I already posted about our flight to UT here, but now I've got a video to add.
Showing posts with label Inyokern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Inyokern. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Saturday, December 27, 2008
We made it to UT!
Michelle and I have been anticipating our trip to UT for a while now and we finally made it. We had to cancel last week due to weather and we almost had to cancel this week, but we shifted the trip a day instead to be Sat, Sun, Mon instead of Fri, Sat, Sun.
The air temperature at Inyokern was about 28 degrees so I really would have liked a preheat, but we don't have those services available. I've been trying to get into a hanger since I got the airplane, but the manager still hasn't worked anything out for me. I'm not sure if it helps at all, but the morning sun was shining under the shade hanger and directly on the nose of the airplane, I'll never know if this lessened the crime. I backed the airplane out to get some sun on the tail to get rid of the trace frost on the elevator, which was gone quickly.
The flight was absolutely wonderful, this is what flying is all about!!! The heater worked just fine to keep us comfortable, but the cool air made for an extremely smooth flight. The snow covering the landscape made it even more scenic. I was cleared through China Lake and Echo restricted airspaces and we headed right for Vegas. Unfortunately, we didn't get to directly overfly Vegas and Lake Mead since we'd interfere with the Las Vegas airline traffic.
The scenery got incredibly better the further we got into Utah. We overflew Zion and circled around getting some pretty good video. It was difficult to find slot canyons that Zion is such famously known for. After flying around Zion, we descended and headed towards Cedar City. The winds were calm so we entered a right downwind for right traffic for runway 20, the calm wind runway. As we were flying parallel to the runway, I called and asked for the conditions of the runway, which were reported as pretty clear and dry. The runway looked pretty patchy with snow and ice, but the landing was uneventful and I rolled without using brakes until I slowed down and wouldn't have to worry about skidding or sliding.
The local FBO had some space available and I was able to put it into their heated hanger. This will eliminate the need for a preheat and prevent frost from forming on the airframe. My Uncle Errol met us at the airport and took us to check into our hotel room. We got some quick lunch then went back to go over the plan for tomorrow where we're going to do a scenic overflight of Lake Powell and several surrounding National Parks. Errol's daughter Kimberly invited us over to dinner and we enjoyed an excellent spaghetti dinner where we met her daughter Tarren (sp?).
Here's a picture of the four of us at Kimberly's house. I'll post again once I have the videos downloaded.
The air temperature at Inyokern was about 28 degrees so I really would have liked a preheat, but we don't have those services available. I've been trying to get into a hanger since I got the airplane, but the manager still hasn't worked anything out for me. I'm not sure if it helps at all, but the morning sun was shining under the shade hanger and directly on the nose of the airplane, I'll never know if this lessened the crime. I backed the airplane out to get some sun on the tail to get rid of the trace frost on the elevator, which was gone quickly.
The flight was absolutely wonderful, this is what flying is all about!!! The heater worked just fine to keep us comfortable, but the cool air made for an extremely smooth flight. The snow covering the landscape made it even more scenic. I was cleared through China Lake and Echo restricted airspaces and we headed right for Vegas. Unfortunately, we didn't get to directly overfly Vegas and Lake Mead since we'd interfere with the Las Vegas airline traffic.
The scenery got incredibly better the further we got into Utah. We overflew Zion and circled around getting some pretty good video. It was difficult to find slot canyons that Zion is such famously known for. After flying around Zion, we descended and headed towards Cedar City. The winds were calm so we entered a right downwind for right traffic for runway 20, the calm wind runway. As we were flying parallel to the runway, I called and asked for the conditions of the runway, which were reported as pretty clear and dry. The runway looked pretty patchy with snow and ice, but the landing was uneventful and I rolled without using brakes until I slowed down and wouldn't have to worry about skidding or sliding.
The local FBO had some space available and I was able to put it into their heated hanger. This will eliminate the need for a preheat and prevent frost from forming on the airframe. My Uncle Errol met us at the airport and took us to check into our hotel room. We got some quick lunch then went back to go over the plan for tomorrow where we're going to do a scenic overflight of Lake Powell and several surrounding National Parks. Errol's daughter Kimberly invited us over to dinner and we enjoyed an excellent spaghetti dinner where we met her daughter Tarren (sp?).
Here's a picture of the four of us at Kimberly's house. I'll post again once I have the videos downloaded.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
N951CC flight to Mojave, December 20th 2008
Since we didn't get to fly to Tehachapi last week for the anniversary of our engagement, we decided to try again. This time instead of the winter storm preventing us from getting there, there were some clouds in the valley, but worse there were notices to airmen for ice and 6 inches of snow on the airport. We decided to Rosemond instead, we went there a while ago and they had a great buffet.
Rosemond doesn't have any wind information so I got my wind information from the nearby Mojave airport light out of the east (070@4). Since Rosemond prefers runway 25 in light winds to avoid overflying the nearby houses, I decided to land runway 25 (with the wind). After turning to final I noticed that even though my airspeed was right at my normal approach speed I was significantly faster over the ground than expected. I was able to compensate, but it wasn't the prettiest landing, I should probably intentially practice these. They are not standard landings and are rarely done, but sometimes a downwind landing is safer due to terrain (such as Kernville).
Unfortunately the restaurant wasn't open, they changed their hours to open at 4pm instead of 11am except for Sundays. Great now the last two restaurants we've gone to have been closed, next time I should check! We decided to fly back to Mojave since we've been there more recently and it's a very short flight on the way home. Mojave was open, but they were extremely slow since Scaled composites (Burt Rutan's company) had brought a large party in (we didn't see Burt or Dick). There was only 1 waitress and she was very overworked. The food was excellent as usually and I filled up with cheap gas before we took back off for home.
