Here is the raw footage as I got it from Red Hills this year. It’s nothing special but it was fun. Enjoy!
Author: The Flying Dutchman
I am a man who loves Christ, loves my wife, loves my family, loves my church, and loves aviation. In that order.
Red Hills 3rd Annual Fly-In
A little over three years ago my friend Joey Myers and I were visiting with Jack and Myrna Moyle telling them about a group of guys I had been flying with. We regaled them with stories of Johnson Creek and the High Sierra Fly-In over in Nevada. I commented how their runway would make a great fly-in destination. Jack loves airplanes and said he’d love to see some of the airplanes our group was flying. I asked if we could have a fly-in on their property and they agreed.
This year was the third year we had our low-key fly-in and it was the best yet. We had about 16 airplanes show up or stop in. Airplanes began arriving Friday morning. We had folks come in from Santa Maria and Santa Rosa, Oakdale and Calaveras. A great mix of local and cross-country folks. We even had Steve Henry’s old Yee Haw! Higlander show up with it’s new owner on the last day of the fly-in. Friday was just a day to chill out and set up camp. Jack and Myrna arranged for us to drive into Jamestown for dinner. We stopped in at Morelia Mexican Restaurant. Dinner was delcious! I wish yours truly would remember to take pictures though. After dinner we headed back to Red Hills Ranch to watch the sun set and tell lies well into the evening. It was a really warm evening so no campfire. We just enjoyed the cool breezes.
The next morning we piled into our airplanes (I am airplaneless at the moment so I bummed a ride) and headed out to Lodi Airport (103) to have breakfast at the Lodi Airport Cafe. We met up with a few others that were heading out to Red Hills and had an enjoyable breakfast catching up with old friends and getting to know new ones. Afterwards we caravaned back to Red Hills.
Around lunch time we had a small water bombing and spot landing contest. Rob Farlane took the water-bombing prize and Aaron Bartels took the spot landing prize. Well done guys! For the rest of the afternoon we all just kicked back and enjoyed the ranch.
Saturday evening was our pot luck dinner. There was tri-tip, pork, chile, salad, and a host of other delicious goodies. Julie brough some of her signature wine and Tom grabbed a crate of apricots from his apricot factory. 🙂 No one ever goes hungry here. Eating and drinking went well into the evening when we talked, looked at stars, spotted satellites and even spotted the International Space Station going by.
Sunday morning there were some local fly-outs and folks just generally packing up. The highlight of the morning was Myrna’s breakfast of bacon, sausage, scambled eggs with peppers, and pancakes. Delicous! After breakfast goodbyes were said and then folks flew off into the clear blue western skies!
This was a very successul event but we did learn a few new lessons this year. The fist lesson was that just because some really skilled pilots make this strip look easy, doesn’t mean it is easy. This is not a beginner strip. Pilots who are inexperienced at landing off airport in a mountain environment MUST get short field, and mountain flying training before attempting to land at this strip. The liability waiver and informational video will be ammended to address this. Other lessons we learned will be addressed before the next fly-in.
Thank you to everyone who showed up and we look forward to seeing you all again next year!
Edit:
Raw video footage is located here: Red Hills raw video footage
Rodeo Harnes Strap Modification
After about 12 hours of flying I noticed that the threads on my right hand strap were starting to fray. This seems to be happening due to the strap rubbing on a retaining clip as the canopy pulls the strap upwards as it starts generating lift. To prevent this I bought some UMHW tape and wrapped it into a tube around the area that is rubbing on the harness strap. The UMHW has adhesive on one side so this should allow it to stay in the tube shape I rolled it into. I have about 50 feet of it so I can make plenty more if it needs to be replaced at some point. I’m hoping that this will prevent any more chaffing of the harness.
Nirvana Rodeo Engine Maintenance
I finally ran into my first engine-related maintenance item. Too many words to type. Please enjoy the dulcet tones of yours truly.
Oakdale Airport Improvements for PPG’ers
I learned to fly 24 years ago at Oakdale Municipal Airport. It’s been my home base ever since. So now that I’m flying my PPG I’d like to keep flying from Oakdale. the only problem is that there isn’t much room for PPGs to operate there and the runway does not align with the prevailing winds there. There is an unused 15 acre field on the airport property on the south side of the airport that would be perfect for PPG launches. At one time it was being developed for hangars but was abandoned after asphault was put down.
My buddy Dennis and I discussed this yesterday. He does construction for a living and specializes in dirt grading and levelling. He gave me some ideas of what would need to be done to make this field usable. After a discussion of what could be done and for how much we agreed that this should be done in phases so as to keep costs below certain thresholds that would trigger a lot more bureaucracy and paperwork. Phase 1 would be the green shaded area on the west side of the photo. The entire land area of this section is a little over 7 acres. Dennis suggested that the area first be disced so as to knock down the weeds and allow us to see the lay of the land. Dennis knows someone who could do it relatively inexpensively unless the City has access to similar resources that would be cheaper for them. After it is disced the area could then be graded and compacted.
My only concern with using only this area is the house just south of the airport. This is shown shaded in yellow. I don’t want to overfly that house at low level and start generating complaints that we don’t currently have. However, with careful descent planning we can avoid the house.
The best option for not overflying the house would be to improve the green shaded area to the east. Dennis expressed concern about removing the decayed asphalt in this area. It would be very difficult to remove the weeds which would allow the asphalt to be recycled. More than likely it would have to be dumped at an added cost. However, being able to land in this area would align aircraft better with the prevailing wind and also avoid overflying the house. The black line represents the position of Oakdale’s old cross wind runway which aligned perfectly with the prevailing winds there. At any rate having access to this entire area would give us launch options no matter what direction the wind was coming from and would allow us to not overly any houses on landing. We will also have to look at how we access that area. There are no roads so it would involve crossing the runway. I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out.
