Had a great time with my flying buddy Jordan this past Saturday. We rented the trusty little Cessna 152 from Oakdale Aero Club and flew out to Auburn for breakfast. It’s called the Wings Grill and Espresso Bar and they serve a great breakfast. Jordan and I got there before the breakfast rush and sat out on the patio and watched the takeoffs and landings while we had breakfast. What a GREAT way to spend a morning.
I don’t know which was better, eating breakfast and walking around the airport looking at the airplanes and talking to the odd pilot here and there, or the flight over and back.
Who am I kidding, I know which was funner. Have a look for yourself. Here are two videos, the first taken by my camera, the second by Jordan. Enjoy the trip!
(And yes, I AM going to work on my on-camera personality!)
This past weekend Cristy and I decided to get away for a few days so we loaded up the trailer and headed for Flying Flags RV Resort in Lodi, CA. It’s located just off I-5 and Highway 12 just west of Lodi. I wouldn’t really call it a resort. The spaces were close together and there is no greenery… just rocks. But it’s very clean and quiet so it made an ideal base for our weekend in Lodi. We used our Passport America membership to effectively get 1/2 off the price for two days. Very worth it.
We got to Flying Flags around 12 noon which is their check-in time. The front desk staff quickly found my reservation and gave me all the info I needed as far as where our space was, WiFi passwords, pools, bathrooms, etc. We found our space and within an hour were all set up, sitting in the dinette with the AC blowing full blast. It was already quite warm outside by this time.
I was eager to try my new X-Chocks. Even with our wheels chocked the trailer still rocked quite a bit whenever we would move around inside. With the X-chocks in place the trailer was almost rock solid. Very pleased with this latest purchase.
We channel surfed TV for a bit then decided it was nap time. Yay! My favorite time of day! After napping we began looking for a place to have dinner. Cristy already knew exactly where she wanted to eat: Thai Spices in Lodi. VERY good Thai food there. After dinner we headed back to the trailer and tried sitting under the awning to watch the sunset and enjoy the Delta breezes cooling down our hot valley. UNFORTUNATELY the folks in the next space over decided to enjoy a nice LONG cigar. It chased us back indoors where we had to close all the windows and turn the AC back on. This was really the only downside to the whole trip. Luckily they left the next morning. But for the remainder of the evening we watched a movie I had downloaded onto my iPad and then called it a night.
The next morning I went out and sat under the awning and read a recent issue of General Aviation News – a rare treat. I never get to just sit and read aviation news. I did that partially to enjoy the cool morning and partially to just get out of the trailer so Cristy could sleep in. When I heard her stirring within I went back inside and we had breakfast. We decided we wanted to do some walking but not as long as our walk around Pinecrest Lake and looked around for a place to do that. We decided to go to Lodi Lake Park which was just up the street from Thai Spices.
We parked on the south side of the lake first and then walked on the west shore of the lake ending up in a Masonic cemetery. Many of the tombstones were very ornate (because… they’re Masons) and dated back to the early 1800’s. We poked around in the cemetery for awhile until the “noseeums” started eating us up then we headed back towards the parking lot. We stopped at a bench along the way and sat and watched a pack of kayakers enjoying the morning out on the lake. Then we headed back to the parking lot and wanted to see what else the park had to offer.
The lake is actually a large lagoon connected to the Cosumnes River. We looked at the park map and found a few more parking lots over near the river so we headed over there. Just in time as it turns out because by this time the park was beginning to fill up with people having picnics and birthday parties. We parked and then walked a nature trail that ran along the river then back through the riparian forest that grows along side the river. We enjoyed the many interpretive signs along the trail.
By now it was 1pm and we were both getting hungry. HEY! Thai Spices is just a mile up the road, let’s head there! Good idea! So after lunch at Thai Spices we headed back to the RV park for some more reading and napping. But we also had something special to get ready for in Modesto. Our daughter Angela was playing her music on the patio at church that evening. This is an event our church puts on in the summer. They invite member musicians to play music on their large patio and the church serves free hot dogs, or pizza, or snow cones or something. It’s just a safe place for people to go, get something to eat, and hang out. At any rate we really enjoyed Angela’s music. Here is a small sample of what she did that night.
