Gas Getting Expen$ive

The rising cost of avgas may have prompted some to economize on their flying activities.

This picture was taken from the lodge porch at Flying M. A slight breeze came up and the trike pilots decided to high tail it. The low wing loading makes them tricky to fly in winds that a regular pilot would hardly notice.

SMXgig Trip

Thursday May 3 found the sky clear from Hillsboro all the way to Santa Maria, so off I went. I decided to fly down the coast with a refueling stop at Gold Beach.

Three deer ran across the runway as I approached. They kept on going and I kept on coming. The FBO owner said not to worry, these deer know their way around the airport and besides the only deer strikes in Oregon have been in the Bend/Redmond area. A search of the NTSB database revealed one deer strike since 1983, in Joseph.

On the way down I worked K7RTN in Camp Verde Arizona, near Flagstaff.

Left: California's answer to Haystack Rock

Below: San Francisco. The Golden Gate Bridge is barely visible. San Fran Approach graciously allowed me to climb up to 3500 feet to alleviate turbulence from the afternoon's onshore breeze.

Below: South San Fracisco and SFO.

Below: Coast Highway south of San Francisco

Romeo on the tarmac at Santa Maria in front of the GA terminal.

SMXgig activities included seminars, landing judging, hangar lies, and a trip to Oceano. We stayed at the Airport Regency, right on the tarmac.

Scenes from The Great American Melodrama in Oceano, complete with Victorian stage, cabaret tables, sawdust on the floor, and the aroma of fresh popcorn. The actors man the concession during intermissions. The revue included Tom Leher's "New Math" and Victor Borge's phonetic pronounciation routine.

For the return trip I flew inland. Left: area northwest of Santa Maria.

Near Sacremento I worked several hams on 146.52 simplex. I refuled with 80/87 fuel at Red Bluff.

Below: Mt Shasta viewed from the west.

BFR

For the flight portion we flew up the Columbia Gorge and found a suitable canyon. In canyons the horizon doesn't exist or is seriously out of kilter, so hard banking risks spatial disorientation. The tactic in canyon flying is to slow down to make turning easier.

Flying is done at half flaps well down into the white arc. In many planes, maximum lift occurs when the flaps match the maximum downward aileron deflection. Many bugsmashers are quite happy flying this way. While teaching me this technique Amy had us flying much closer to cumulo-granite than I am used to. I won't admit to being intimidated, but it certainly got my attention.

Amy also instructed me in the emergency canyon turn. From the half flaps "crusing" configuration, put in full power and full flaps and one can seemingly turn the plane on a wingtip. Good for a 180 in tight spots. I need to practice that maneuver some more before I can do it with panache.

We did not practice at the high density altitudes typical of back country canyon airstrips.

For a relaxing change of pace I shot a couple of landings at Brush Prarie 5WA9, a 2800 foot grass strip near Battleground. Mountain style landing approaches are stablized with full flaps going in before turning base. A steep approach is used with the descent controlled by the throttle. Amy had me aim for the mowed portion some 800 feet in from the threshold. The first time I didn't notice power lines to the north of the runway because I was concentrating on a point quite a ways further down.

As we headed back to Troutdale Amy pulled the throttle to idle. The old engine out drill. I decided we could make 5WA9 but would have to land downwind as it didn't seem we had enough energy (altitude+speed) to maneuver for a normal landing. She agreed.

The rest of the trek back to Troutdale was uneventful except that we couldn't spot most of the traffic that was called out to us. The Troutdale tower has a radar display unlike the far busier Hillsboro Airport. The BFR concluded with an uneventful no flaps landing (another emergency drill).

Sorry no pictures, I was a bit too busy. Some of the close encounters of the granite kind would have made interesting pix.

I tried some of this Sunday at the Flying M Ranch. The valley/ravine that envelops the strip is not tight at all, but after Wednesday's festivities it seemd enormous. In mixing new techniques and old habits I was rather hot on final and decided to go around and get it right. Thanks to the canyon flying training the go around was a major nonevent.

Oops.

But he did make the diveway. Easily.

