This is the first time I’ve ever tried to organize a fly in and I have to say, I didn’t do half bad. I have a couple of friends who own a ranch with an airstrip on it; Jack and Myrna Moyle.

Jack doesn’t fly anymore but he loves to see airplanes use his strip. So I put the word out on Backcountrypilot.org that we would be having the First Annual Red Hills Fly In. First of what I hope will be many. Here is the write-up I did for backcountrypilot.org. The names below are members of that website.

I headed out to Oakdale (O27) to have breakfast with EAA Chapter 90. Around 10am or so I packed up the plane and flew the 15 minutes it takes me to get up to Red Hills. Rfinkle and Hawk were already there. They were a little put out that I didn’t announce on the frequency we published for the fly in because they wanted to video my landing. Unfortunately I had forgotten my phone where I keep everything I know so I had forgotten the frequency. My plane is too quiet so they didn’t hear me coming until I was on final. Luckily I made a good landing since everyone was watching.

I taxied up the gravel road and had help pushing my plane back into the weeds out of the way. Then it was time to head up to the center of all activities at Red Hills, Ed and Myrna’s back porch. We hung out until Blackwater and his wife landed in his 170. Followed shortly after by Chris in his 150. After getting the 170 and the 150 parked we all headed back up to the back porch and had coffee, chips, cookies, soda, beer, and some of Myrna’s deviled eggs and some brownies she baked. We hung out on the port talking and listening to Jack tell stories for a couple hours and then Joey showed up around 4pm or so. We all probably should have been out flying but it was so much fun just sitting on the porch shooting the breeze.

We all took time to get our campsites settled in the soft green grass under the trees around Jack’s house. It really is like an oasis there among the sagebrush and bull pines. The grass was so soft you really didn’t need an air mattress. We walked around for a while, and then started to make dinner. There were burgers, kabobs, chicken, and some delicious pot roast. Blackwater’s wife Julie brought some wine she made and it was DELICIOUS! I’m not a wine drinker so that’s saying something. Chris shared some liqueur that I forget the name of but it tasted like caramel with a hint of brandy. We all sat around and talked until it got chilly and then we all turned in.
Chris slept under the stars with no tent and got several visits from one dog or another during the night who want to share his sleeping bag. Rfinkle’s left over pot roast was liberated by one of the other dogs. (These dogs are a friendly bunch and WILL be your welcoming party when you land.) They also did a good job of letting the coyotes in the distance and the quail in the bushes know that they were not welcome in our camp. They did their job… all… night… long. I still got a really good nights’ sleep.

The next morning we built a fire and huddled around it while Myna cooked everyone pancakes. As we ate breakfast we debated on where to go that morning but the wind started picking up. Many of the local strips and flying attractions had to be crossed off the list due to the breezy conditions. Joey headed off to visit a couple strips on his way home, I headed off to Oakdale, and a couple planes were going to see what conditions were like up at Columbia.

You will not find more gracious hosts than Jack and Myrna Moyle. Myrna (whom Jack calls Suzy) just could not sit still. If she wasn’t cooking us something, she simply wasn’t content. I think she sat down maybe three or four times. She really made the flyin a comfortable and well-fed experience.

Monterey Bay Academy is a strip I’d been planning on visiting for years but I kept getting conflicting info about it.  On New Year’s Day I finally just decided to show up and found out that it is indeed open to everyone.  They would prefer it not be used on Saturdays but they won’t get mad if you do land there on a Saturday.  They have a small donation bucket at the strip.  The strip sits up on a bluff that overlooks several miles of pristine sandy beach.  Here are a few pictures from my visit.

The runway and parking area are surrounded by flowers.

The view from the parking area.

No one around but me.

The runway

Took a ride down to Mercey Hot Springs today.  It’s located in the valley just below and to the west of the Panoche VOR (PXN).  They have a year round heated pool and many soak tubs.  It’s about 1 hour flight time from Oakdale (O27).  There is an 1800 foot dirt runway on the east side of the hot springs complex.  It is X’d off but pilots are welcome to land there.  The X’s are to pacify the county.   I was happy to find out that the owner didn’t even hear me come in and land.  It’s a very peaceful area and I like to do my part to keep it that way.  I spent about 2 hours soaking in the aromatic geothermally heated water.  Listened to the birds and the breeze in the trees.

Sunday morning was clear and cold.  There was dew on everything.  I left the doors open on the plane in hopes that the windshield wouldn’t fog up.  Well, the windshield was complete fogged up and covered in dew.  Even though it was very cool out I was still nervous about taking off with all my camp gear aboard.  I stowed my chair, my clothes, sleeping bag, and the wet tent I had folded up.  It felt like it weighed twice what it normally does.  I shifted it from the aft baggage to the cockpit baggage compartment just in case. Even with the towels I brought I still couldn’t satisfactorily get all the dew and fog off the windshield.  I went ahead and fired the Redbird up anyway hoping that the wind from the prop would clear everything out.

