With getting prepared for Christmas and the bad weather I haven’t been able to fly much.  Then on the 26th we finally had some good weather!  I jumped in the plane and headed up to Jack Moyle’s strip up in the Red Hills.  As usually his three dogs came bolting out at the airplane before I had even shut down.  That’s quite the sight the first time you see these three bruisers running at you.  But they are in fact the welcoming committee and did their job just fine.

Jack came out and met me and we walked back up to his house.  Myrna met us as we came in from the cold.  I handed them a gift-wrapped box of chocolates as a Christmas gift.  Well, since it was the 26th I guess that could be considered Boxing Day.  We had a nice visit and caught up with what has been happening the last few months.  Jack and Myrna are still having their Easter get together to which all pilots are invited.  We also set the date for the 2nd Annual Red Hills Fly In for Memorial Day weekend.  A great way to kick off the summer flying season!

Jack had things to do as did I so this was a relatively short visit.  They are the most wonderful folks you could ever hope to meet.  Jack had just rolled the strip and with the recent rains it looks absolutely wonderful.

It’s taken me a few weeks to actually write about my flying camping trip in Nevada.  There are several reasons which will become apparent.

I was originally scheduled to depart on Monday but decided I needed an extra day to get ready and that gave me one more day with Cristy anyway.   So after loading the plane up on Monday afternoon I was ready for a Tuesday morning departure.  The plan was to fly up to Owyhee Reservoir in eastern Oregon and camp a couple of nights there, then head down to the High Sierra Fly In near Yerington, NV.  That WAS the plan.

It was a beautiful clear Autumn morning.  I flew direct from Oakdale, via Georgetown, then on to Susanville.  I like this route because it is a lower route over the Sierras.  The only downside is, you’re over them that much longer.  But since I was heading north anyway, this seemed the best way to go.  I landed in Susanville for fuel but was delayed an hour there.  One fuel truck was out of fuel and the other one wouldn’t start up.  And the motor needs to run for it to pump fuel.  So I had to wait while the line gal drove the empty fuel truck out to their fuel depot to fill it back up.

After finally fueling up in Susanville I departed again to the north.  It was getting pretty late in the morning and the bumps were already starting.  I still had 5 hours to go to get to Owyhee and I decided that I didn’t want to spend 5 hours in the bumps.  I elected to divert to Solider Meadows instead.  Soldier Meadows is a working cattle ranch that is also a bed and breakfast in.  They also allow camping.  They also have an air strip!  However, I figured (wrongly) that I would not have enough fuel to reach Solder Meadows and have enough fuel to get to the next airport.  So as it happened when I came to that realization (again, wrongly) I was flying over the Black Rock Desert.  Now they have the Burning Man festival there every year and I know they land airplanes down there.  I thought it might be fun to camp on a huge dry lakebed.

So I flew around and looked for a likely landing spot.  I found an area that seemed okay.  I set up for my landing.  As the wheels touched down everything felt fine so I allowed the plane to slow… and then my wheels broke through the surface crust!   I felt the sudden deceleration and instantly knew what was happening.  I put in full throttle but the plane wouldn’t accelerate!  I looked down at my main wheels and they were rolling but were up to the axles in hard crust and mud underneath!  My tailwheel was acting like a plow blade, just dragging along below the surface crust.  I was able to jockey my tail up into the air but then the mains sunk even deeper and I felt the airplane starting to nose over!  Bad.  I relaxed the stick and the tailwheel went back to being stuck in the mud below the surface.

I finally slammed the stick back and forth a few times and that was enough to keep the tail up and the mains finally climbed atop the crust.  It only took a few seconds of that and the airplane was airborne again!  I climbed out and pointed myself straight for Winnemucca!  I decided at this point I would much rather stay in a hotel, get a hot shower, and sleep the rest of the day!

I landed in Winnemucca.  I fueled up at the self-service fuel pump.  The VERY pretty line girl came out to help anyway and told me all about the airplane she had just bought and how she wanted to fix it up.  I asked her if she was married (not for me), I told her I couldn’t believe that.  She was a young pilot’s dream.  I also noticed some water under my plane.  Dang.  It turned out that one of the guys in the main hangar was a light sport mechanic.  He offered to take a look.  He found several loose hose connections and tightened them up for me.  He refused to take any money!  After that the line girl offered me their courtesy car.  I drove into town, got a hotel, took that hot shower, and then rested the remainder of the day.

The next day was much better.  I drove back out to the airport, returned the keys to the car, hopped in my airplane, took off and started following I-80 southwest.  Once I got to Lovelock I skirted the restricted airspace to my east and then continued on towards Yerington.  The actual destination was 11 nm northwest of Yerington in a dry lakebed that we call “Three Shotgun Shells.”  It’s called that because that’s what the guy who landed there first found.   As I approached I saw a camper and an airplane already on the ground.  I tuned to our pre-arranged radio frequency for the lakebed and called my intentions to land to the east.  I heard our event organizer Kevin welcome me and told me the lakebed was in great shape.  I was a little nervous given the previous day’s events.  Especially when  turned final; the lakebed was shiny, like it was wet.  I was assured it was hard as concrete and when I touched down and rolled out, it was indeed harder and smoother than my home airport.

I turned and taxied to the south side of the lakebed, being directed to miss some debris that had not yet been cleaned up.  I picked a good spot to camp and then shut the airplane down.  I spent the next hour or so setting up my tent, putting in the ground anchors to tie my airplane down, and then just relaxing under the wing of the plane.  Soon another early arrival showed up.  A super nice guy by the name of Wally who does REALLY interesting things in the Middle East when he isn’t flying in the desert.  I mostly just relaxed the rest of the day, watched the sun set, ate my MRE for dinner, then relaxed around a fire with Kevin and Wally.  This was as peaceful as the event would be.