Dick van Dyke noticed him making a long straight-in as Dick was turning base. Dick landed with a ten knot tailwind straight up the runway. This is a common condition at the Ranch.

I did notice the grass around the threshold marking has now been closely mowed, revealing a yellowed painted threshold as well as a newly painted white one right next to it. Actually it appeared that someone had dumped old paint there to mark the threshold - whatever works. The old mark was a tad yellowed, the new one still white. Either will do nicely.

It is still not clear if he landed short (before the ledge) or just landed hard.

Wednesday after lunch Marvin and I walked down to the end of the strip to inspect the scene of the crash. We were unable to identify where the 206 first touched down. We did see the place where it likely came to rest.

Reportedly the plane had been sold shortly before the crash.

Change of drawers, Couple drinks, Good to go.

Saturday May 19 some of the local pilots' club staged a flyout to Newport on the Oregon coast.

Sunday the 20th was perhaps the first regular Sunday of the year with glorious weather that demanded flight. By mid morning a veritable airforce had assembled at the Flying M Ranch, 13 or so including N29147. Note the clarity of the hills in the background.

Saturday the 25th I flew to Bend for an airport appreciation fly-in. On the way to Bend I stopped at Santiam Junction 8S3. This time the air was calm and I had no trouble with the approach and landing. Left: Early in the morning the Columbia Gorge was caressed by a slight haze.

The Cessna Businessliner that was on blocks in 1998 is almost ready to fly.

Note the custome pitot tube cover.

I landed at a number of new (to me) airstrips, including Gopher Gulch OR29, Left. Other new airstrips were Santiam Junction 8S3, Pilot Butte 8OR5, Juniper Air 5OR5, Cline Falls 3OR8, Dry Creek OG21, McKenzie Bridge 00S, and Showalter OR94. Eight new airstrips in all.
Below: Three Sisters Mountains.

God's Little Airstrip

Sunday June 10 the winds were calm at the Flying M Ranch, so I decided to land and stop before the infamous driveway. This time, a full stop, not a "California Stop".

Afterwards I visited Rodney Anderson and the gang at the Apple Valley Airport. Because of a cranky neighbor, special procedures are used to minimize the noise footprint. With all the trucks bellowing as they chug along the adjacent Highway 26 between Portland and the coast, I'm surprised any neighbors notice the odd bugsmasher above the din.

On approach from the east the first thing I recognized was Rod's red roofed house. A variety of planes live in and around Andersen's hangar including this 1920's Travelair restoration project. It has an engine just like the one that flew Lindberg to Paris, but Rod is looking for something more reliable. Perhaps we will see this machine in the Flying M Ranch flight line some day.

One of several airplane frames is barely visible at the top of the picture. There is a lot of history in this hangar.

Perhaps someone with forestry experience can tell what caused the light colored areas of trees seen in the photographs.

A different set of birds live up here, with their own high altitude songs. Hoot owls and tree frogs talked to me that night. A few times I heard rustlings near my tent. I bellowed like an angry cat and the rustlings stopped. I would have slept better if the Sevylor air mattress inflator hadn't run down its battery in storage.

Saturday morning a turbine helicopter landed briefly at the north end of the strip. I assumed it was a government operation of some sort. It turned out to be Norm Winningstad on a flight to visit all the Oregon public use airports (plus Flying M Ranch) over the weekend. The rules for the flight call for a full stop landing at each airport. Many airports are too short for a full stop landing and takeoff without back taxiing, so a helicopter can save time by avoiding the taxiing a faster fixed wing aircraft would require.

Below: Looking south from the end of the strip

During my takeoff from Memaloose, the rough surface slowed my Skylane. I could feel impacts from the bumps restraining the airplane. Shake rattle and roll. It seemed to add five minutes to the takeoff roll. I came within a very few seconds of aborting the takeoff.

But the Skylane eventually got lighter on its feet. Then bumps tossed the airplane into the air briefly a few times. But at least the ground wasn't slowing me down any more. Finally I had enbough airspeed and to lift off.

I stopped at Enterprise to wash off the airplane. On the way back I did a touch and go at Joseph. As you can see (below) there's not much else to do at Joseph State Airport.