Anyway, I’m going to submit this to the City’s Airport Ad-hoc Committee and see if we can get some funds and a start date.
Buy a Wind Muff Will You?
I’ve been watching a lot of YouTube videos lately published by folks who live full time in their RVs. I enjoy dreaming about living that lifestyle and like to live it vicariously through these folks. The production value and polish they put on the videos is amazing but I have one nit to pick with several of these videlo vloggers. I have seen more than one person, and sometimes a couple, that are doing a monologe or dialog about what’s going on in their lives but you can only catch about every 5th word because the wind is blowing so hard and distorts the audio. But the folks putting the video up on YouTube just don’t seem to care whether you hear them or not. They have to know because they do a lot of post video processing and editing. I could go on but since a picture is worth a thousand words:
Red Hills 3rd Annual Fly-In
Just a reminder for my airplane friends, the Red Hills 3rd Annual Fly-in is only a little over a week away!
Day Trip to Bodega Bay
After the week’s drama of arranging things for our son, my heart stress test, and something I’m dying to talk about but just can’t… yet, Cristy and I decided we needed to hit the road. Even if just for a day. Bodega Bay was the destination of the day.
Normally it’s about a 2.5 hour drive from our home but we had to drop off a CD that Cristy sold to someone near Sacramento, and then we would drive from there out to Bodega Bay. This pretty much turned it into a 4 hour drive but what the hey, we’re together, eating snacks and listening to music on Spotify. Despite the traffic it’s pure bliss.
We ended up pulling into Santa Rosa at about 1pm. We were going to try to make it for lunch in Bodega Bay but Cristy was getting hungry and we both needed a bathroom break. Cristy checked her iPhone and found a place called The Naked Pig. They sell all natural, organic, farm-direct-to-table food. The greens for the salad were picked that morning on their farm, and the pig for the pork sanwiches was slaughtered the night before and smoked all night and morning. You may feel sorry for the pig but he (or she) was delicious!
I had the Naked Pig Sandwich…yep that pig was alive the day before. The freshly smoked pork was DEE-licious!
Cristy got a salad… yep those plants were alive that morning.
I’m not a big salad guy but this salad really was delicious. I’ve never tasted greens that taste so good!
We both got some strawberry-cream sodas made fresh to order.
The wait staff was extremely friendly and courteous. I can tell you we’ll definately be back!
After a few burps and some lingering at the table we hopped back into my trusty mini-van and once again pointed our noses to Bodega Bay. About 45 minutes later we were driving along the coast looking for a beach at which to waste some time before we had dinner. We ended up pulling off at North Salmon Creek Beach. We walked past these very fragrant flowering bushes being guarded by a very laid-back sparrow.
The very short trail leads down some steps to the beach. We spent about an hour walking along the beach and enjoying the sound of the ocean, talking, and watching the surfers.
That’s about what the beaches usually look like on the northern California coast. Bring a sweater. It actually wasn’t that cold this day, it was almost 70 degrees but the sun never came out.
Some beach-goers have constructed windbreaks from driftwood. You’ll find them all up and down the beach. Some of them can be quite large and elaborate.
We headed back up to the van and watched the ocean from the cliff for a while. The small creek you see is where Salmon Creek empties into the Pacific. It was a very peaceful place to take a snooze.
We decided to head back to the town of Bodega Bay and take a look around. Highway 1 is very cramped through here and parking is at a premium. We decided to just head to the touristy Tides Warf and Restaurant. They have a gift shop and a fish market and best of all, a large mostly-empty parking lot. We looked through the touristy gift shop and bought a few more snacks for the ride home at the fish market. We decided to have an early dinner before heading back home. You should couldn’t beat the view.
We started the long drive back home and decided to just follow Highway 12 the whole way so we could miss the traffic on 101 and I-80. This was a good call as it took us through wine country in Santa Rosa and Sonoma. We’re not wine drinkers but if we were, this would be paradise. The scenery was beautiful.
This isn’t my photo, I stole it from Google Maps to give you an idea of what we saw. We have to remember to take more pictures.
We finally arrived home at 10pm. We were kind of worn out from the travel but it was a good worn out. It was a great way to waste a Saturday.
God’s Unexpected Graces
This morning I had the distinct displeasure of having my heart stress tested. It would have been fine if it was just walking on a treadmill. I have no problem with that. What I was not expecting was the IV needle they put in my arm and left there for the duration. I didn’t know how many injections were involved in a stress test! So they stuck the IV needle in so they could just stick me one time for all the injections that are involved. I don’t get along with needles.
The bright spot in the morning came after the treadmill test. I was talking to the nurse about my job situation and just off-handedly remarked that “Someone” had always taken care of my family and I and “He” always would. Even in the next life. Then she quoted a verse from the Psalms to me. To which I replied “Oh, you’re a Christian too!” She finished taking all the leads off me and as I was about to walk out she asked, “Do you mind if I pray for you?”
She held both my hands and prayed a beautiful prayer asking God to continue to care for my family and I through my job loss and search and for wisdom and for patience and… etc. Afterwards I squeezed her hands and told her what a wonderful witness for Christ she had been this day. I only regret that I didn’t pray for her too. You can bet I will pray for her tonight.
Thank you Tammy. You were a blessing to me today.
Unsettled Air
I wanted to start the week off right so I got up bright and early and tried to get a flight in before work. There was no wind at home and wind was forcast to be nil all morning. Sure enough I got out to New Jerusalem and the wind sock wasn’t moving. It seemed like the series of storms that blew through northern California over the weekend were finally gone but they left a gift for me… unsettled air. If you watch the video you’ll catch some swinging. The camera doesn’t catch it all but trust me, the air was sporty.
Air Prayer 