The next day we flew to Minden to meet some of the guys that were flying in early. (Ha!).  We had a great breakfast at the Taildragger Café.  I did some local site seeing by air, flew to Yerrington to get fuel and call Cristy (there was only spotty cell coverage at the lakebed) and then back up to Three Shotgun Shells to relax and watch the arrivals for the rest of the day.

The next day, Friday, was the first actual day of the fly in.  Kevin held an early morning safety briefing.  He talked about what frequencies we should use, what places were available for landings, etc.  Each landing zone was classified by skill level, did you need big tires, etc.  I elected to go to the wimpy landing spots for guys with little tires and little experience.  I could probably handle tougher spots but I don’t feel the need to do that.  The first place our group landed was a place called The Long Road. It was just a long dirt road.

It was while here that we surprised an old guy that was camping just off the road.  I wonder what he thought seeing all these airplanes come taxiing over the hill?  It was also here that we heard a loud bang.  That bang was a tire being blown by a gentleman landing his plane at one of the tougher spots up the hill.  He hit a concrete block with his landing gear and pretty much totaled his airplane.  He spent the rest of the flyin driving back to southern California with his buddies to pick up a truck and trailer to haul his broken airplane home.  THIS is why I only land in the sissy spots.

The sissy group took off again and we landed at a couple more spots before heading back to Three Shotgun Shells.  I actually left a little early to gas up in Yerington, buy lunch, and call Cristy.

A dry lakebed called “Far East”

That’s Wally leaning on me.  This was one of the many dry lakebeds we landed in on this trip.  This one was called “Split Second Decision”

The next day the fly in was in full force!  All in all by the end of Saturday we had 103 airplanes camping on the lakebed!

Saturday morning consisted of more fly-outs and breakfast runs.  There were a lot of planes in the groups.  Too many for my comfort so I just went off on my own and filmed some video.  Here is what I came up with.  This is a video of me landing at Far East, and Three Shotgun Shells. Sorry no pretty music, just engine and wind noise.

Saturday night was the crown jewel of the event!  We had a free catered dinner provided by Men Wielding Fire.  We had fireworks, we had a flame thrower, we had a bonfire!  Lost of camaraderie and good times.

But almost like a foreshadowing of things to come, a gentle breeze started around 9pm. By 10pm it had picked up.  By 11pm when I was heading to bed, it started blowing harder.  By 1am, my tent was laying down on top of me.  I’d estimate it was blowing 40 kts gusting to 50.  This went on until about 4am when the wind finally died down enough that I could stand my tent back up.  I fell asleep for about two hours and then woke up at 6am and started breaking down my camp.  It was still a little breezy but not bad.  And the breeze was out of the east now rather than the north.  We were taking off to the east and the breeze would help all our heavy airplanes got off the ground that much earlier.

I could up with my buddy Joey Myers and asked him if he’d like to fly back as a flight of 2.  Always nice to have company over the mountains.  He readily agreed and we fired up and taxied out.  Joey got out to the run up area first.  I halted my taxi for another airplane; Tyler Adams in his Savannah.  His engine was running and I thought he wanted to taxi out as well.  He did not. He throttled up and took off to the north rather than to the east as others were doing.  He rolled maybe 150 feet and was climbing.  I waited for the dust to settle and then continued my taxi.  I got to the runup area and was just starting my pretakeoff checks when someone called on the radio “Guys, we have one down.”  I looked up to see a fireball trailing thick smoke coming down from the north side of the lakebed.  There was debris fluttering down all around the smoke.

It was Tyler.  I thought that his wings came off or something.  It was right where he would have been.  I came to find out that another airplane, a Cessna 170 piloted by Tom Weis that was on downwind struck him.  Both men died instantly.  Lots of people ran over the small rise to try to help.  I elected to just kneel beside my airplane and pray for the men and their families.  I knew both of them online at backcountrypilot.org where we all met and planned this fly in.  But I only met them in person at this event.  I still considered them good friends since I had known them for several years.  After praying for a while I got back in my airplane and took off.

The wind was still blowing pretty good up at altitude.  My airplane which only goes about 100 MPH was showing a ground speed of 137 MPH.  It was relatively smooth until I reached Lake Tahoe.  It started getting bumpy and then I had to swerve to avoid two airplanes coming from Lake Tahoe at the wrong altitude.  A near mid-air of my own.  The ride over the mountains was bumpy and unnerving.  I followed Hwy 50 all the way to the valley and then hung a left to head south.  20 minutes later I was making a lousy landing at Oakdale.  I didn’t care.  I was home safe.  I would see my family and take a hot shower and be able to hold my wife all night, unlike my two friends.

So would I go again?  You bet I would!  How do I feel about this trip?  Bittersweet.  I love the fun we had and the camaraderie.  It is so refreshing to spend time with a couple hundred people who really understand you.  It’s refreshing to spend time alone with your thoughts in the middle of nowhere.  Losing Tyler and Tom was a punch to the gut.  I have been blaming myself off and on… if only I had not stopped my taxi and made Tyler wait…  But I remind myself that it isn’t my fault.  It’s no one’s fault.  We had two able pilots in the pattern.  It was their responsibility to see and avoid.  Plus, sometimes accidents just happen. They are no one’s fault.  I take consolation that these men spent their last hours on earth doing something they loved with a bunch of kindred spirits.  I also take consolation that when it’s my turn… God will catch me.

God bless you both Tyler and Tom.  May God provide for your families.   You have seen the face of Christ and no longer worry about this life.  Hope to see you both again one day.

 

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.

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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.