We really enjoyed listening to her. Afterwards we headed back to the RV park for another movie and then bed. At least this time we could open the windows because the cigar smokers were gone!
Sunday morning I woke up and did pretty much the same thing as Saturday morning. After breakfast we watched church on their live Internet video stream, packed up, and headed back home. All in all a great weekend getaway!
It was the first day of my RV trip with Cristy so like all good campers I decided to start the day with an airplane flight!
I didn’t have any real destination in mind but I did have one goal: to make an aeronautical check-in on the SARA Morning Traffic and Information Net. It’s the Ham radio group I belong to. They have a get-together over radio every weekday morning. I wanted to check in from the airplane.
After the Ham radio check in I just flew around the foothills for a while enjoying the beautiful morning. It wasn’t a long or special flight but it was nice and relaxing.
Here is a video of the approach and landing back at Oakdale.
And here is the little beast I was flying.
And from there the day just got better when I went camping with Cristy. More on that in my next posting.
I received an email from my brother in the faith, Daniel Jones, who is a missionary in Mexico. Here is his email:
Hello brother Scott,
Well, I finally broke the ice and made the trips this week to the Sierras to do the Bible studies, in your Rans! It behaved very well and I am super pleased with it. I only had one problem yesterday when it stopped charging but I think that it’s just a loose wire someplace that we will try and track down tomorrow.
So, it’s now taken me to 5 different communities that I can only get to by plane. (Unless I want to spend an average of 17 hours to 1..which I don’t)
Here is a video that I just posted.
God bless you and thanks for the prayers and a great plane!
Daniel
And this is the video Daniel sent:
I can’t tell you what good it does my heart to see my airplane being the hands, feet, and WINGS of Christ in the mission field I have no doubt that Daniel will put it to good use. If I can boast in anything it’s in helping further the work of Jesus Christ.
Click here to learn more about Rancho Maranatha and their mission.
Independence Day is already here again. Seems like it was just yesterday. Our yearly ritual is to walk down to our neighbors two doors down and set off fireworks with them. Seems like we only really get to see them on the 4th of July. Every year we laugh and say, “Is it the 4th of July already?” And when we’re done “Well, see you next year!” Then it seems like a few weeks go by and it’s 4th of July again!
I decided to start my celebration by taking a flight with my flying buddy Jordan. I had the plane scheduled for today and asked him if he wanted to come along. He got permission from the home office so we made a plan to fly to Hollister. Unfortunately the weather was not cooperating. Right after we took off from Oakdale I could see some wisps of fog on the hills on the west side of the valley. As we got closer it became more and more apparent that everything west of the Diablo Range was fogged in.
We overflew the range just to be sure but… we were pretty sure.
So for the second flight in a row we landed at Los Banos to swap seats. Jordan flew the outbound leg this time so it was up to me to fly us home. Before we left we walked around the ramp and checked out a really cool P210 with a turbine engine. This thing was loaded for bear!
On the way back to the airplane we decided that we would head to a non-foggy destination next time. Auburn! It’s a nice flight over the foothills. Auburn has a slightly challenging downhill runway and a great restaurant on the field. I have to admit looking forward to flying there because I never thought I’d fly an airplane in to Auburn again.
It was a little breezy in Lost Bananas (Los Banos) but we got off the ground just fine. We climbed up above the mechanical turbulence from the hills and found silky smooth air at 2500 feet MSL (Mean Sea Level, that’s how pilots usually measure altitude) (but not always). We tracked northbound over Gustine, Crows Landing Airport, Patterson, and Westley. We overflew a friend’s strip in Grayson called DelMar.
