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  #11  
Old 04-05-2013, 10:13 AM
Frank B's Avatar
Frank B Frank B is offline
 
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: san dimas CA
Posts: 7
Default 4 W/D not really necessary

Titus Canyon is a great drive, even without 4 W/D !!








I hope my next visit will begin by landing at Furnace Creek....
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  #12  
Old 04-05-2013, 02:35 PM
N427EF N427EF is offline
 
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Default Need 4WD

Frank, looks a lot like this one.
Certainly can be done without 4WD but nice to have.


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  #13  
Old 04-05-2013, 03:10 PM
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Frank B Frank B is offline
 
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Location: san dimas CA
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Default fixer upper

Quote:
Originally Posted by N427EF View Post
Frank, looks a lot like this one.
Certainly can be done without 4WD but nice to have.


sure but remember, it got there without 4 WD!

there was about 11 of us in pre '16 cars on that tour, it was fun passing folks in their Jeeps n Explorers bouncing along at 10 mph! I should have shot pics of their expressions as we motored by....

Death Valley, Scottys Castle, Furnace Creek, a great place to spend a few days. I highly recommend the trip to all.
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  #14  
Old 04-05-2013, 04:48 PM
N427EF N427EF is offline
 
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Posts: 1,516
Default Getting Back Home

Bill and his wife left on Wednesday, still looking at a beautiful flight home.
Weather conditions allowed for a flight straight to Bishop and on to Le Vining
near Mono Lake. Then cross over Tioga pass and a straight shot home to Concord


We kept our vehicle for the rest of the day and visited a few more sights.
These Beehive looking towers are Kilns built in late 1800 to produce Charcoal from an abundant source of Juniper Trees growing only in this very remote location. There are miles and miles of rocky landscape almost completely void of any sign of life and here at the base of Wild Rose Peak a densely forested area of Juniper trees could be harvested for charcoal.
The Coal was needed over 30 miles away to fire a silver smelter.


This is called the Race Track.
The race track holds a mysterious phenomenon wherein bolders about double the size of basket balls have slid or wiggled across a perfectly flat lake bed.
Geologist are still puzzled as to what propells these rocks across a dry lakebed leaving furrows in the mud, hence the name race track.

A dried out lake bed as flat as it gets, about the only good place to land if you needed to put down your plane in the middle of the desert.
Most of the landscape appears flat when flying over at 5000Feet AGL
but almost all of it is rocky and criss crossed with deep ruts and obstacles that would flip any airplane over on its back.







The red glow of a spectacular sunset was a foreboding sign of an approaching warm front, something that had been on my mind since checking the weather before Bill left. Getting back over the Sierras the next day was something that preoccupied me for the remainder of the stay. I am not new to the Sierras and certainly had my share of dealings with lousy flying weather
but the timing of this sytem could not have been worse. Forecasts for the entire Central Valley were low ceilings low visibility and rain showers.
Ceiling was forcast to be 12,000 feet with icing at 9000 feet, broken and scattered layers at 5000 feet and as low as 1500 feet.


I was planning for several outs. It appeared that the south central valley would be spared from this system and most of the IFR conditions would occur
to the north of Fresno. I had also called a Friend in Lake Tahoe 200 miles to the north on the east side of the Sierras where I could get to within a 4 hour drive to home. Best of all I did not need to be home that day.


The forcasters were correct.
Having ADS-B weather show up on my Dynon allowed us to fly to Lone Pine
and turn south a bit further than the Town of Olancha where crossing the Sierras to the west could be done at 10,500 feet. A constant update on Metars would show me several VFR airports from Visalia to Bakersfield.
(sorry forgot about screen shots) A huge blob of green and yellow dotted with red showed up on the Dynon weather screen covering most of the central valley north of Visalia.



We landed in Visalia in pouring rain but still pretty good visibility and decided to wait for better conditions.
As is so often the case when you land somewhere, you meet interesting people, in this case Mr. Rod Bower builder of the Rod Bower Ram air system and an advertiser on this site. After complimenting me on my RV-10 he offered to take us to his "hangars" and show us a magnificently built Carbon Cub. He slowly revealed that he had built 8 airplanes, at least 3 of them Rvs
and about to finish a Stewart Mustang, a masterpiece if I've ever seen one.
Opposite his hangar was an RV-10 builder, Lee Otto who had been in my garage a couple of years earlier looking over my 10 project. He has done a great job and will be flying soon. A couple of hours passed and the rain let up to a light drizzle. Having Fore Flight at my finger tips, it was easy to see the western part of the valley clearing up at least part way home.
We still could not get all the way to Concord as a Presidential TFR streched over the top of Concord and needless to say weather at around noon was 300foot ceilings in heavy rain. We decided to take advantage of a fairly clear shot to a little airport called Lodi with a great restaurant about 45 minutes north of Visalia. We again caught up with driving rain and 1500 foot ceilings but managed to get to Lodi. After a nice Lunch the place closed down at 2pm
just the end of the TFR and now a 20 minute flight home in very familiar territory. We arrived under 2000 foot ceilings but with good visibility and all is well.
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Ernst Freitag
RV-8 finished (sold)
RV-10 Flyer 600 plus hours
Running on E10 mogas
Don't believe everything you know.

Last edited by N427EF : 04-05-2013 at 11:30 PM.
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  #15  
Old 04-05-2013, 05:30 PM
Vlad's Avatar
Vlad Vlad is offline
 
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Location: Utah
Posts: 8,151
Default Thanks for write up

Boy this is a nice trip. I've been to Death Valley briefly now I see what I missed. Time to plan another trip west
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  #16  
Old 04-11-2013, 12:54 PM
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Leland Leland is offline
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Livermore, California
Posts: 146
Default Four-wheel drive in Death Valley

Here is an excellent read about four Germans who vanished in Death Valley 15 years ago. Leland

http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/s...alley-germans/
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  #17  
Old 04-11-2013, 05:49 PM
N427EF N427EF is offline
 
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Posts: 1,516
Default Intriguing story!

Very interesting read.
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Ernst Freitag
RV-8 finished (sold)
RV-10 Flyer 600 plus hours
Running on E10 mogas
Don't believe everything you know.
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  #18  
Old 04-11-2013, 06:01 PM
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DakotaHawk DakotaHawk is offline
 
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Arlington, WA
Posts: 799
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Leland View Post
Here is an excellent read about four Germans who vanished in Death Valley 15 years ago. Leland

http://www.otherhand.org/home-page/s...alley-germans/
Non-flying related, but a very interesting read regardless! Thanks for posting this.

And now, to make this Aviation related, I have flown over this area, and didn't realize how far civilization is, when you're on the ground and trying to hike out of a bad situation! RVs cover the miles quickly, but it wouldn't have been pretty had I been forced down in that inhospitable desert!
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