On the way home, I decided to try to find Kelso valley. Our neighbor lent me a book about flying around here in the olden days. It's a very intersting book to read. A woman wrote the book about her and flying adventures with her husband who flew into all sorts of crazy places; mostly dried lakes and old dirt roads. One of the locations they flew into was Kelso valley and I think I knew where it was. I looked on Google Earth and I think I could see a desert scar from a runway decades ago.
The air was extremely smooth so we flew low over the mountains and I believe I found the right valley. It was easily wide enough to descend down into and land. There were a few homesteads scattered around, but I didn't see the runway. I think it was buried in the snow. After flying over this valley, we cut back over to the Owen's valley and flew back to Inyokern.
Rosemond doesn't have any wind information so I got my wind information from the nearby Mojave airport light out of the east (070@4). Since Rosemond prefers runway 25 in light winds to avoid overflying the nearby houses, I decided to land runway 25 (with the wind). After turning to final I noticed that even though my airspeed was right at my normal approach speed I was significantly faster over the ground than expected. I was able to compensate, but it wasn't the prettiest landing, I should probably intentially practice these. They are not standard landings and are rarely done, but sometimes a downwind landing is safer due to terrain (such as Kernville).
Unfortunately the restaurant wasn't open, they changed their hours to open at 4pm instead of 11am except for Sundays. Great now the last two restaurants we've gone to have been closed, next time I should check! We decided to fly back to Mojave since we've been there more recently and it's a very short flight on the way home. Mojave was open, but they were extremely slow since Scaled composites (Burt Rutan's company) had brought a large party in (we didn't see Burt or Dick). There was only 1 waitress and she was very overworked. The food was excellent as usually and I filled up with cheap gas before we took back off for home.
On the way home, I decided to try to find Kelso valley. Our neighbor lent me a book about flying around here in the olden days. It's a very intersting book to read. A woman wrote the book about her and flying adventures with her husband who flew into all sorts of crazy places; mostly dried lakes and old dirt roads. One of the locations they flew into was Kelso valley and I think I knew where it was. I looked on Google Earth and I think I could see a desert scar from a runway decades ago.
The air was extremely smooth so we flew low over the mountains and I believe I found the right valley. It was easily wide enough to descend down into and land. There were a few homesteads scattered around, but I didn't see the runway. I think it was buried in the snow. After flying over this valley, we cut back over to the Owen's valley and flew back to Inyokern.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Flying to Mammoth, CA
Michelle and I had planned to fly to San Diego on December 13th and to Tehachapi on the 14th, but the weather ruined both of those flights. We were hit with a major winter storm system on the 13th and couldn't fly anywhere and the system lingered in the mountains preventing us from flying to Tehachapi on the 14th. Instead, we decided to fly up the valley to Mammoth where I could get some more high altitude practice taking offs and landings.
Flying to Mammoth also was a good opportunity to test my new configuration for recording the flight. I ordered a ground loop isolator which is just a special cord that was supposed to get rid of the alternator noise in the audio, I modified the camcorder mount, and I bought a digital voice recorder so I could have independent audio of the intercom and the cockpit. I also bought a SPOT messenger to track our flights as safety equipment and this was it's first flight as well.
It was a very scenic flight on the way up with the mountains covered with snow, although there was continuous light turbulence, which just got annoying. I didn't leave the video on the entire flight this time, but instead turned it on once and a while to get different scenery and angles. I really liked how some of the side shots turned out.
Unfortunately, even though I got slightly less dash in the view, there was still more than I had hoped for and the angle was low such that I was usually recording below the horizon. The intercom audio still has alternator noise on it, the cabin noise was worse than expected, and I still have the propeller flying off the screen even though I played with the different frame rates. I still have some work to do when editing it to see if I can improve it at all.
Back to the flight itself, the pattern at Mammoth is pretty interesting. There are tall mountains to the south and a smaller ridge to the north. The winds were 10 gusting to 15 knots from the south-west so I flew the right hand pattern around the smaller ridge to runway 27. I thought that I would always maintain sight of the airport, but I soon found out that as I started my descent on downwind, I quickly lost sight of the airport. It's not until your turning final until you see the runway appear from behind the ridge. This caused me some trouble, but I didn't have my approach fully stabilized since i didn't know where the runway was and I couldn't use my standard power settings because of the higher altitude. I ended up being high and fast on the first approach and floated a long ways down the runway. The second time around, I ended up being short and needed significant power to get back on the glide slope by the time I saw the runway. Long story short, I wouldn't feel bad about doing a straight in approach to the uncontrolled airport in the future.
After two time around the pattern, we decided we better head back to Bishop for lunch since we were both getting hungry. After my 3rd not so wonderful landing of the day, we walked into the lobby of the Bishop airport to find that the restaurant was out of business! The airport is also too far from town for us to walk. Fortunately they had a snackbar there and I was rummaging through that until a lady came in looking for the fuel attendant (who was out to lunch at the time). She was very nice and offered us a ride into town and back for lunch since she would have to come back to see the fuel guy after his lunch. She dropped us off at a very good Mexican restaurant named something Amigos and we were able to catch the bus back to the airport (she had thought it wasn't running).
After lunch we headed back to Inyokern where I made one of the nicest landings in several months. Once I finish editing the video from this flight, I'll post the link here. The SPOT messenger worked pretty good, but I'm still not sure what to think about it. On the way there, there was a 100 mile gap in the tracking from Owen's Lake all the way up to Mammoth, although it did have very good tracking the whole way back. It's absolutely better than nothing, but I really wish it didn't have those gaps. I guess more time is needed to tell how reliable it really is.
