I'm glad fall has arrived. It has been a real treat to leave the smoke and heat behind and get back to some good flying weather. Not to say that I haven't been in the air, I've had a great time over the last month. Flew the Champ out to the coast on the hottest weekend of the year and had a great time camping on the beach, and eating fresh abalone cooked over an open fire. I also had the privilege of cruising down to the Capitol Airshow with Andy in the Bamboo Bomber. Also made it up to Reno for the air races and got to catch up with quite a few of my BCP friends and others that I hadn't seen for a while. Thanks again Nevadaflyer!

Most of my flying cronies were out of town this weekend, so it was nice to hang around and get caught up on a few projects...like changing the tail wheel tire on the Champ. It was getting hard to read!

Pokey Joe and I had a great time testing it out around the valley.

Even had time to play with the Virb and shoot another installment of Sunday In a 7AC

And like Contact is about to point out, I did bank the airplane close to the ground when other options were available, so don't do that.

That happens with the mussel memory that we have to bank to turn. We don't.

Flew down to the Delta the other day to check out an organic farm called Steamboat Acres run by a friend of ours. Our little squadron was pretty diverse with Andy in the SNJ, and Steve in the Pitts. Had some great food in their new restaurant up on the levee, and enjoyed checking out the farm, vintage tractors, drawbridge, and a great sandbar beach.



Pokey Joe tried to ditch me for a ride home in the SNJ

That strip is only a few minutes from me. I haven’t been in there for a while, maybe it’s time to go say hi again!

Get the kids over there, they will love it! Michael and Tara were busy getting everything decked out for the Fall season. They've got pumpkins galore and were setting up train rides, hay bales, wagons and tractors for the special events they have coming up throughout the month. The new Steamboat Landing building up by the bridge came out really cool if you haven't seen it yet...great covered porch to hang out on.

Flew out to HSF after the lake bed dried out on Friday and spent a quality weekend with my uncle and lots of other good people.

It was good to see you and Paul again and talk. Cheers...Rob

OregonMaule wrote:It was good to see you and Paul again and talk. Cheers...Rob

You too Rob, and thank you for the hot cup of coffee. Wish we could have stayed another night as nice as it was out there.

We've been having fun out playing in the antiques lately...

Very nice energy management turns and rudder work. Get some normal speed video of the rudder turns down low in the field. Good job.

Saw a champ that looked just like yours in Santa Paula the week of Oct 30...was that you? Or is somebody else flying around in the same livery?

Nice! And good to see a C140 join in too.

Thanks Contact, I had to speed up the video so I don't put everyone to sleep!

Troy Hamon wrote:Saw a champ that looked just like yours in Santa Paula the week of Oct 30...was that you? Or is somebody else flying around in the same livery?

Wasn't me. That's the original factory paint scheme, so a quite few Champs still wear it.

Nice! And good to see a C140 join in too.

Yep, that's a very nice 140 and he flies it well.

Flying conditions have been about as nice as you could ask for around here lately. Pokey Joe and I have been taking full advantage of the nice weather to get out to some of our favorite spots.

Last week we dropped into a buddy's orchard to check out a set of Cub wings he is building in his barn.


Sporting my new sweatshirt Saturday while flying around with the 100 horse air force, thanks Zane!


This guy rebuilt the engine in the Champ when we restored it back in the early eighties. Happened to see his name in the log book one day and put two and two together. Had a blast showing him around the rice country.

Spent yesterday out in the foothills. The wildfires that came through here earlier this year have made it great for landing ...especially now that it is starting to green up again.

The boys were out fixing fences, so we met up and had some sardines and crackers.

We need some snow!

Yeah man. The drought that created the perfect storm in the '30s dust bowl had a couple of years where folks thought it was ending. Like last year in our region eh? Here's to hope!

CFOT wrote:...Sporting my new sweatshirt Saturday while flying around with the 100 horse air force, thanks Zane!

100 horse air force, awesome!
I enjoy flying my C180,but a smaller lighter cheaper-to-fly airplane would be lots of fun.

100 horse Air Force, what a great name for a gaggle of low and slow dudes! Love it!

I loved training in all those airplanes that required energy management rather just following a big (think 150 hp) engine.

contactflying wrote:I loved training in all those airplanes that required energy management rather just following a big (think 150 hp) engine.

If you want a dose of "energy management" fly a heavy B model Hiller in interior Alaska on a hot day!