It was getting close to the end of our rental window so I turned eastward and flew just north of Modesto’s airspace (the dotted blue circle around Modesto). Then we flew a nice easy pattern into Oakdale at 1100 MSL! (That’s an inside joke between Jordan and I.)
All in all it was a great morning and a great flight. Jordan’s an excellent pilot so it gives me time to relax and really look around, something I can’t normally do. Can’t wait for the next flight!
So if you’ve read this blog for very long… all three of you… you know that I’m an avid pilot, builder, and lover of all things aviation. You’ll also know that I love Christ above all. That’s why I was thrilled to receive an email from my brother in Christ, Daniel Jones, who is with a missionary organization in Mexico called Rancho Maranatha. He wrote to tell me that my plane had finally arrived at it’s new home! Here is a link to their newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/8e66f1a95d42/the-new-plane-is-here
Last week while going over the flight planning calendar for the Oakdale Aero Club I noticed my buddy Jordan had an airplane scheduled for Monday morning. All the other desirable days were booked or the weather report had high winds forecast. I texted Jordan and asked if he’d like to split the rental. He texted back that it sounded like a great idea. So we met up out at Oakdale Municipal Airport at 0600. The plane got a very thorough preflight inspection as two pilots both performed the inspection. It’s hard to break old habits. We decided that I would fly first, then we would land and change seats and Jordan would fly us home.
I started the plane and taxied out to the run-up area at the 28 end of the airport. I performed the run up and then called on the radio, “Oakdale traffic, Cessna 895 departing runway 28 to the south, Oakdale.” I lined up on the runway centerline and held the brakes until the engine came up to full RPMs and the released the brakes. We started rolling down the runway. At 50 KNOTS I pulled back on the yoke slightly to rotate (raise the nosewheel off the ground). At 60 KNOTS the airplane gently rose off the runway. As it was a warm morning I let the airplane accelerate to 80 KNOTS for engine cooling and we climbed up into the buttery smooth air.
UPDATE: Jordan shot some video of the takeoff and finally got it to me. Here it is:
So… we were actually having more fun than it appears here. 🙂
I turned on course for Los Banos Airport, trimmed the airplane up, and it pretty much flew itself to Los Banos. There was not a hint of air movement, the little Cessna felt like it was riding on rails. We cruised southbound over Geer Rd at 2500 feet above sea level (MSL). About 30 minutes later we were pulling onto the downwind portion of the traffic pattern. I flew the approach and made an OK landing. Not one of my best but definitely not bad for only 3 hours sleep (long story).
After landing we switched seats and then Jordan taxied out to runway 32. One more we were climbing up into the warm, smooth June air.
The flight back was just as smooth as the flight over. Jordan executed a flawless approach and landing though I couldn’t resist having a little fun with the camera.
After landing we handed the aircraft off to the next set of renters and both drove to work having enjoyed a morning of amazing aircraftery, and save a few bucks in the process by splitting the rental. I see many more mornings ahead of us.
Normally I would be up at the Red Hills Fly In camping with some old friends. But my back surgery has me sticking to my nice soft mattress rather than sleeping on on the ground in a tent! But Cristy and I did decided to go up and spend Saturday with all our intrepid pilot friends. The fly in is usually held over Memorial Day weekend, however the weather last week (which was Memorial Day) was calling for scattered rain showers which makes for a muddy sticky runway. So we postponed until this weekend.
Cristy and I made the one hour drive in my truck up to Jack and Myrna Moyle’s airstrip in the Red Hills. Truth be told it’s actually quicker to drive up than to fly. If we flew, it would be a half hour drive to the airport, half hour to get the airplane ready, and a half hour to fly there. Driving… is… quicker. But most other pilots come from much farther away so travelling by airplane is the way to go. Plus, it’s an airstrip. Who want’s to drive all that way to an airstrip?!
We arrived at about 10:30am and greeted our old friends. Most of the day was spent sitting around talking and snacking. It was PERFECT weather to enjoy sitting under the trees watching the airplanes land and take off.
