I left W52 (Goheen Field, Battle Ground, WA) on 8-3-13, returning on 8-14-13. The route of flight was 1W1 (Grove Field - for fuel), WMC (Winnemucca, NV) - SGU (St. George, UT) - RYN (Tucson) - SEE (El Cajon) - TSP (Tehachapi) - MER (Merced) - CCR (Concord, CA) - O81 (TuleLake, CA).
Overnight stops were Winnemucca, St. George. Extended stops were Tucson where I visited my Dad, who turns 93 in October, El Cajon to visit my son, daughter-in-law and celebrate my grandson's first birthday (He weighs 26 lbs.! and has already been jokingly "recruited" by a high school football coach) and Concord to visit my sister.
I was also fortunate to stop at Merced to visit Ed Banks, the former owner of N544WB, from whom I purchased the plane sight unseen. Ed turned out to be just the kind of great person I thought he was when were negotiating the sale by e-mail and telephone. It was wonderful to finally get to meet him.
My daughter Erin was with me on the trip home from San Diego. She decided the "free seat" was financially attractive compared to $300 to fly home commercially. She did not enjoy the lack of A/C, the turbulence in desert thermals, or the forest fire smoke we had to deal with from Klamath Falls all the way to the Columbia River. Frankly, I didn't enjoy portions of some of our flight legs either. The flight through the forest fire smoke was the toughest: with no autopilot, and barely able to make out the horizon, I kept going east to try to get downwind of the smoke, which extended the duration of a 1:30 flight to over 2 hours. I was pretty exhausted when we finally got home. In the future, I am either going to have to have the self-discipline to get off the ground early or avoid desert flight in August. There were also 20 mph winds on the nose for nearly every flight leg - they even turned the corner at Gila Bend so I was flying headwinds the entire trip from Tucson to El Cajon!
There were two unfortunate events during the trip. My usual protocol was to have Erin get in the plane, buckle up and then I would hand her a 3-ring binder with all the trip information such as chart trip ticks, airnav airport information, etc. When we were leaving Merced, I got in the plane first and left the 3-ring binder on the wing walk. After waiting for Erin to get in and get buckled up, I dropped the tip-up canopy to the partially closed position, fired up the engine and blew the hard copy memories of the trip all over the ramp :-(. Not only did I feel pretty foolish, but it also wasted a lot of time picking everything up. The second incident was the loss of the left brake at Concord, which I posted about separately.
I do have lots of positive memories of this trip. The two young women who run Winnemucca Air Service, Natasha Schmidt and Janeanne Knox treated me wonderfully. The Martin Hotel, the Basque restaurant they recommended was outstanding. I was also treated wonderfully by the folks at Above Air Jet Centre in St. George. The mechanics at Sterling Aviation expedited the repair to the left brake. From the time I reported to Concord Tower that I would have to be towed in until we were ready for departure the second time was only two hours. We were well treated by Mr. Macy in Tulelake, who loaned us his personal vehicle so we could get some lunch.
Finally, my best leg from the sightseeing standpoint was SGU - RYN. I got off the ground early and completed the flight by 10:30. It was smooth as glass.
The route of flight was directly over Grand Canyon National Park. Even though I am terrible at taking photos from the air, I was so captivated by the views that I took some photos. One is attached.
It seems I can't figure out how to post a photo. the direct link in photobucket is http://i818.photobucket.com
Larry Tompkins
N544WB -6A
W52 Battle Ground, WA
Overnight stops were Winnemucca, St. George. Extended stops were Tucson where I visited my Dad, who turns 93 in October, El Cajon to visit my son, daughter-in-law and celebrate my grandson's first birthday (He weighs 26 lbs.! and has already been jokingly "recruited" by a high school football coach) and Concord to visit my sister.
I was also fortunate to stop at Merced to visit Ed Banks, the former owner of N544WB, from whom I purchased the plane sight unseen. Ed turned out to be just the kind of great person I thought he was when were negotiating the sale by e-mail and telephone. It was wonderful to finally get to meet him.
My daughter Erin was with me on the trip home from San Diego. She decided the "free seat" was financially attractive compared to $300 to fly home commercially. She did not enjoy the lack of A/C, the turbulence in desert thermals, or the forest fire smoke we had to deal with from Klamath Falls all the way to the Columbia River. Frankly, I didn't enjoy portions of some of our flight legs either. The flight through the forest fire smoke was the toughest: with no autopilot, and barely able to make out the horizon, I kept going east to try to get downwind of the smoke, which extended the duration of a 1:30 flight to over 2 hours. I was pretty exhausted when we finally got home. In the future, I am either going to have to have the self-discipline to get off the ground early or avoid desert flight in August. There were also 20 mph winds on the nose for nearly every flight leg - they even turned the corner at Gila Bend so I was flying headwinds the entire trip from Tucson to El Cajon!
There were two unfortunate events during the trip. My usual protocol was to have Erin get in the plane, buckle up and then I would hand her a 3-ring binder with all the trip information such as chart trip ticks, airnav airport information, etc. When we were leaving Merced, I got in the plane first and left the 3-ring binder on the wing walk. After waiting for Erin to get in and get buckled up, I dropped the tip-up canopy to the partially closed position, fired up the engine and blew the hard copy memories of the trip all over the ramp :-(. Not only did I feel pretty foolish, but it also wasted a lot of time picking everything up. The second incident was the loss of the left brake at Concord, which I posted about separately.
I do have lots of positive memories of this trip. The two young women who run Winnemucca Air Service, Natasha Schmidt and Janeanne Knox treated me wonderfully. The Martin Hotel, the Basque restaurant they recommended was outstanding. I was also treated wonderfully by the folks at Above Air Jet Centre in St. George. The mechanics at Sterling Aviation expedited the repair to the left brake. From the time I reported to Concord Tower that I would have to be towed in until we were ready for departure the second time was only two hours. We were well treated by Mr. Macy in Tulelake, who loaned us his personal vehicle so we could get some lunch.
Finally, my best leg from the sightseeing standpoint was SGU - RYN. I got off the ground early and completed the flight by 10:30. It was smooth as glass.
It seems I can't figure out how to post a photo. the direct link in photobucket is http://i818.photobucket.com
Larry Tompkins
N544WB -6A
W52 Battle Ground, WA
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