Flying to Mammoth also was a good opportunity to test my new configuration for recording the flight. I ordered a ground loop isolator which is just a special cord that was supposed to get rid of the alternator noise in the audio, I modified the camcorder mount, and I bought a digital voice recorder so I could have independent audio of the intercom and the cockpit. I also bought a SPOT messenger to track our flights as safety equipment and this was it's first flight as well.
It was a very scenic flight on the way up with the mountains covered with snow, although there was continuous light turbulence, which just got annoying. I didn't leave the video on the entire flight this time, but instead turned it on once and a while to get different scenery and angles. I really liked how some of the side shots turned out.
Unfortunately, even though I got slightly less dash in the view, there was still more than I had hoped for and the angle was low such that I was usually recording below the horizon. The intercom audio still has alternator noise on it, the cabin noise was worse than expected, and I still have the propeller flying off the screen even though I played with the different frame rates. I still have some work to do when editing it to see if I can improve it at all.
Back to the flight itself, the pattern at Mammoth is pretty interesting. There are tall mountains to the south and a smaller ridge to the north. The winds were 10 gusting to 15 knots from the south-west so I flew the right hand pattern around the smaller ridge to runway 27. I thought that I would always maintain sight of the airport, but I soon found out that as I started my descent on downwind, I quickly lost sight of the airport. It's not until your turning final until you see the runway appear from behind the ridge. This caused me some trouble, but I didn't have my approach fully stabilized since i didn't know where the runway was and I couldn't use my standard power settings because of the higher altitude. I ended up being high and fast on the first approach and floated a long ways down the runway. The second time around, I ended up being short and needed significant power to get back on the glide slope by the time I saw the runway. Long story short, I wouldn't feel bad about doing a straight in approach to the uncontrolled airport in the future.
After two time around the pattern, we decided we better head back to Bishop for lunch since we were both getting hungry. After my 3rd not so wonderful landing of the day, we walked into the lobby of the Bishop airport to find that the restaurant was out of business! The airport is also too far from town for us to walk. Fortunately they had a snackbar there and I was rummaging through that until a lady came in looking for the fuel attendant (who was out to lunch at the time). She was very nice and offered us a ride into town and back for lunch since she would have to come back to see the fuel guy after his lunch. She dropped us off at a very good Mexican restaurant named something Amigos and we were able to catch the bus back to the airport (she had thought it wasn't running).
After lunch we headed back to Inyokern where I made one of the nicest landings in several months. Once I finish editing the video from this flight, I'll post the link here. The SPOT messenger worked pretty good, but I'm still not sure what to think about it. On the way there, there was a 100 mile gap in the tracking from Owen's Lake all the way up to Mammoth, although it did have very good tracking the whole way back. It's absolutely better than nothing, but I really wish it didn't have those gaps. I guess more time is needed to tell how reliable it really is.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Test flight with our new camcorder
For the past few years I've been watching videos on YouTube of people flying into different areas and capturing their adventures. I've been jealous and wanted to buy a camcorder to tape my own flights, but haven't been willing to spend the money. Michelle and I decided long ago that we would wait until we start our family before we buy a camcorder.
Here is a link to another pilot who posts his flights. This is his flight into Kernville, I figured I'd link this one since this it compares to the flight we just made.
Now that we have a girl on the way, we made the purchase. Granted she's not due until the end of February, but that's just too long to wait. It kind of goes along the lines of getting the new TV in time for the football season and the new camera in time for a long anticipated trip. The anticipated trip is to Panguitch, UT to visit my Uncle Errol and to fly over Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas.
We decided that since we have a fancy new HD TV, we wanted to get a nice HD camcorder. We also want it to be digital since we will be posting both flights and videos of our daughter on the web for friends and family to see. The hassle of DV tapes eliminated that category, and since hard drives don't operate at altitude, those versions wouldn't work either. Hard drives rely on airflow between the disks so that the head "flies" between the platters. When the altitude goes up, the pressure goes down, and the head crashes and the disk fails.
This left us looking for a solid state HD camcorder. I also had 2 requirements for flying, an image stabilizer and a microphone input. All the HD camcorders come with image stabilization so that wasn't a problem, but finding one with external audio in was. Canon is really the only manufacturer supporting external audio anymore these days and we ended up with a Canon Vixia HF100.
My airplane just got out of maintenance so I was anxious to get back up and flying so a flight for lunch in Kernville to test the new camcorder setup was perfect. We also decided to take the dogs with us. They've each flown before, but this was the first time they both flew together and Michelle wasn't in back to calm them down.
The dogs did ok, but they both ended up being nervous at some point. Emmett was much worse off, but I think he'll get used to it. He's always not been a fan of bouncing around. When we drive up to trailheads to go hiking, he always lays down in the back of the Jeep, but he's never gotten sick.
The video turned out pretty good, but there are a few things I found that I want to change. I made a little stand the camcorder attaches to that has a sponge between as a shock absorber. I noticed that the sponge allowed the camera to shake more than if it was just attached firmly. The angle also didn't turn out too good, it was looking down too much and the dash takes almost 1/2 of the screen. This also causes issues since it tries to focus on the dash instead of outside. I also want to work on the audio a little. I have it tied into the co-pilot audio jack, but there seems to be a lot of noise in the audio.
