generally out of breath.
We made sure we spent one night at the village of Tinki at 12,500 feet before we started out. We also hired horses from a local horseman (thanks to Belyn for negotiating that in spanish!) to carry our packs for the first day up to 14,500. After that we were on our own, just the four of us. It was a great trip, with a high point of 17,000 feet,and my son even found a pre-Inca arrow head on the trail.
I try to keep the number of photos down to just a few, but in this case it was hard. So many alpacas, llamas, mountains and interesting people!
We met these kids at 16,500 feet, with no adults in sight!
Last Light Below Ausangate
Alpacas and Glaciers
Belyn took this photo when I walked over to see the view
Typical Hiking Terrain
Planes, Trains and Automobiles – and a Bike
Twice in the past few summer months I’ve had business meetings in downtown San Francisco. I could sit in my air-conditioned car for 2-3 hours but then have to deal with parking, or I could save some time but risk getting hot and sweaty going by air. I went by air. Which means:
- Drive to the airport, preflight the plane, pull it out of the hangar, take off
- Fly to Concord, park at the ramp behind the Crowne Plaza hotel which has easy access to Concord Blvd. I could get closer to SF by landing in Oakland, but then I would need to get a ride to BART (not completely under my control) or also ride my bike to BART. Concord just seems easier.
- Use my foldable Dahon bike to ride the couple of miles to downtown Concord BART. I take my coat off and take my time so I don’t get sweaty.
- Lock my bike (or take it with me, but I usually just leave it in Concord), and take BART into the city, getting there in time to walk where I need to be. Once I’m in the city I love it. No car to worry about, and no worries about traffic.
With no traffic I’m not even sure it saves much time over driving, but in both cases I was leaving the city in the afternoon, so by missing traffic I’m saving a lot of time getting home, and its kind of fun.
In fact, I learned to fly because I sold my business to a company in San Jose and while I refused to move to San Jose, I learned to fly and for two years flew to San Jose to work. One of the best feelings flying, then and now, is looking down at the stop and go traffic leaving the bay area while traveling over it all at 200 MPH.
Windmills Approaching Pittsburgh
At Concord. Ride in a suit in 90 weather? Luckily not far.
Night Flight / San Luis Obispo
My daughter is going away to college to Cal Poly SLO, and summer orientation was a day after we returned from our summer vacation in Peru. But that is what a plane is for. We took off in the evening, spent the day buying books, looking at dorms and listening to lectures about alcohol abuse and study habits. We then went shopping for jeans in downtown San Luis Obispo (what a nice town!), dinner and then another sunset/ night flight back home.
I have a feeling they’ll be quite a few more trips down there in the coming years.
Sunset with Propeller Arc
Sunset at 10:00
Night Panel (with new iPad!)
