Here is the raw footage as I got it from Red Hills this year. It’s nothing special but it was fun. Enjoy!
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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.
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!
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.
Red Hills Work Party Rescheduled
Yesterday a small group of us were supposed to drive up to the Red Hills Strip to help the
owner, Jack, remove a tree that is leaning dangerously close to the runway. If you look just left of the airplane in this photo you will see the tree.
The plan was to cut this tree down and one other dead tree on the property also located next to the runway. However, weather did not cooperate. Two of the folks in our work party, who also had the chainsaw, were going to fly in. Since there are no IFR approaches to this runway (unless you count the railroad tracks that run next to it) it was decided that we would postpone the work party. Even if they drove up the rain would make for slick footing which is not optimal for working with chainsaws.
The the bright side of the rain this past weekend is that it ought to make the Red Hills stay absolutely beautiful for our Memorial Day Fly-In!
Surveying the PPG Field at Oakdale
I wanted to get in an evening flight today and after consulting my favorite wind forecasting website Windyty it seemed like winds might be favorable. I packed up my PPG gear, hitched up the trailer, and drove out to Oakdale. However, when I got there there the
air was pretty unsettled. There were thunderstorms nearby that were falling appart so it was actually pretty windy out at the airport. I knew I wouldn’t be able to fly so I decided to take another look at the area on the airport that I would like to have developed as a PPG area.
A friend with earth moving equipment said he can level the area for us but I’m going to approach the city about reimbursing him for expenses. My buddy seems to think it would be a relatively minor thing to flatten it out. I hope so. I’d love to keep flying from Oakdale. Here are some shots of the affected area.
A Few Good Pictures
Just wanted to add a few stills from Saturday’s flight video. I just like these because I love that view of the runway. Landing is always my favorite part of a flight. I also like how my shadow shows up in these captures.
Air Prayer 