I used a trial version of CyberLink PowerDirector to edit the video, but I think in the future, I'm going to try to use Microsoft Movie Maker so I don't have to pay for the software. I decided to shoot the trip in HD since I had more space on the card than the battery would last. The video was incredible when it was focusing on the terrain. After editing and down converting to HQ, the file was about 10 minutes and 652 Mb. Good thing YouTube just started allowing up to 1Gb uploads... It took about 1 hour to render the video on my PC and the clip is still trying to upload after almost an hour.
Tomorrow I'll be working on the attic since I spent all day playing...
Here is a link to another pilot who posts his flights. This is his flight into Kernville, I figured I'd link this one since this it compares to the flight we just made.
Now that we have a girl on the way, we made the purchase. Granted she's not due until the end of February, but that's just too long to wait. It kind of goes along the lines of getting the new TV in time for the football season and the new camera in time for a long anticipated trip. The anticipated trip is to Panguitch, UT to visit my Uncle Errol and to fly over Lake Powell, the Grand Canyon, Lake Mead, Hoover Dam, and Las Vegas.
We decided that since we have a fancy new HD TV, we wanted to get a nice HD camcorder. We also want it to be digital since we will be posting both flights and videos of our daughter on the web for friends and family to see. The hassle of DV tapes eliminated that category, and since hard drives don't operate at altitude, those versions wouldn't work either. Hard drives rely on airflow between the disks so that the head "flies" between the platters. When the altitude goes up, the pressure goes down, and the head crashes and the disk fails.
This left us looking for a solid state HD camcorder. I also had 2 requirements for flying, an image stabilizer and a microphone input. All the HD camcorders come with image stabilization so that wasn't a problem, but finding one with external audio in was. Canon is really the only manufacturer supporting external audio anymore these days and we ended up with a Canon Vixia HF100.
My airplane just got out of maintenance so I was anxious to get back up and flying so a flight for lunch in Kernville to test the new camcorder setup was perfect. We also decided to take the dogs with us. They've each flown before, but this was the first time they both flew together and Michelle wasn't in back to calm them down.
The dogs did ok, but they both ended up being nervous at some point. Emmett was much worse off, but I think he'll get used to it. He's always not been a fan of bouncing around. When we drive up to trailheads to go hiking, he always lays down in the back of the Jeep, but he's never gotten sick.
The video turned out pretty good, but there are a few things I found that I want to change. I made a little stand the camcorder attaches to that has a sponge between as a shock absorber. I noticed that the sponge allowed the camera to shake more than if it was just attached firmly. The angle also didn't turn out too good, it was looking down too much and the dash takes almost 1/2 of the screen. This also causes issues since it tries to focus on the dash instead of outside. I also want to work on the audio a little. I have it tied into the co-pilot audio jack, but there seems to be a lot of noise in the audio.
I used a trial version of CyberLink PowerDirector to edit the video, but I think in the future, I'm going to try to use Microsoft Movie Maker so I don't have to pay for the software. I decided to shoot the trip in HD since I had more space on the card than the battery would last. The video was incredible when it was focusing on the terrain. After editing and down converting to HQ, the file was about 10 minutes and 652 Mb. Good thing YouTube just started allowing up to 1Gb uploads... It took about 1 hour to render the video on my PC and the clip is still trying to upload after almost an hour.
Tomorrow I'll be working on the attic since I spent all day playing...
Sunday, July 6, 2008
4th of July 2008 trip to Oceano and Santa Paula in N951CC
Since this last year when we knew that Michelle would not be teaching during summer school, we had planned on taking a bunch of trips this summer. Once I bought our airplane in December, those trips became a bunch of flying trips. Unfortunately, we've been so busy that it's been hard for us to get out and have some fun. With the 4th of July holiday and the extra day off from work, Michelle and I decided to try to fly to Oceano for the weekend, again.
We've tried to get there before, but the fog has prevented us from ever getting there. This time there was fog in the morning, but it was forcasted to burn off so we waited for that and checked the visibilities due to the 2 fires burning near us. The flight briefing came back with Oceano fog lifting and visibilities poor, but plenty good to make the trip.
It was a nice sight to see $5.08 for avgas so we filled the tanks before tying down the airplane for the weekend. The airport provides a nice little camping area for pilots and we pitched our tent. We had to be sure to close the windows when we left though because they watered the campground daily from noon-2pm. With cheap gas come expensive tie-downs. The price was $10/day for tie-down and $10/day for camping with no mention of the tie-down being waived for campers as is the norm.
We've tried to get there before, but the fog has prevented us from ever getting there. This time there was fog in the morning, but it was forcasted to burn off so we waited for that and checked the visibilities due to the 2 fires burning near us. The flight briefing came back with Oceano fog lifting and visibilities poor, but plenty good to make the trip.
The air was nice and smooth out of Inyokern and we flew south to California City before turning west over Tehachapi, to avoid the temporary flight restriction (TFR) area due to the Piute fire. The smoke was blowing north-east and was the main source for the smoke in our valley. Once we were south of that fire, the air cleared up and the visibility was great. The flight was incredibly smooth and right on time with 1.5 hours enroute to Oceano(L52). With no fog in sight, I flew an upwind leg over the airport and entered into the landing pattern after flying over the beach. The runway looks short since I've been spoiled with very long runways, but we had no problem getting in.
It was a nice sight to see $5.08 for avgas so we filled the tanks before tying down the airplane for the weekend. The airport provides a nice little camping area for pilots and we pitched our tent. We had to be sure to close the windows when we left though because they watered the campground daily from noon-2pm. With cheap gas come expensive tie-downs. The price was $10/day for tie-down and $10/day for camping with no mention of the tie-down being waived for campers as is the norm.
