Flying Aces Inc. Newsletter vol.31 #10 Oct 2000
The Leading Edge
General Meeting: Sunday, October 8, 19:30 at San Jose Jet Center
Program: CFI Francisco Jerez "Flying the LA Basin"
Board Meeting: Monday October 30, 18:00 at Gould's
September Meeting Summary:
Aces member Marc Kaufman gave an informative presentation about
the joys and perils of helicopter flying. John Gould added in some of his
experiences doing helicopter maintenance in the Army.
October Birthdays:
15-Oct:Ryan Hall 24-Oct:Michael Workman 30-Oct:Ken Pheley
Please send in payments for August & September \(i.e. the bill you
received last month\) before 15-Oct, so that Doug can process them
after he returns from vacation. Thank you.
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
831 475-6868
see Doug's vacation at http://www.yacht-circe.com
Club Web page is at http://www.applelaneinn.com/flyingaces
Flying to Southern California:
(Part 1 described SJC->MIT, and departing toward the Tehachapi mountains)
Following the 123 deg radial From EHF, climbing at Vy, Bakersfield could no longer hear me,
and had handed me off to Joshua, which I could not yet hear. The planned altitude of 7500'
was reached a minute before the ridgeline. Off to the left, the town of Tehachapi looked nice,
perched in a broad spot at 4000'. There was a lake and stands of trees, but I could not make
out the airport. I steered to the right, skirting the 2 tall peaks, and passed over a steep rocky
canyon that was closed at both ends; not a good spot for an emergency landing! But in 2 more
minutes the mountains were dropping away to the floor of the high desert. Joshua APC had
called me twice, and finally heard my reply, asking, "Are you hearing me alright?" and then
telling me to proceed directly over Palmdale.
Trimmed out level, everything seemed fine, until I noticed that the altimeter was turning
rapidly clockwise. After all that Vy climb to get to 7,500', I was suddenly at 8,000' without
even trying; a thermal right where the slope ended, and the sandy desert floor began. Off to
my right was well paved strip, with X's at both ends, and a large angular metal bracket
sticking up. Perhaps it is some facility associated with the Special Military Activity area that
runs from west of Santa Barbara, along the ridgelines, to Tehachapi.
Joshua was managing lots of traffic. A dialogue started with a Cessna: "....joshua........123golf
...fox." "123Golf, this is Joshua, are you intending to land at General Fox?" ".......123golf......
yes...fox" "123Golf, What is your altitude?" ".......123golf........7000" "123Golf, It is customary
to descend before landing at an airport!" "......123golf.....landing...fox" "123GOLF, ARE
YOU A STUDENT PILOT?" ".....123golf.......yes" "Oh!...Okay...456Whiskey steer 010" "456"
"789Yankee steer 350" "789Yankee" "123Golf, go ahead and make a descending turn to your
right, clear to land at General Fox." ".....123golf......turning...left." "123Golf, OK, you're clear
to turn left and land General Fox, frequency change approved. Good luck!"
Just prior to departing on this trip, John Martin had given me some advice about the route:
"Your circular route to Riverside will be a lot more interesting than just
straight down and
back. I've taken both routes because my sister lives in
Riverside. Your fastest route is over
Palmdale, but watch for turbulence in
the Cajon Pass in the afternoon. You should be able to
spot interesting
military aircraft both on the tarmac and in the air while flying around
Edwards. One time I saw a B2 bomber and a small chase plane coming into
land. I never
appreciated how large the B2 was until I saw it against its chase plane. I don't know what the
chase plane was, but it seemed the size
of a fly on a horse."
"You may want to fly into Flabob. It's a friendly little airport with lots of
tail draggers.
But if it's smoggy you'd be better off at Riverside Municipal
where the tower can give you a
Special VFR clearance so you can get in and
out of the famous LA haze and smoke."
As I came closer to Palmdale, I could see a large high-wing multi-engine jet military aircraft
taking off, making right traffic, its dark charcoal grey quickly disappearing off toward
Edwards Air Force Base, and then returning to land at Palmdale. I passed directly over the
field, and felt a bump from a thermal, presumably created by the black runway in the pale
desert. Joshua was very busy with traffic coming out of LA and heading toward Las Vegas.
Many of them were heading for much higher altitudes. Except for occasional mild turbulence,
it felt as though I was running a flight simulator program. The desert landscape is repetitive
in its randomness, and the colors are mostly muted tans and greys. But then there was a
bright turquoise river or aqueduct coming into view. The only drainage that I expected was
the Mojave River, and I had expected a dry wash. The clock said that I had not gone far
enough, and I had not yet identified the Cajon Pass for certain. Joshua was now very hard to
hear on the radio, and I wondered if he had forgotten all about me. I was still on the 104 deg
outbound radial from Palmdale, but I wanted to know how far I had gone. I executed a steep
180 deg turn and looked at the linear marks of the airports, dark tan strips on the lighter tan
sand. There was one that looked like a numeral 4, and looked down at the chart to locate it.
This part of the chart, and this part of the desert, share the property that, every time you look
away, and then look back, it is hard to find the same landmark again. Finally, I correlated the
backwards 4 layout of El Mirage-Adelanto, and turned back again heading southeast, and
almost immediately recognized the Wrightwood ski area.
Just as I was wondering what to do about Joshua, he said "48425...not sure...still hear me...
awk VFR...", so I replied, although I doubt that he heard me, changed the transponder to
1200, and changed the radio to listen for Riverside's ATIS. Surprisingly, it was quite readable
"Echo, 280@10 vis10", and I liked what it said. I then found that I was also getting the RAL
VOR, TO 180, as expected, so I started into the Cajon Pass. If I stayed at 7,500', I could pass
high over everything, find Lake Matthews, and make the approach that I had made a few
times before, but I decided to descend to 5,500', which would just clear the top of Ontario's
Class C approach corridor, and I began calling SOCAL Approach. They did not answer the
first few calls, but emerging from behind the last big spur, we finally made contact.
Riverside was still not in sight, or at least, I could not recognize it. I remembered that there
are 2 peaks just north of it, but now I had too many to choose from. One candidate had an
enormous building on it, but the ones I wanted were only stones last year. SOCAL advised me
of traffic at 10 o'clock, and after a few moments, I saw an airliner in dark grey United Airlines
colors, lower than I had expected, and not much contrast against the foothills. Soon after I
said, "Traffic in sight", SOCAL told me that I was free to descend and land. Now all I had to
do was find it!
Gradually, the freeway just west of RAL became obvious, I heard the tower direct another
aircraft to start downwind right traffic for 27, I saw that aircraft, and then I was number 3
behind him. He turned out to be a lot faster than a C-152, and following him took me a ways
out, but that gave me a chance to recognize the approach from right base, which I had
previously only made from left base. I noticed that bad hesitation again when I adjusted the
throttle, but I flared just past the numbers, and floated! Riverside's runway 27 begins with an
uphill segment, and it seemed as if I executed the landing twice, but finally I was down.
Madeleine was waiting for me at transient parking in front of the D&D Diner, where they
have the tower frequency playing on a loudspeaker. After I told her about the rough engine,
we taxied over to her local mechanic, who cleaned the plugs. It was noticeably better as we
taxied over to Madeleine's hangar, where N48425 got to stay for 2 nights.
(next month, flying a nosedragger)