Headed south from Tahoe Saturday. Flew into the Chicken Strip in Saline Valley (now part of Death Valley). Stopped for great real Thai food at Bishop airport southbound, and for Mexican in Mammoth northbound. Landed at USMC Sweetwater strip on the way home. Also overflew the mesa on the north side of Topaz Lake, trying to figure out where Kevin and gang landed.

Pierre

The tides and weather were perfect on Saturday to land on the beach at Vargas Island just north of Tofino. There ended up being 17 planes and 1 R44 on the beach for this short notice fly-out. I flew up Cowichan Lake and out to the coast then followed the coastline up to Vargas. Spotted the whale watching boats off of Long Beach so we dropped down to see a bunch of Grey whales and their little ones moving north. Some one (Karmutzen)got a nice fire going and we roasted wieners and other good things. A bunch of the younger guys and girls had bathing suits and jumped in the surf for a swim. Lets just say I think the water was a little colder that some of them figured ,but it was a warm day and they returned to normal quickly. It was just a beautiful day at the beach.
BCP was well represented with Daedaluscan,Karmutzen and 175 magnum present. I hope some of the other guys got some pictures as my camera did not work properly.
There was a sad note to the event as one of the fellows that would normally be with us died on Friday when his plane did a low level stall spin into a field. The investigation is underway. He was a guy that helped a lot of people and definitely a positive part of the local aviation community. There was a brief memorial and a moment of silence in his honor on the beach.

I had a great aborted breakfast flight to Afton Severe clear my side of the ridge, once up and over I could then see the broken fog bank to the east. I thought, what the hell, and kept going until it got almost solid, then played around diving down through a hole and continued underneath it. There was a bit of fresh snow, with the bright green new spring growth underneath, that combined with the weird lighting underneath the fog bank, made for a real unusual view, the acoustic blues the Sirius sat radio was playing was perfect also. I worked it up the fog shrouded canyons as far as I could, always leaving a clear hole behind me, but the fog won out and I eventually turned around, the flight a total failure, and no fun at all. Somehow 2.3 hrs slipped by nonetheless, and once again I found something new in this area I've been flying for over 30 years now, a nice little lake on top of a little ridge, don't know how I missed it before. Best of all the wind really came up about an hour after I made it home and put the plane away, I love it when that happens!

Hey Pierre,
Are those 29s you're running on your 182? How do you like them?

Grassstrippilot wrote:Hey Pierre,
Are those 29s you're running on your 182? How do you like them?

Affirmative. https://www.backcountrypilot.org/forum/182-gets-new-29-abw-s-17124

So far, so fun!

Nice!

First, Amboy, CA because there's a restroom.


Tour bus of European tourists taking in the site that is Amboy.


And ended up in a place with lots of rocks.

Ahh, Amboy! Having lived in the Las Vegas area for a few years, it was on my short list of places to land when I got a backcountry type airplane! I did it last fall, while returning to northern Nevada from San Diego County.



I love how that classic Airstream pulled up to the pumps on cue for me to photograph it! Check out the gas prices!

The interior, done up to reflect Roy's glory days and the movies filmed there.

Last night. Did a bit of local flying.

Hit Larry's place. He wasn't home.

Stopped at my favorite strip mine strip. Landed the slope on the road for the first time. Wind was blowing right down the hill. Bushwheels are awesome.

3.5psi is nice.



Back home for supper.

Lone Star Maule Round Up

Flew with the young new instructor at my home airport yesterday. He did well with and enjoyed energy management turns. Both moving the control wheel proactively and dynamically fore/aft to maintain three feet ground effect on takeoff and the apparent rate of closure approach were a bit taboo for him.