Once we were settled in, we walked to a nearby diner for lunch. The Rock-and-Roll Diner is two train cars attached together for the dining area. They had excellent food and their BBQ was over a Oak (or Hickory I forgot) wood fire. After lunch we walked down to the beach and watched some kite surfers, it's amazing to watch how high they can jump into the air with those kites. I'd definitely buy one of those if I lived in the area. This is the only beach in California where they allow cars on the beach. There are cars, trucks, and RVs as far as you can see on the beach and you can get a permit to camp on the beach with your RV as well. Off road vehicles are also allowed on the sand dunes just south of oceano. They are pretty hard core sand dunes so SUVs won't make it, but 4 wheelers and dune buggies are everywhere.
After wandering around for awhile, we headed back to the airport and ate dinner (beef stew back packing meal). Trying to start a fire was a terrific effort since the wood was incredibly green. Even using the grill to start logs proved useless. Eventually we found some cut branches that were pretty thick near the bathroom and I chopped them up with our little hatchet and soon we had a fire.
On Friday we wandered around for awhile and ate lunch at a little BBQ stand, we eventually decided to take the bus to Pismo Beach. After realizing we missed the bus at the stop right outside the airport, we decided to walk to the next bus stop. The next stop is where we needed to connect to a different bus to get to Pismo so maybe it was on a different schedule. After over a mile of walking, we finally got to the bus stop. The sign didn't label the 4th as a day the bus wasn't running, but after calling the hotline for a schedule, they said it was not running. So we walked another mile plus to Pismo Beach.
It was another very nice beach, but without the cars on the this one. We walked around for awhile and decided we were still hungry so Michelle got a brownie strawberry shortcake and we walked back to the Lion's club so I could try their tri-tip. Very good again and this time they had a sax quartet playing. We listened to them for awhile, then headed back to Oceano taking the beach instead of the roads this time. We found a little salt water taffy shop next to the beach so we decided to stop in and get some taffy for Kevin and Sarah. I know they love taffy and they're back in Inyokern watching our dogs so they definitely deserve some taffy.
After resting for awhile at the campground, we walked to a fine Italian restaurant and ate some pizza, which was very good; the thinnest pizza I ever ate. We took our folding chairs to the sand dunes and set up a spot to watch the fireworks. Once it got dark people started shooting fireworks. Pismo Beach was firing their fireworks off the pier, but unfortunately, we were far away and even though we could see them fine, they were as spectacular from that far away. There were plenty of other fireworks to watch though since there were 40 billion people on the beach and half of them were launching pretty cool fireworks. At about 10, most of the fireworks died down and we headed for bed.
Saturday morning the fog had rolled in so our flight to Santa Paula was delayed be a few hours, but we eventually got out just fine. We flew down to Santa Barbara and south over the coast and around to Ojai to avoid another fire TFR just north of Santa Barbara. The Santa Paula airport is right next to a mountain ridge so you have to fly a tight pattern. This ended up being one of my worst landings, which I won't bore you with more than to say something is screwy with that airport on final and over the runway itself and it wasn't just me. It seemed that almost everybody that came in had a hard time as well. Of course this wonderful landing was made in front of Michelle's sister Lisa who is already not to fond of flying in smaller airplanes.
We had a great visit with Lisa and Matt and were able to even get out and see the June Brides in concert. Concert is used pretty liberally here since it was in a carport in the back of someone's house. It was still entertaining and worth seeing. I love Lisa's new place since it has so many extra hidden spaces and rooms. There is a soon to be pottery room in the garage, lots of storage, a room for her therapy business and a loft over the garage for the perfect office / guest bedroom. The front yard was huge with all sorts of flowers and birds.
Like all vacations, we had to leave Sunday morning. We were planning to rush out bright and early to beat the desert heat, thermals, and winds, but the fog at Santa Paula forced us to take our leisurely time before heading to the airport. After eating a muffin at the terminal, we took off for Inyokern. I'm convinced there is something out of whack with the airport since the takeoff was a lot of fun as well. Air traffic control was definitely out numbered today since it took me almost 15 minutes before Hawthorne radio got back to me and I was able to activate my flight plan. I was never able to get flight following on our hour flight back to Inyokern over 4 different approach and center sectors since they were swamped.
The flight was incredibly smooth until Lancaster where there was only a few very light bumps to about the California City area. From there we started our descent and had just a little bit more chop. In general, it was very nice flight considering we were coming in just after noon in July in the desert. By 1:30 we were home and the dogs could stop whining with excitement to see us. Another thanks to Kevin and Sarah for watching them.
See the complete album of pictures here.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayson.brouchoud/4thOfJuly2008/photo#s5220064572343079874
Saturday, June 28, 2008
N951CC flight to Lancaster Fox Field (KWJF)
Michelle and I had planned on flying to Bakersfield yesterday for her to change her name at the social security office, but due to bad visibility from the nearby Clover fire in the Kennedy Meadows area (visibilities creating IMC in many locations and in some mountain passes), we had to drive there. We didn't have any plans for today, but the visibility was much better today and since we couldn't fly yesterday, we decided to fly to Big Bear for lunch since we've not yet made it all the way there. The weather was good, the TFRs along the route were avoidable (rocket launch to 27,000 ft and fires), and the winds and turbulence wasn't forcasted until 1pm.
It was a great day for flying, there was no wind at the airport and there was no turbulence on climbout; cruising at 8,500 ft was smooth. Unfortunatly the Edwards restricted airspace was active (it isn't usually on weekends) so we had to make a large diversion to fly around. Then, Michelle started to not feel so good.
