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Flight over Laguna Beach, Hemet

R

rightrudder

Well Known Member
Here's the first video I made after having the plane painted. Video quality varies a lot with the camera mounted on top of the V-stab; very shaky with lots of gyrations during takeoff as result of prop wash, but not too bad when throttled back.

Kinda smoky, a result of the Santa Barbara fire.

Landing at Hemet was a little crossed up, but done at walking speed (nearly!) thanks to a decent headwind component.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zwDpBYA0S0E
 
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Nice flight. Used a lot of runway I see, I went from transitioning in a 6 to owning / flying a 9 and I tell you it's amazing how crucial the speed is in the 9 or it will not land , it's a glider.
 
Yeah, I purposely held that one off for as long as possible. It's crazy how slow it will get before stalling, but that's exactly what I wanted: a fast-ish plane that would land like a trainer.
 
I learned to fly at Hemet Ryan, back around 1970.

I am glad you told us where you were, because it sure does look different than the last time I flew into there-----I would not have recognized it.
 
That's interesting, Mike. Probably just a lone airstrip and no homes at that point. I couldn't pick it out among the clutter at first, so I went overhead at 1500' above TPA to get my bearings. There's a great little restaurant on the field called Hangar 1 Cafe that has the best, thickest bacon anywhere!

Did the reservoir exist back in 1970? The nice thing is that it's easy to spot other traffic over the water when they're on the 45.

Babalu, I'm with you. Lovin' the 9!!
 
rightrudder said:
That's interesting, Mike. Probably just a lone airstrip and no homes at that point. I couldn't pick it out among the clutter at first, so I went overhead at 1500' above TPA to get my bearings. There's a great little restaurant on the field called Hangar 1 Cafe that has the best, thickest bacon anywhere!

Did the reservoir exist back in 1970? The nice thing is that it's easy to spot other traffic over the water when they're on the 45.

Babalu, I'm with you. Lovin' the 9!!
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I agree on Hangar 1 Cafe. Try the homemade pies!

The Diamond Valley reservoir was completed in 2003. Surprisingly, it doesn't appear on the Dynon basemap, and it is much larger than Lake Skinner, which is nearby and is on the map.
 
Hey Bruce!

I was just reading the Wiki entry on Diamond Valley. Filled by the Colorado River Aqueduct, it was (at least at the time) the largest earthwork project in the U.S. to create those earthen dams! Lots of fossil finds during excavation, including mammoths, mastodons, etc. It's about 1500' MSL.
 
SO Cal flying

Hemet has some nice folks around. I landed recently to visit Cal Fire and blew the left main tire on my 9A. Almost immediately, two planes shut down... ran over and helped me off the runway. (under the wing... lifted it right onto a dolly provided by maint. shop on a golf cart)
I always stop there for self serve fuel and the food is fast and good.
Nice video... you have to watch out for unauthorized music on movies. The artists want to be paid for their tunes... and I agree, they should.
Have fun out there and fly early.
 
rightrudder said:
That's interesting, Mike. Probably just a lone airstrip and no homes at that point. I couldn't pick it out among the clutter at first, so I went overhead at 1500' above TPA to get my bearings. There's a great little restaurant on the field called Hangar 1 Cafe that has the best, thickest bacon anywhere!

Did the reservoir exist back in 1970? The nice thing is that it's easy to spot other traffic over the water when they're on the 45.
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The only thing out there at the time was Sailplane Enterprises---a glider operation on a parallel dirt strip to the north-------looks like the strip might still be there, and industrial park stuff off to the south and east. Nearest residential area was a mile or so away to the north east-------trailer park IIRC.

I do remember a resturant there, not sure of the name anymore. CDF air attack base was there, flying PBY Cats, and Super Cats, F7Fs, TBMs, S2s and C 337 for Airco ship. There used to be a huge stockpile of radial engines there.
 
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rightrudder said:
Did the reservoir exist back in 1970? The nice thing is that it's easy to spot other traffic over the water when they're on the 45.
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No, it was built around early 2000. I flew hang gliders for years out of Elsinore
and we called it the Domenigoni reservoir. It's not uncommon even today for hang gliders to operate in the area. As a cross country hang glider pilot, my minimum goal was to fly the 20 miles from the Elsinore launch to Hemet, but I've made it out to the Palm Springs area (50+ miles) and into on multiple occasions.

If you fly into Hemet be careful about taxiing into the prohibited Cal Fire ramp. It's easy to miss the signs if you make the wrong off the runway.

regards

~Marc
 
Hey Marc,

Wow, 50 miles in a hang glider! That must be a very Zen experience, alone with your thoughts and hopping from thermal to thermal. I often fly along the back side of Saddleback (Murrieta to Corona) and a couple of times I've seen hang gliders and powered parasails at about 4500-5000 ft. And a few B-52s in the distance taking off from March. And "meat missiles" near Elsinore...I always give the jump planes a heads up on the advisory frequency.

I saw the Cal Fire ramp, and thankfully the "Keep Out" signage is very clear. :)

Pavement and markings there are excellent; I'll definitely be back, next time with a better sense of positioning on the 45 entry.
 
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Doug, extra points for your head being on a swivel for just about that whole video; no unnecessary head down/eyes in the cockpit time. I love it!
 
longranger said:
Doug, extra points for your head being on a swivel for just about that whole video; no unnecessary head down/eyes in the cockpit time. I love it!
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Thanks, Miles! It really is crazy to see how much head turning there is when you speed up the video that much. I'm happy that I'm familiar enough with my glass panel that I can find what I need with as little head-down time as possible.
 
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