damn AKT, your plane is looking good! looking forward to more pics

GregA wrote:Kevin,

Those of us from RTS know that "dead cow" area as "Flanigans Flat" (from the railroad siding there). This is presuming we are talking about the same place, far east end of the basin, east of the ammo dump and Herlong. There are also a number of smaller dry lakes up in the hills S of there that are good landing spots. The Rans would be ok, but not sure whether I want to land the RV there just yet.

Greg

More little lake beds above Dead Cow than one could count. All are in great shape now! Did a big flight today and I can say honestly, I did not see any wet lake beds to speak of. Even Lake Lahonton is dry...Crazy!

Had a really great morning flying today. It did get windy but that only helps to get in and out. You just have to make certain your paying attention to the wind direction so you don't get a down draft and get beat down on landing or during your slow fly byes. Use the wind in your favor and you can become a helicopter so to speak. Gusty winds on the other hand, I want nothing to do with. Thats when I fly home and put the bird to bed.

Here is my morning...
This is a hard one to fly by...but when your loaded up with fuel, a homemade strip at 9000' elevation and a meadow thats less than 300' before you hit the water bars is nothing to play with. This is however one of my favorite spots.


So I headed to the "East" circuit today. All of this is very close to where we have the fly in. This is a nice little lake bed, maybe a 1000' long and very hard. Its fun to come over the little rise here in the foreground, slip down 50', pull 40 degrees of flaps, flare and stick it. Its such a good feeling.


Then over to the reservoir that is now dry with very DEEP sand. This one is pretty fun to come around making a low left base to final, touch down next to the bush (you can barely see in the photo but its by the corner) and roll out 200' up to the trees. There are more landings around this lake than one could count.


Sand was deep. This photo does not do it justice


Parking by the trees...departure is what you see here just left of the bush I was talking about. From here to the bush is about 250'



And another great spot. Landed here, turned around and took off. Did not get out and snap a photo, so we can count it or not...it was fun. Again...very deep sand!


And then things got a bit more serious...everywhere I go for some strange reason I am always looking up wondering if there is a landing... well, I left the reservoir and started to climb....This is what I found.



Then up a bit higher to another...Rocks are always bigger than they look at 50mph and 50'. Made several passes here and look forward to going back to this one. It was fun!



Coming back to KTRK the runways are 01-19 or 29 -11...wind was 240 @ 16 gusting 26. It made for a fun ride home and a fun landing back at base.

Thats all for today

AKT

Great thread! What a life!
I think you want to invest in a video camera for the strut...

Battson wrote:Great thread! What a life!
I think you want to invest in a video camera for the strut...

I just need to put them on. I have a lot of them. What I need is the ones with a remote. My Go Pro's are great but I always forget to turn it on and then off. By the time I find something worth filming I have no battery.

Thanks for your good words! I feel very lucky. I missed all summer. Gotta get it in while I can.

AKT

Looks like you are adding a lot of new spots to the circuits! Hopefully some I can get in and out of with the 170. I can handle some pretty deep sand now with the bushwheels, I had my baby bushwheel buried up to the axle at a spot last month. The mains handled it fine though. I just need a lot more room for takeoff with all that drag and 145hp!

Mostly lurking here...but wanted to let you know I love this thread, thanks for sharing.

Flew out to Beckworth / Nervino for a quick oil change today. Its only about 15/20 minutes from Truckee. Boy was it windy!!

Almost 20 hours on the new engine now. No leaks, and no loss of oil. Still had almost 12qts in her. Temps are around 360 +/- 5 degrees on all 6 cylinders. Oil temp is running at around 185. She is purring like a kitty



AKT

Glad to see the hard core bush! Keep up posting the pictures and thoughts!

Nice Stinson.

Keep the info coming Kevin!

Well, sometimes its not all about finding the rowdy spots to land or looking up at the top of something wondering if theres a landing. Today was one of those days. I had very precious cargo! My wife is not the biggest fan of flying and my little one loves airplanes so, today was the day I figured we should give it a try. She has gone in the past (6 months old) but she was much to little to enjoy it. She is now 2 1/2 and I think she is starting to get it.

We went to "Da da's airpane" and flew to see the "Fishy"... At least thats how she says it.




Still lots of fish


The two things that are more important than my "airpane"


She is a broken record..."Eat"..."Eat"..."Eat"...so, she is eating


Still eating...


Flying home..."by fishy" By by fishy"


She hates the kid head set I have for her and she will not were the ear plugs...Any ideas? Its not that loud but I'm not a fan of the noise on her ears either. Also, now that she is 2 we cannot hold her in moms lap. What do others do for seat belts? I added a couple seat cushions and the lap belt worked alright but wondered if I was doing it correctly? Her car seat doesn't work that great either and I dont think that they are legal.

It was a great morning all in all.

AKT

Your kiddo is adorable Kevin. She has it right: Laugh, Love, Smile.

Nice family Kevin, I used a car seat for my kids till they got big enough to sit in the seat. James

Very cool Kevin!

Put some music on she likes and then the headset. My daughter made 50hrs before she was 6, most of it was pressurized time though in the Malibu. Little quieter.

I think the noise is a important consideration but their comfort matters most. She might like heavy metal anyhow!

you gotta make it a really big deal about the headset... My granddaughter is about to turn 3 also and I keep repeating how copilots gotta wear the headset so they can help the pilot... when I see her hands go for the set I'll ask her to "fly the plane for me a minute", so she puts her hands on the yoke and forgets about the "squeeze". Our Lilly doesn't like the set all that much either but I get the impression she'll grow out of it the more she flies with it...I also try to keep talking to her and she forgets about the "squeeze" most of the time... i also force the headset a little wider every time I put it on her which helps...I don't have my back seat in, and haven't since I bought the plane so she sits in the right seat,leans up and gets fixated on the view out the patroller window which is the perfect view for her, not being able to see over the panel...what a joy they are at this age..enjoy every minute cause when you blink they'll be grown up...

I am a big fan of theses, but not sure if they'd work with a sling seat;

http://kidsflysafe.com/

You can usually find them on eBay dirt cheap

Awesome.

Getting out for a fun hop with family is one of things in all of aviation. Very fun.

Hey, Kevin and Jessica:
I've been enjoying the flight reports and photos, for sure. But when you posted the pics of your little one enjoying her day with Mom and Dad, it went over the top for me.
This is such a wonderful world; so much to cherish... glad you are seizing all these experiences!
B. and K.

Kevin,
I have had both my girls flying since about 5 weeks old. We use the PCA-9T head sets with the accessory plug included, we mount a portable DVD player to the back of the headrest, once the "smerfs" are playing the kids will not take the head sets off, every after we have landed. Before the DVD set-up the kids did not like any headsets for very long at a time.
We have always used their standard car seats. When I am trying to save weight I will take the back seats out and seat-belt the car seats to the floor. This has worked pretty well in the Cessna 210A and the Cessna 180C P-Ponk+86"Mac.

Side Note: My wife Lori and I got married over looking Cascade lake at the south west end of Lake Tahoe in 2002. We have been wanting to fly the kids down to see "Our Spot" , but so far have not made if back. Love that Truckee area.

Alan