It took us longer to get to the airport and airborne than expected since we hadn't actually planned on flying today. She hadn't eaten anything all day and flying to Big Bear would put lunch around 1pm and that means we'd be in the turbulence coming home. So again, we didn't make it to Big Bear and decided to divert and eat in Lancaster instead.
Not getting to Big Bear didn't bother me much, I really don't want to rush in there. They are located very high at almost 7,000 ft and the density altitude was already at 10,000 ft when I got my pre-flight. The approach into the area is over mountains that will produce lots of turbulence, so I'd rather delay the flight to another day instead of push an uncomfortable flight into terrible one. Michelle still is not sure how much she likes her new headset. She said it's comfortable with the exception that it pinches along her ears. Here's another mugshot of us, you can see Michelle's new headset as well.
It was a great day for flying, there was no wind at the airport and there was no turbulence on climbout; cruising at 8,500 ft was smooth. Unfortunatly the Edwards restricted airspace was active (it isn't usually on weekends) so we had to make a large diversion to fly around. Then, Michelle started to not feel so good.
It took us longer to get to the airport and airborne than expected since we hadn't actually planned on flying today. She hadn't eaten anything all day and flying to Big Bear would put lunch around 1pm and that means we'd be in the turbulence coming home. So again, we didn't make it to Big Bear and decided to divert and eat in Lancaster instead.
Not getting to Big Bear didn't bother me much, I really don't want to rush in there. They are located very high at almost 7,000 ft and the density altitude was already at 10,000 ft when I got my pre-flight. The approach into the area is over mountains that will produce lots of turbulence, so I'd rather delay the flight to another day instead of push an uncomfortable flight into terrible one. Michelle still is not sure how much she likes her new headset. She said it's comfortable with the exception that it pinches along her ears. Here's another mugshot of us, you can see Michelle's new headset as well.
Saturday, May 31, 2008
N951CC OiL Change
As I was going through the reams of information about my new airplane, I realized I didn't know when it had it's last oil change. Cessna recommends that you change the oil every 50 hours, but the Cessna pilots association recommends 35 instead and my mechanic recommends 25 hours. I haven't decided on what I'll do yet, but I'll probably go to 25 hours since this is a high time engine and could use some extra TLC now. I know I've put a bunch of hours on it when I flew it back from WI so it was probably up for a change. Looking back into the logbooks, I found that the last change was in 2006 since it hadn't flown many hours since then. It was now 58 hours since the last oil change!
There is a local oil company that carries the aviation oil I use Aeroshell W100 so I bought a case and my mechanic and I changed the oil yesterday. This was the first time I was able to actually see my engine since I was sick during the pre-purchase inspection and the vacuum pump was replaced when I was working. Changing the oil is no different than a car. It's easier since I don't have to jack it up and crawl underneath, but more difficult since I have to remove the cowling and the filter is mounted upside down at a 45 degree angle, which means it spills all over when you remove it. The oil pan has a quick release valve on it so all we had to due was attach a hose and put it into a bucket and push the valve in. This part is a lot easier than pulling out a bolt and getting hot oil pouring everywhere.
My engine is most happy around 10 quarts even though it has a capacity of 12 quarts. I need a minimum of 8 quarts to fly. If I fill the oil to 12 quarts, the first 2 will get blown out the breather port and I'll be right back down to 10 quarts. So I filled it with 11 quarts since almost 1 quart will go into the filter.
While we were changing the oil, my mechanic was casually looking at everything to see what kind of shape it was in. Tug on this lever to see how loose the bearings are, see how tight that is, etc. He found that the airbox, which is the piece that connects the air filter to the carburetor had several sheared rivets. It was still held in place, but was loose. He took the air box off and we pulled out some of the sheared rivets and sure enough you could see they had been sheared for awhile. If they broke recently, the break would look like shiny metal, theses weren't. He also notice that one of the rivet tails was missing and most likely was already ingested into the engine. Good thing he caught this now before more go through the engine. All the pieces are still in good shape so he only has to re-rivet the box back together. Hopefully he'll be able to fix this quickly and we'll be flying soon.
Here are some pics of my engine.
There is a local oil company that carries the aviation oil I use Aeroshell W100 so I bought a case and my mechanic and I changed the oil yesterday. This was the first time I was able to actually see my engine since I was sick during the pre-purchase inspection and the vacuum pump was replaced when I was working. Changing the oil is no different than a car. It's easier since I don't have to jack it up and crawl underneath, but more difficult since I have to remove the cowling and the filter is mounted upside down at a 45 degree angle, which means it spills all over when you remove it. The oil pan has a quick release valve on it so all we had to due was attach a hose and put it into a bucket and push the valve in. This part is a lot easier than pulling out a bolt and getting hot oil pouring everywhere.
My engine is most happy around 10 quarts even though it has a capacity of 12 quarts. I need a minimum of 8 quarts to fly. If I fill the oil to 12 quarts, the first 2 will get blown out the breather port and I'll be right back down to 10 quarts. So I filled it with 11 quarts since almost 1 quart will go into the filter.
While we were changing the oil, my mechanic was casually looking at everything to see what kind of shape it was in. Tug on this lever to see how loose the bearings are, see how tight that is, etc. He found that the airbox, which is the piece that connects the air filter to the carburetor had several sheared rivets. It was still held in place, but was loose. He took the air box off and we pulled out some of the sheared rivets and sure enough you could see they had been sheared for awhile. If they broke recently, the break would look like shiny metal, theses weren't. He also notice that one of the rivet tails was missing and most likely was already ingested into the engine. Good thing he caught this now before more go through the engine. All the pieces are still in good shape so he only has to re-rivet the box back together. Hopefully he'll be able to fix this quickly and we'll be flying soon.