I let the engine run for about 10 minutes letting the oil heat up.  I then taxied up the hill to the run up area.  The increased power I had to use to taxi did a pretty good job of clearing off the dew and by the time I had finished my run up most of the fog was gone from the inside of the windshield.   I lined up, called my departure on the radio and began my takeoff run.  She bounced around in the grass a little but otherwise the runway felt really smooth.  I felt the tail sluggishly come up and knew I was almost at flying speed.  It would just take a few seconds longer than normal at this altitude.  I quickly glanced at my airspeed indicator as a double check for flying speed.  It registered ZERO MPH at first and then bounced up a little to 45 MPH.  That’s not flying speed.  Be that as it may the plane rose lazily into the air.  I relaxed the stick a little to stay in ground effect for a couple seconds to let the plane pick up speed.  When she had the speed she liked she began climbing even without me moving the stick.  The airspeed still only read about 55 MPH but my GPS ground speed read 75 MPH.   Figured I either had a bug or water in the pitot tube.

As I climbed out I kept to the right side of the canyon.  I made a wide, sweeping turn to the left and slowly came back over the field while keeping my right wing near the trees.  The plane was climbing good now and I slowly made my way up out of the canyon.  About the time I crested the canyon my ASI came alive and read correctly.  So I had water in my pitot tube and it had finally all evaporated.

The canyon seemed dark but as I climbed out it was bright and sunny above.  I punched Cascade, ID (U70) and slowly turned on course to top off my tanks before heading to Bend, OR.

Cascade is in a beautiful valley next to Cascade lake.  I landed and the friendly FBO attendant topped me off.  I then took off and headed west toward Bend, Or (KBDN).

The flight to Bend was pretty and largely smooth.  It didn’t get bumpy until I was descending into the pattern.  The scenery was amazing.

My friends picked me up at the airport and took me to their home so I could clean up.  We went into town and ejoyed The Bite of Bend.  It’s a festival where they close off the downtown streets and all the restaurants open up booths on the street.  I had some great red curry there from a Thai place.  It was about 103 and their kids were getting hot and cranky so we all headed back home to cool off and think about dinner.  We had a great pizza together and headed back home.  After the kids got to bed I finally got to talk to my friends.  It was great to catch up.  Again, these were people I knew from the Internet but had never met in real life.  I can’t wait to see them again some time. They are great people!  So great in fact that they got up at 5:30 to take me back to the airport!

I had already tanked up when I landed in Bend so as soon as I had the plane ready I took off again and headed south.  This was the most turbulent part of the trip.  Even at 6am I was still getting some pretty significant bumps until I had reached Klammath Lake where it smoothed out finally.   I tried to enjoy the scenery but the homeward legs are always the longest legs of any trip.

One thing I noticed was that it was sever clear when I took off but as I headed south, a haze from the north started to follow and then over take me.  It still didn’t detract from the scenery.

When Mt. Shasta came into view I knew I was almost home.

Along with Shastina, Mt. Shasta’s smaller neighbor.  Both are dormant volcanoes.

Once I passed Castle Crags, I could see my enroute fuel stop, Redding.

And there, just beyond Lake Shasta, lay my big valley…

I topped my fuel tanks off quickly at Redding.  It was 9:00am and already getting pretty hot.  I was back in the air and southbound in 15 minutes.  I didn’t even need the GPS to get home from here.  Pretty easy. Just head southeast until you pass Sutter Buttes…

Keep heading south until you pass over Sacramento…

And then the old Rancho Seco nuclear power plant…

And 20 minutes later I was landing back at Oakdale!

This was definitely on of the funner long cross country trips I have been on with my plane.  I have flow to Oshkosh and Oklahoma but those were really long and tiring trips.  This was wasn’t that long and had GREAT people at every stop I made.  I logged about 14 hours, covered about 1500 miles of ground, and saw some of the most beautiful geography in the country.  It’s a trip I would recommend to anyone. But first I would recommend a good mountain check out, and brush up on your short and soft field procedures.

Fly safe.

My first fill day at Johnson Creek had me waking up at 6:30am to the sound of an airplane taking off.  Since you are in such close proximity to the runway they take off practically right over your head.  Nothing like the supersonic cracks of a constant speed propeller waking you up in the morning!  The early bird was joined by an almost constant precession of airplanes taking off.  I decided to stay in my sleeping bag because it was COLD!  Hard to believe it would get up almost to 100 degress later in the day.

I enjoyed a nice leisurely breakfast of the provisions I had brought along.  Given the previous days’ events I decided to just hang around the campgrounds.  It was a beautiful place why go anywhere?  I spent the morning catching up with friends I have known for years via the Internet but never met in real life.  Later on we drove into town in one of the courtesy vans to have lunch.  The food in Yellow Pine was mediocre but the company was great!  Glenn Mathis and his wife Gwenn, and Tracy and Neil Salmi formerly of Rans.  I got some great flying tips from Tracy and Neil, both of whom know Rans airplanes like the back of their hands.

Saturday night was the big potluck.  There were probably about 80 people present and there was PLENTY of food.  Lots of leftovers.  The highlight of dinner was the home made ice cream  Apparently in years past they had run out but not this time.  There was enough ice cream for seconds and thirds and even the kids that were there got tired of eating ice cream.  After dinner a raffle was held.  The prizes included aircraft oil, tie down kits, fuel bags, and even a Hawaiian vacation and a ski trip.  What was kind of ironic was that the person who donated the Hawaiian vacation won the ski trip.  Can you say “rigged?”

After the dinner and raffle there was even a band who played for an hour or so.  Yes, they hauled in their instruments and amplifiers and all by plane!  There was much revelry into the evening but I am not a night owl.  I walked among the various groups of campers visiting for a while.  Everyone was friendly and offered me a seat.  But my mind was already on the next morning’s departure so I didn’t stay up too late.  I headed back to my tent and fell off asleep pretty quickly.