The funnest part of the entire day is just catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. We really enjoyed our afternoon at Jack and Myrna’s and we will definitely be back to spend the night which we unfortunately could not this time. Just love those folks!
For the first time in four years I flew a fixed wing aircraft solo today. I took my biennial flight review and got checked out in Oakdale Aero Club’s Cessna 152. This morning I took it out solo. It was a beautiful morning. There were still some clouds around from yesterday’s storms. It made for a beautiful sunrise, golden skies not red. A good sign.
I got the airplane ready to go, performed my run-up, radioed my intentions, and back-taxied to runway 28 at Oakdale. They are doing construction on the airport and all the taxiways are closed so we have to taxi down the middle of the runway to takeoff. This is called back-taxiing. I lined up on the runway, radioed once more and took off. I departed left downwind and flew towards the Sierra foothills.
I flew eastward until I reached the hills on the west side of Salt Spring Valley and then turned north. I knew that the morning Ham radio net was going so I pulled out my HT (handheld transceiver) and tuned into the SARA repeater. As today is Memorial Day it was a smaller group of folks on the net and wouldn’t be going as long as the regular weekday net. So when I heard a pause I keyed my radio and said “BREAK”. Net control told me to go ahead and I checked in, “This is N6SVA, aeronautical”. That’s a fun thing for Ham folks. They love talking to Ham operators that are in out of the ordinary situations. A Ham operator flying an airplane qualifies. So checking in to the morning net was a fun thing for me too. I checked in a couple of times telling them what the weather looked liked, where I was, my altitude, stuff like that. They loved it and I thought it was fun too.
After the net ended I turned my HT off and just enjoyed flying around a bit. I thought it would be fun to fly over to New Jerusalem where I had flown my powered parachute and powered paraglider so much. It felt odd approaching the field from 2500 feet MSL as I hadn’t flown over 500 feet above the ground in four years! I had a little difficulty finding the field because it had been so long since I had seen the field from that height. I finally found the field and entered the pattern on a left crosswind. I flew the pattern and made a landing that… well… let’s just say I’m a little rusty. No metal was bent, no wheels popped, and the airplane will live to fly another day but it wasn’t one of my trademark smooth landings.
I taxied back and took off and headed back to Oakdale. Happily my landing at Oakdale was MUCH better. I taxied over to the fuel pump and topped the tanks off for the next guy. All in all it was a wonderful morning but I can see that I need to get out on a few more wonderful mornings and knock this rust off.
Well after 4 years away from fixed-wing aircraft flying both my powered-paraglider and my powered-parachute, I am now flying a Cessna 152 owned by a local flying club. Why did I get away from parachute-type aircraft? I was starting to miss flying longer distances and missed the speed and utility of fixed wing aircraft. But ultimately I believe it was a God thing. It goes like this…
About a month ago I got a letter from the United States Ultralight Association which is an advocacy organization for ultralight type aircraft of which both my parachutes were. The letter was informing members that their insurance carrier had decided to stop insuring ultralight aircraft and that at that point there was no other insurance carrier willing to insure their members. So starting at the end of May 2019 I would no longer be insured.
Two weeks later I got a call out of the blue from someone asking if my powered parachute was still for sale. It wasn’t but really, everything is always for sale. I told him that it was. He asked for my “bottom line” price to sell it. I quote him a reasonable price for both the powered parachute and the trailer. After some back and forth on when and how he could see it he showed up the Saturday following that phone call, gave my my price in cash, and drove it back home to Arizona.
The events and their timing made it pretty obvious to me that God’s hand was moving in my life. For whatever reason I was being steered back to fixed wing aviation. So to that end I joined the Oakdale Aero Club and this morning got my biennial flight review and club checkout done at the same time. So as of now I am once again a fixed wing pilot. It will be nice to be able to fly to other airports again. Especially with my buddy Jordan. We’ll probably do some flying together in order to save costs. Stay tuned for more flying adventures!
Well after 4 years away from fixed-wing aircraft flying both my 
Air Prayer 