Flying Aces Inc. Newsletter vol.31 #9 Sept. 2000
The Leading Edge
General Meeting: Tuesday, September 8, 19:30 at San Jose Jet Center
Program: Marc Kaufman, Transition From Airplane To Helicopter
Board Meeting: Monday September 25, 18:00 at Bohmann's or Gould's
August Meeting Summary:
A steak barbeque was held at John Gould's house, on a hilltop
overlooking South San Jose. Airplanes and motorcycles were
discussed at great length. Leftover steaks were given out as
doorprizes.
September Birthdays:
3rd Terence Ridgway 4th Brian vonHerzen
6th Todd Whitmer 24th Edmond Yuen
Please submit articles and notes for the newsletter to jtn@te-cats.com
Please send ideas or contacts for club activites to Kepfly@aol.com
Club President John Gould is at gould42@aol.com
Club Manager Doug Groom is at ali@cruzio.com
Club Web page is at http://www.applelaneinn.com/flyingaces
Flying to Southern California:
Arriving at SJC GA West around 07:00, hoping to get an early start, I found that N48425 had
not been refueled. Since it was covered with dew, I wondered about condensation in the tanks,
but found no water in the samples. The dipstick showed that it was also way low on oil! There
was oil in the locker, but no funnels, so I made one by cutting the bottom off of an empty from
the trash barrel. The fuel truck finally showed up, and I was actually off 1/2 hour before my
flight plan.
The Monterey Bay area looked like a bowl of vichyssoise, but that's why I had planned to take
the inland route: over South County, through the pass to the San Luis Reservoir, turning
southeast to Panoche VOR. The CDI acted funny, until I realized that I was flying TO on a
FROM radial. When I worked in the aerospace industry years ago, I often saw pilots ask, "Is
this fly-to or fly-from?" and then proceed to make the mental adjustment; I'll leave that to
the pros, and use the CDI the way I was taught to.
The hills around Panoche are obviously earthquake country, compressed and folded. Very
nice to look at, but no emergency landing sites. Even if you did land on one of the fire roads,
you might die of dehydration. Soon I passed over Coalinga, the old strip marked with X's, the
new strip and Harris Ranch visible further east. Upon reaching Avenal VOR, I turned on the
outbound radial toward Shafter-Minter, and descended into the haze over the Central Valley.
There seemed to be a bad hesitation as a advanced the throttle to level-off at 3,500'.
Bakersfield Approach was very busy, but I eventually checked in. The visibility was good
enough to see a biplane cropduster arcing up with a white trail behind, but I kept on the VOR,
because there's a lot of farmland that all looks the same. The EHF VOR led me by Wasco and
Shafter, and Shafter-Minter was in sight when BFL APC called to release me. No answer to
"Request Traffic Advisory" but it was dead calm, so I landed on 30.
The Airport Manager's Office let me use their phone to close my flight plan, because the pay
phone outside was not working. After washing my hands and eating a tuna sandwich at
Kathy's Airport Burger, I taxied over to the fuel pump and discovered why the crop dusters
that the Blue Book warns about are able to use the closed north runway; they're helicopters
with hip tanks, so they don't care about bad pavement!
At run-up, the Right mag was running extremely rough. After revving up and leaning for a
minute, it seemed OK, but it worried me because the next leg was heading into the mountains.
Departing to the south, I called BFL APC immediately, and told them I'd like to climb out
on the 123 deg EHF radial on my way to Palmdale. After vectoring me once to avoid traffic
departing Meadows, they gave me exactly what I asked for, passing right over Meadows.
I kept the climb right on Vy 67 kt, and wondered if 300 fpm was normal, or whether the motor
was weak, or it was just a very hot day. The Tehachapi mountains were getting closer, and if
the motor skipped a beat, I was prepared to turn back towards Flatland. BFL APC handed me
off to Joshua, and became annoyed when he didn't hear my replies. Another pilot relayed for
me, and the controller double checked by asking me to Ident. I began calling Joshua APC, but
heard nothing. Steering a little right of course, I headed for the saddle of the ridge.
(next month, the high desert)