|
Back at the end of the summer of 1997, Grace, Kaitlyn, and I took a trip
to southern California (Los Angeles area) in my aircraft. This was an
interesting experience to say the least. As I am only a VFR pilot, and
do not have an extensive amount of time in type, this ended up being
somewhat of an adventure. Various lessons were learned on this trip
(i.e. things NOT to do again).
|
|
We set off from Houston-Hobby on a Friday evening and stayed the night
in Lampasas, Texas. The airport sloped uphill and ended up being
somewhat interesting to land at at night. (Sorry, no
photos for this one)
|
|
The next leg of the trip took us up to (what turned out to be) a crop
dusting strip for refueling. I couldn't find the airport and ended up
flying all around the small town trying to locate it. No one was
answering my calls on the radio, so I couldn't get any addition help
from any of the locals. Finally, I caught a glimpse of a crop duster
going in for a landing and I followed him back to the airport. As you
are probably aware, crop dusters don't fly that high, so seeing him was
basically just luck. I filled up and it turned out that they weren't
really setup for handling credit cards or cash, but they were willing to
take a very out of town check. (Sorry, no photos for this
one either)
|
Here's a photo of my aircraft in Belen, New Mexico after stopping for
the night. In case you are wondering about the paint scheme, I painted
it in a pseudo-military paint scheme patterned after (with some artistic
license) VF-84 on the U.S.S. Nimitz. When I was in the Navy, I was
stationed there. When I bought my aircraft, I didn't want the typical
white with various colored stripes that you see on so many aircraft
these days. I wanted something different. This one definitely
gets me comments as I travel. I have been directed to park next to
real warbirds at airshows when I arrived there on a business
trip that just happened to occur on the same day that an airshow was
taking place. As it was, I ended up getting stuck at that airport until
later that evening (it closed down right after I had arrived).
|
Here's some mountains on the way to California. Being a
flatlander, it is interesting to be flying this close to terrain that is
changing. It also has quite a bit of pucker factor involved in it
at certain times. There is a serious lack in emergency landing
spots in the mountains. In an emergency landing scenario, you
might be able to put the aircraft in a place where the
"landing" won't kill you, but you can probably pretty much
kiss your aircraft goodbye. There are a lot of inhospitable places
out there.
|
We flew by the Grand Canyon on the way over there and landed at
GCN. That is a really big ditch. There are some
remarkable thermals / updrafts around the canyon. At one point, I
was at 10,500 ft and felt a kick in the pants and looked down at my VSI
to see a 2000 fpm climb rate... Upon talking with the commercial
pilots at GCN, I learned that it is just as likely to be a 2000 fpm
descent rate... When I left GCN, although I had only filled my tanks to
the tabs and had leaned for max RPMs prior to takeoff, the takeoff roll
seemed to take forever for my aircraft to become airborne. Once
airborne, it would not climb -- I was stuck in ground effect and there
were trees at the south end of the runway that were getting closer and I
was not getting any higher. It did not appear that I was going to
be able to climb over the trees at the end of the runway, even though
the runway at GCN is 11,000 ft long. I noticed a gap in the trees
off to the right on the west side of the airport, so while in ground
effect, I slowly turned right and slipped between the trees. At
this point, the terrain was lower and I was starting to catch some
thermals, so I slowly managed to climb. This was a very
sphincter-tightening experience. After takeoff, the tower informed
everyone that the current density altitude was 11,000 feet. In my
opinion, a high-time 150 HP Cheetah with a cruise prop is not
recommended for flying the Rockies. Supposedly, the 160 HP STC for
the O-320 makes it better...
|
While in the Los Angeles area, I went over to the airport at Chino
(CNO). I
probably saw more warbirds just sitting around there than at any of the
airshows to which I've been up to this point. Here is one of the P51s
that I saw while over there. (I think I'm in lust...) This had
just completed a flight.
|
How many airports do you get to land at that have B-25s just sitting
around?