Here are some pics of my engine.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Local flight on Memorial Day with Anthony
Today I went on a local flight with my friend Anthony. The winds were bad to the south, the clouds were low to the north, and it was raining and the clouds were obscuring the mountains to the west, so we decided to stay local. I guess we could have flown east to Vegas, but I was more in the mood for a shorter flight today. Next time we'll go get lunch somewhere.
We took off and flew south and circled Robber's Roost for awhile. Then we crossed over the El Paso mountains where I go Chukar hunting over to Garlock road. I let Anthony fly as we turned back west towards California City, then we headed north over Red Rock Canyon. We circled just a little more for traffic then landed runway 10 with 0.8 on the tach. We got to watch a glider come in on approach right over us and land on runway 20 while we held short on runway 10 after landing.
Here's another mugshot with Anthony. He had a blast and I feel bad that the weather wasn't better and we didn't get to go anywhere. I promised we'd go again.
We took off and flew south and circled Robber's Roost for awhile. Then we crossed over the El Paso mountains where I go Chukar hunting over to Garlock road. I let Anthony fly as we turned back west towards California City, then we headed north over Red Rock Canyon. We circled just a little more for traffic then landed runway 10 with 0.8 on the tach. We got to watch a glider come in on approach right over us and land on runway 20 while we held short on runway 10 after landing.
Here's another mugshot with Anthony. He had a blast and I feel bad that the weather wasn't better and we didn't get to go anywhere. I promised we'd go again.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
N951CC Flying to North Las Vegas KVGT
Michelle and I flew to North Las Vegas today for breakfast. It was a good flight and I wanted a quick flight there to get acquainted with the airspace. With the mountains immediately to the west and the McCarren class B airspace, I wasn't sure how much room there was for my descent to land. I flew through a saddle in the mountains that was further north than the last time I flew since this was in line with North Las Vegs, last time we flew into Henderson.
It turns out that the class B extends closer to the mountains than it seemed on the map so I had to descend close to the mountains just on the east side. This was incredibly scenic since we were flying right over their Red Rock hiking area. We were kind of pinched between the mountains, Nellis restricted airspace, and Vegas class B airspace that I was not cleared into. After a few passes north and south I lost enough altitude to fly under the class B shelf into KVGT. There are a lot of taxiways under maintenance and closed down so I asked ground control for taxi instructions, instead a "follow me" van was already right in front of me waiting. I followed him just a short ways to the transient parking.
There was supposed to be a 24 hour Bar and Grill across the street, but we didn't see it so we walked down the street to the Fiesta Casino and ate at their restaurant. Incredible breakfast specials and the food was good, but it was breakfast at a casino.
The flight back was pretty much the same but in reverse. I wanted to climb to be able to get over the mountains, but I had to stay low until I cleared the class B shelf. This put me right at the mountains so I had to circle to climb to get over them. I was hoping this trip would have been faster than it was since I figured I've got more performance in this 182 than I did in the 172 and I should be able to climb straight over the mountains. I didn't realize that I was going to be still limited, but by the airspace. Total round trip time was 2.6 hours, which is 2 hours and 36 minutes, so it still wasn't too bad.
The trip to Vegas was very smooth and was a great flight. The flight back was hot and bumpy, but we the bumps eventually went away as we cleared the mountains near Vegas. The air was cool at 10,500 feet so I never turned on the air conditioning. I did turn it on as we descended into Inyokern. The AC is nice because I waited until my downwind landing check to turn it off and from there, its only a few minutes until we were on the ground. I put the AC back on as soon as we were rolling out and it was way cooler than opening the windows. Too expensive of a toy to buy, but a heck of a nice one to come with the airplane!
North Las Vegas airport provides a free courtesy shuttle bus to the strip so it's a great airport to use when coming in to gamble on the strip. You do have to get your own taxi back, but that is the only service that isn't provided by the airport. Michelle has plans for next weekend so I'm smelling a poker trip with the guys...
Sorry no pictures, but we did find the camera now for next time. Here is a Google Earth look at the moutains flying into KVGT.
Friday, May 16, 2008
Vacuump pump replace, lock fixed, up and running!
My A&P finished replacing the failed vacuum pump and was able to fix the pilot door lock. He found all the pieces inside the door and had to lubricate it and it's working fine now. While he was working on it, I asked him to install some Rosen sun visors due to the intense sun out here.
I flew around the patch on May 2nd just to make sure everything was up and running smooth after the maintenance; it flew great.
Here is a picture of the flight to Kernville in the Sierras. This is for road directions, but I pretty much have to follow the highway through the mountains. Once I clear the eastern mountains I fly down the middle of the valley and over the lake before turning up the narrowing valley towards the airport. The pattern is right traffic for runway 17 since the airport is right at the western base of the mountains.
I also have a picture of flying into Kernville a few years ago in another airplane, but the airport is the same. It's a lot of fun to fly into.
I got out to the airport for a few touch and gos today after taking part of the motorcycle training course. I already have my license, but the course is required for me to be able to ride the bike to work. I didn't fly for very long because I was getting hungry.
Michelle and I are planning on flying to Vegas for breakfast on Sunday. That will be a fun flight, I'm going to fly into North Las Vegas this time instead of Henderson since it is closer to down town. I doubt we'll go into town for breakfast, but this will be a nice flight to determine how long it takes to fly in and how to negotiate the terrain and airspace.
