Month: April 2019

Red Hills Ranch Easter Picnic 2019

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Travel2 Comments

I have know Jack and Myrna Moyle for over 20 years.  They have treated me like family from the moment I met them.  Every year they have an Easter Picnic for their family and friends.  The picnic happens on the Saturday between Good Friday and Resurrection Day (Easter) and about 150-300 people usually show up.  This past year we’ve had a lot of rainfall and the wildflowers were on spectacular display.  Please enjoy a few of the photos I took at the picnic!

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The big Easter egg hunt!

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Thanks again Jack and Myrna for making this such a wonderful year!

Okay God, I’m Listening!

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, Faith2 Comments

Just a month or so ago I got a letter stating it was time to renew my aircraft insurance from First Flight Insurance Co.  I dutifully did this because… well… it’s insurance and accidents happen.  Last week I got a letter from them saying that First Flight had elected to stop providing insurance to the Part 103 (Ultralight aircraft) community.  The US Ultralight Association to which I belong said that they are scrambling to find a new insurance carrier but in the mean time, no ultralights would have insurance.  I didn’t think much more about it other than I would just wait and see what USUA came up with as far as insurance companies.

Then, this past Wednesday I get a text out of the blue asking if my P3 Lite Powered Parachute was still for sale.  I was tempted to say no because I’ve been getting sporadic interest in it from an ad I placed on a PPC equipment for sale website.  But they had incorrectly listed my location as Albany NY.  So I was getting calls from guys in New York who would ask lots of questions and then hang up when they found out I was in California.  I had decided not to sell the P3.  I’ve really been enjoying flying it.  But then I got this text asking if my P3 was still for sale.  I first told him that the aircraft is in California and then asked him if he was still interested.  He responded yes.

There ensued a long text exchange (during one of the busiest weeks I have had at work in a long while) between the prospective buyer and I.  I didn’t really believe he was serious until he started asking when he could come pick it out and was cash okay?  So this (Saturday) morning he showed up at 7am, handed me the agreed-upon price in cash, loaded up my powered parachute and drove back to Arizona.

At first I was just kind of amused thinking about how fast these events occurred.  But then I started thinking about it a little deeper with respect to the Providence of God.  The timing is just TOO coincidental.  Since I don’t believe in coincidence or luck, I believe it is God’s Providence.  That within two weeks my aircraft insurance should be cancelled and refunded, by the way, and my aircraft sold… well…  it just feels like this was God’s plan for me.  I have spiritual ears and I’m using them to listen to what He’s trying to tell me.

So… what’s the plan now?  Am I done with aviation?  Nope.  In fact I’m going full circle.  In my aviation career I have rented, owned, built two fixed wing airplanes, sold them, got into parachute aviation, and have now returned to renting fixed wing again.  And really when I think about it, my whole reason for going with the parachutes was to have a way to fly that was very portable.  Renting airplanes in different parts of the country is even more portable.  I don’t need any special place to store an aircraft, don’t need to bring any tools to maintain it, and no maintenance records to track.  I’ll miss owning my own aircraft for the bragging rights if nothing else but in reality this really lifts a burden from me.

I’m going to be contacting a local flying club that a friend is a member of and begin flying with them.  I’ll be flying a Cessna 152, which is essentially the same aircraft I learned to fly in.  It’s a whole circle of life thing.  Looks like I’ll be ending my aviation career as I began it.  And there is nothing wrong with that.

Stay tuned for more pictures and video from the next chapter of my aviation story.

The Beauty In Our Backyard

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Travel2 Comments

We love to travel; to visit and see places we’ve never been.  Sometimes though, there are some pretty amazing things to see in your own backyard.  Maybe not your literal backyard but close to home, if you only look.

This past weekend Cristy and I took a walk through Oak Grove Park in Ripon, Ca.  It isn’t in the most pleasant part of Ripon being located next to their sewage treatment plant. But even there we could find beauty.

You can just make out the trail that runs off into the grove of oak trees for which the park is named.

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However, for this walk we stuck to the paved path that runs along the Stanislaus River.

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With all the recent rain our drought-stricken state has received you could easily mistake this for England.  This area is normally covered with brown grasses.  The Stanislaus River is running very high right now.  Normally these trees are not in the water.  Water managers are releasing a lot of water in anticipation of the thaw of the heavy snow pack we received in the mountains this winter.

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It’s hard to believe that at one time boats navigated these rivers. The rivers used to be so large that there were several ferries in the area to get people across them.  Agriculture and water management (dams) have pretty much turned the river into a canal.  Still, a very beautiful canal.

Be sure to stop and take a look you your backyard and see if you can spot the beauty that almost certainly is there.

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Aeronautical Contact

On By The Flying DutchmanIn Aviation, HAM, Six Chuter P3Leave a comment

It’s been somewhat breezy in California’s vast Central Valley this past week but the winds died down this past Sunday evening and I took advantage.  I loaded up my powered parachute and high-tailed it out to New Jerusalem Airport.  I got off the ground at about 6pm.  The winds near the ground were mildly rowdy, and I mean mildly.  As I climbed up through 300 feet MSL ( above mean sea level), the air became silky and warm.

I brought along my Icom VX-6R Ham radio HT (handi-talkie) to try to make an aeronautical contact.  I was circling the field and called out on the SARA repeater frequency.  I got an immediate call back from KM6MHT.  A gentleman by the name of Mike whom I talk to on the radio every now and again on my commute home.  He said I was pretty scratchy but readable but since we both heard each other we can log it.  Since the radio was so heard to hear I decided to just put it away and enjoy the evening flight.

I flew around the New Jerusalem area (just southeast of Tracy, California) and enjoyed the sunset.  The air was perfect, there was no traffic, it was so peaceful.  I shot three landings for practice and then decided to put my PPC away before it got dark.  It was then that I found the only flaw in my day… the mosquitoes!  I put my PPC away in record time and jumped into my pickup truck to escape the onslaught.  It was a perfect end to the weekend.img_20190331_185446

Searching The Heart

On By The Flying DutchmanIn FaithLeave a comment

I wanted to put in a plug for my wife’s blog, Searching The Heart.  She hasn’t updated it in quite a while but that may change very soon.  If you have a special needs child or would like to understand the heart of a mother of a special needs child, then head over to her blog and take a look.  She has a lot of wisdom packed into that blog.  As stated, she will be updating it soon.