|
Here's another of the warbirds that were being refinished at
Chino. It seems that every hangar that I looked into had some form
of warbird. Some were being restored, but many were in flying
condition.
|
And here's yet another warbird that I found in one of the hangars.
|
|
While in the Los Angeles area, I thought that I might as well
land in the lowest airport in the country, Death Valley - Furnace Creek Airport (L06). I was flying fairly high
on the way over there, so it was fairly cool. Upon landing and pulling back my canopy, I
found out that IT WAS HOT!!! It could best be described as stepping out into a sauna, but
without the humidity. Being from the Houston area, I'm used to heat and humidity. I don't
like them, but I've gotten somewhat used to them. This didn't have the humidity, but it
really had the heat. Those people who say that "it's a dry heat, so it's not so
bad" are totally wrong. It IS bad... I'm waiting for the next Ice Age... Houston and
Death Valley will finally be temperate climates...
|
Here's a photo of my aircraft in Belen, New Mexico after stopping for
the night. In case you are wondering about the paint scheme, I painted
it in a pseudo-military paint scheme patterned after (with some artistic
license) VF-84 on the U.S.S. Nimitz. When I was in the Navy, I was
stationed there. When I bought my aircraft, I didn't want the typical
white with various colored stripes that you see on so many aircraft
these days. I wanted something different. This one definitely
gets me comments as I travel. I have been directed to park next to
real warbirds at airshows when I arrived there on a business
trip that just happened to occur on the same day that an airshow was
taking place. As it was, I ended up getting stuck at that airport until
later that evening (it closed down right after I had arrived).
Here's some mountains on the way to California. Being a
flatlander, it is interesting to be flying this close to terrain that is
changing. It also has quite a bit of pucker factor involved in it
at certain times. There is a serious lack in emergency landing
spots in the mountains. In an emergency landing scenario, you
might be able to put the aircraft in a place where the
"landing" won't kill you, but you can probably pretty much
kiss your aircraft goodbye. There are a lot of inhospitable places
out there.
We flew by the Grand Canyon on the way over there and landed at
GCN. That is a really big ditch. There are some
remarkable thermals / updrafts around the canyon. At one point, I
was at 10,500 ft and felt a kick in the pants and looked down at my VSI
to see a 2000 fpm climb rate... Upon talking with the commercial
pilots at GCN, I learned that it is just as likely to be a 2000 fpm
descent rate... When I left GCN, although I had only filled my tanks to
the tabs and had leaned for max RPMs prior to takeoff, the takeoff roll
seemed to take forever for my aircraft to become airborne. Once
airborne, it would not climb -- I was stuck in ground effect and there
were trees at the south end of the runway that were getting closer and I
was not getting any higher. It did not appear that I was going to
be able to climb over the trees at the end of the runway, even though
the runway at GCN is 11,000 ft long. I noticed a gap in the trees
off to the right on the west side of the airport, so while in ground
effect, I slowly turned right and slipped between the trees. At
this point, the terrain was lower and I was starting to catch some
thermals, so I slowly managed to climb. This was a very
sphincter-tightening experience. After takeoff, the tower informed
everyone that the current density altitude was 11,000 feet. In my
opinion, a high-time 150 HP Cheetah with a cruise prop is not
recommended for flying the Rockies. Supposedly, the 160 HP STC for
the O-320 makes it better...
While in the Los Angeles area, I went over to the airport at Chino
(CNO). I
probably saw more warbirds just sitting around there than at any of the
airshows to which I've been up to this point. Here is one of the P51s
that I saw while over there. (I think I'm in lust...) This had
just completed a flight.
How many airports do you get to land at that have B-25s just sitting
around?
Here's another of the warbirds that were being refinished at
Chino. It seems that every hangar that I looked into had some form
of warbird. Some were being restored, but many were in flying
condition.
And here's yet another warbird that I found in one of the hangars.