I snuck in a quickie, in between a days long low pressure system with a lot of wind and rain we had a brief respite and I went for it. I flew once again over the CAT plant they are building in town, continuing my series of aerial pics I've been sending the contractor since they dug the footings. This shameless sucking up is paying off as I did a crane job there the other day, the contractor recommends me as the go to crane service to the sub contractors, flying pays off again! On the way back I hit what I call "Knob Top", the drifting fog banks really added an extra dimension, and made it easy to judge the slight breeze, my place is in the background so I was able to keep a close eye on the changing conditions. Work and play, play and work, it's all good.

This was a test flight since I replaced one bungee, with the HD bungee version, and sure enough I got rid of the lean to the right (my header tank is on that side) when parked I had been putting up with for quite a while. it now sits straight and to my surprise didn't really feel any rougher or stiffer, though it must it wasn't any big deal so a win/win.

[URL=http://s649.photobucket.com/user/simkot/media/5-15-15%20005_zpsjwsiaczq.jpg.html][/URL]

Two FA-18s on the ramp with me. They took off after me. They're a little faster than a 172...

UngaWunga wrote:Two FA-18s on the ramp with me. They took off after me. They're a little faster than a 172...

Years ago I was next after an F18, he went full afterburner ~80? feet in front of me. The pressure waves were phenomenal!

Where did I fly today? In the sky. Above the earth. Dang, this never gets old!

Saturday I went to a friends home strip. I've been wanting to go there for a bit but he's a busy guy and hard to catch at home. I flew over and saw someone mowing so I went ahead and landed. The strip is about 1000 ft and sits right on the Ohio River. It's right in the middle of the KPKB class D so you just tell the tower guys where you are going and when you think you'll be leaving and it's all good.

This friend of mine has been flying for prob forty something years and has some pretty sweet rides. This guy has worked hard and is about as humble as they come. As a matter of fact right before I showed up he was over at the new WW2 memorial running one of his dozers on his own dime.

None of this was planned. I just stopped by and ended up helping him out and was rewarded for my efforts!



One of the boys that works for him was taking his sweetheart to the prom. He needed a ride. So how does a McDonnel Douglas sound for a chariot?
https://vimeo.com/128137119

Here's where I come in.... I showed up and saw his wife mowing. She said he ran over to his other hangar at the airport (KPKB) to get the GPU (for the Citation) because the battery was dead on the MD 500. (Im telling you these are GOOD problems to have!) So when he got back we looked things over and figured out the batteries were dead on the GPU. Now all this is are two 12 volt commercial batteries linked for 24. The batteries were also toasted. So we pulled the battery out of his truck and wife's car and got the choppa started. Then we flew to the airport to get fuel. And of course, had to charge the batteries before the kids showed up for their ride!!
https://vimeo.com/128138157

https://vimeo.com/128138603

New WW2 memorial:
The two flag poles are 80ft. The other five are for all the branches.

The Valley Gem, paddle wheeler.

Marietta College Football stadium. Helicopter rules are way more fun than airplane rules.

https://vimeo.com/128135804

We had to get back to pick up the kids.

Off to prom we go!

Stop at Checkpoint Charlie to change headset batteries.

And then we dropped the kids off at the dance!https://vimeo.com/128140622

The Ohio Brush is full of adventure.

Now all this is are two 12 volt commercial batteries linked for 24.

We used to call our setup to start a Hughes 500 the "hellibatteries"

Did he let her ride in the front seat?

denalipilot wrote:Where did I fly today? In the sky. Above the earth. Dang, this never gets old!

X2! So great!
Flew the short flight down to my parents yesterday. It's only a 10 minute flight. But Cadence seems to enjoy flying. She's fallen asleep both times on the way home, so it sure doesn't bother her!

Awesome!

It's funny with the falling asleep thing: My kids would fall asleep almost before we got to the runway when they were little. Then, around age 3 or so, they were more interested in looking outside, sometimes taking the wheel and playing endless games of "20 questions." Now, my youngest is 7 and my oldest 14, and they're back to falling asleep again!

Good to see you back in the saddle again David. Glad that family got a chance to get out and enjoy a ride.

Steve