I flew around the patch on May 2nd just to make sure everything was up and running smooth after the maintenance; it flew great.
May 3rd we drove down to San Diego for the Red Bull Air Races, see the next post for more info.
Michelle and I went on our favorite buger run on May 11th to Kernvill L05, but this time the service was terribly slow. We got there early before all the crowds, but they forgot our order and it ended up getting stuck behind a few large groups. It took an hour to get our food while we watched others come in, eat there food, and leave before we even got our food.
Here is a picture of the flight to Kernville in the Sierras. This is for road directions, but I pretty much have to follow the highway through the mountains. Once I clear the eastern mountains I fly down the middle of the valley and over the lake before turning up the narrowing valley towards the airport. The pattern is right traffic for runway 17 since the airport is right at the western base of the mountains.
I also have a picture of flying into Kernville a few years ago in another airplane, but the airport is the same. It's a lot of fun to fly into.
I got out to the airport for a few touch and gos today after taking part of the motorcycle training course. I already have my license, but the course is required for me to be able to ride the bike to work. I didn't fly for very long because I was getting hungry.
Michelle and I are planning on flying to Vegas for breakfast on Sunday. That will be a fun flight, I'm going to fly into North Las Vegas this time instead of Henderson since it is closer to down town. I doubt we'll go into town for breakfast, but this will be a nice flight to determine how long it takes to fly in and how to negotiate the terrain and airspace.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
N951CC to CA Day 4 ** UPDATE **
Well like I said, sometimes they just put out AIRMETs for turbulence for an entire area. This was the case today. I checked the weather again about noon and there were 2 pilot reports of no turbulence along my route of flight. Also, the forcast for China Lake was updated and it was supposed to be calm winds. With this news I quickly asked the motel staff for a ride to the airport. The person who would give me a ride to the airport was a town meeting so I had to wait awhile for him, but I was airborne by 1:45.
The ride was pretty rough during the climb out and I leveled off at 8,500 ft since the were stronger head winds higher. There was continuous light chop at this altitude so I decided I would rather have a longer flight if it was smoother so I climbed up to 10,500 ft and it was smooth. I did lose about 12 knots of groundspeed, but it was a nice ride for the most part all the way into Inyokern.
Through the Palmdale - Mojave area, I was flying through smooth up and down drafts. I was getting + / - 1500 ft / min rates of climb / descent. It was pretty hard to keep a constant altitude. I called approach control to verify there was no conflicting traffic and to verify he was seeing the same altitude variations (so it wouldn't just be my pitot-static system). He confirmed and shortly after a Gulfstream jet flying into Palmdale reported updrafts as well. Anyways, they were smooth so it wasn't so bad. I had a tough time descending down into Inyokern because of the updrafts, but I circled for a while and eventually got down to pattern altitude.
The airplane is now tied down in it's shade hanger at Inyokern safe and sound. I'll have my mechanic take a look at the vacuum pump and door lock soon. Oh, the pilot door lock broke too. I think it might just be the retaining clip. I heard something fall inside the door and then the tumbler pulled out of the hole still on the key leaving a hole in the door. "Due to national security..." I have to have my door locked so I need to get this fixed ASAP.
I didn't take too many pictures of the trip. I guess I should have taken pictures of the airports I landed at, but I only got one of it tied down at IYK. Anyways, here is a slideshow of the pictures I did take.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayson.brouchoud/N951CCToCA/photo#s5187462314526446306
The ride was pretty rough during the climb out and I leveled off at 8,500 ft since the were stronger head winds higher. There was continuous light chop at this altitude so I decided I would rather have a longer flight if it was smoother so I climbed up to 10,500 ft and it was smooth. I did lose about 12 knots of groundspeed, but it was a nice ride for the most part all the way into Inyokern.
Through the Palmdale - Mojave area, I was flying through smooth up and down drafts. I was getting + / - 1500 ft / min rates of climb / descent. It was pretty hard to keep a constant altitude. I called approach control to verify there was no conflicting traffic and to verify he was seeing the same altitude variations (so it wouldn't just be my pitot-static system). He confirmed and shortly after a Gulfstream jet flying into Palmdale reported updrafts as well. Anyways, they were smooth so it wasn't so bad. I had a tough time descending down into Inyokern because of the updrafts, but I circled for a while and eventually got down to pattern altitude.
The airplane is now tied down in it's shade hanger at Inyokern safe and sound. I'll have my mechanic take a look at the vacuum pump and door lock soon. Oh, the pilot door lock broke too. I think it might just be the retaining clip. I heard something fall inside the door and then the tumbler pulled out of the hole still on the key leaving a hole in the door. "Due to national security..." I have to have my door locked so I need to get this fixed ASAP.
I didn't take too many pictures of the trip. I guess I should have taken pictures of the airports I landed at, but I only got one of it tied down at IYK. Anyways, here is a slideshow of the pictures I did take.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jayson.brouchoud/N951CCToCA/photo#s5187462314526446306
UPDATE: Here is the GPS track of day 4 to CA
N951CC to CA Day 4
Well today is going to be a short post. I woke up bright and early and took a look out the window of my motel room. I could see the trees bending over in the wind. I called and got a briefing anyways and that confirmed the same story as yesterday afternoon. I'm not going anywhere today. After breakfast I walked over to the laundromat since I was out of clean clothes. Of course they are out of business. I talked to the motel staff and they said there was not other place in town to do laundry. So here I sit in yesterdays clothes typing about my trip to CA on my blog since I've got nothing else to do.
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