Teller1900
En-Route
After the adventure we had the first time we met in SFO, Kim an I both agreed that a nice peaceful night flight around the Bay area would be the way to go. And so it happened, last week, I ended up with a free day in Napa during my work week.
Kim, and her boyfriend Owen, being the nice individuals that they are, agreed to drive down to Napa, pick me up, and drive up to O69 for a night flight around the Bay. A quick check of the weather showed truly astonishing conditions: every METAR and TAF station within 100 miles is showing 00000KT P6SM SKC from noon until well after 3am. No marine layer, no winds, no nothin' but wide open clear skies. Given the unbelievably favorable conditions, Kim, in her wisdom, suggested we make a stop at Half Moon Bay, as long as we're out. I'll certainly never say no to another airport in the logbook!
Six o'clock rolls around and Kim and Owen turn up at my hotel. A short time later, we're on the now dark ramp at Petaluma. As promised by NOAA, there is not a cloud in the sky! It's chilly, but only cold enough to guarantee good performance from our ride this evening. After a thorough preflight and short taxi, and we're on our way. Kim is in the left seat, I'm in the right, for my first ride in a piston single in about two years (and my first time to ever see a "digital tach with neato mag calculator" on a Cessna product - it actually was a neato system!).
It's a dark, almost moonless night as we climb smoothly (but loudly...it is a Cessna, afterall) into the calm night sky. I must add: everyone gives such emphasis to landings, but little focus to takeoffs. A smooth takeoff is a difficult thing as well, and this was one of the best and smoothest I've been party to! We climbed southbound, over the hills, as the lights of the city, bright clusters against the aphotic expanse of the Bay and the ocean in the distance, slowly appeared over the umbrage of the rocky cliffs. Up to 2,500ft, it was a few minutes of cruising before we reached the San Rafael Bridge; the predetermined point at which I was instructed to call approach for advisories. Kim took on the dual rolls of tour guide and flight instructor, telling me both about the area and what she was doing with the plane. To include an excellent tutorial on the "EGT needle-mometer." (We flew rich of peak, if anyone cares).
As we approached the bridge I called NorCal (and only called them San Francisco Approach once). They had no traffic in the area, so we had the bay to ourselves as long as we stayed north of the Bay Bridge. Kim handed me the controls as we started the bay tour. A couple laps around the Bay (pictures to follow) and we called NorCal again to head to Half Moon. I tried (and failed) to get a Bravo clearance, so we headed out to the coastline for the short trip south.
I knew there were some hills along the coast between us and Half Moon, but geezz, they sure did do a good job of hiding the airport until we were almost on top of it! NorCal dropped us very shortly after we passed their departure corridor; right about the time we got the airport in sight. We were set up for an almost perfect 45-to-the-downwind entry, so I handed the controls back to Kim, lest I scare everyone in the county trying to land - my chance for that came later in the flight.
Up 'till now we had had a perfectly nice, normal flight; considerably more normal than the last time. But this is where things got weird. We were checking out this
SeaBee, which lives there in Half Moon, when we heard the strangest sound from across the ramp. In the shadows it looked like another SeaBee. It certainly wasn't, though! Having just heard about this unusual phenomena, we quickly recognized the source of the noise...IT WAS A BEACHED WHALE!
Kim ran with a quickness back to the plane. She began doing some rough performance calculations, while I thought back to what I had learned from Tony and Matt M. and all the other glider guys. Using just the items found in the baggage compartment I MacGyvered a tow hook. Thankfully we had a roll of duct tape with which we could secure the hook to the plane and fashion a tow rope (seriously, what CAN'T this stuff do? Other than repair ducts...)! With some quick thinking and truly masterful flying, Kim was able to airlift the poor whale back into the sea. My quick-release tailhook worked perfectly, as well. I don't see why people bother with the 180hp conversions. That 31 year old 160hp engine had no problem hoisting that 30,000lb animal.
After that excitement we piled back into 56G for the short ride back to Petaluma. This time I must have sounded much more pathetic on the radio as we actually got a Bravo transition! Kim let me fly again as we passed SFO. We caught them at just the right time to be in the way of their heavy departures. Nothing beats taking a 747 2,000 above your head.
We paralleled the Golden Gate northbound, then headed over the top of San Quentin before NorCal dropped us again. After a brief search, we found the pathetically dim lights of Petaluma. I tried to give Kim the plane back for the landing, but she said no - it was my turn. Crap.
I'm not saying what I did to that poor runway was completely intentional, but I felt I should let the whole country side (and everyone on board) know that we had OFFICIALLY landed...after all three bounces. 70kts, by the way, is unnaturally slow! "Take that, Petaluma!" was an appropriate call out after that(those) landing(s). BUT, the plane could be reused, so I count that as a win!
True story. Mostly.
Many thanks to Kim and Owen for taking me for a ride, and not making fun of my many bounces; it's a beautiful city y'all have there!
Kim, and her boyfriend Owen, being the nice individuals that they are, agreed to drive down to Napa, pick me up, and drive up to O69 for a night flight around the Bay. A quick check of the weather showed truly astonishing conditions: every METAR and TAF station within 100 miles is showing 00000KT P6SM SKC from noon until well after 3am. No marine layer, no winds, no nothin' but wide open clear skies. Given the unbelievably favorable conditions, Kim, in her wisdom, suggested we make a stop at Half Moon Bay, as long as we're out. I'll certainly never say no to another airport in the logbook!
Six o'clock rolls around and Kim and Owen turn up at my hotel. A short time later, we're on the now dark ramp at Petaluma. As promised by NOAA, there is not a cloud in the sky! It's chilly, but only cold enough to guarantee good performance from our ride this evening. After a thorough preflight and short taxi, and we're on our way. Kim is in the left seat, I'm in the right, for my first ride in a piston single in about two years (and my first time to ever see a "digital tach with neato mag calculator" on a Cessna product - it actually was a neato system!).
It's a dark, almost moonless night as we climb smoothly (but loudly...it is a Cessna, afterall) into the calm night sky. I must add: everyone gives such emphasis to landings, but little focus to takeoffs. A smooth takeoff is a difficult thing as well, and this was one of the best and smoothest I've been party to! We climbed southbound, over the hills, as the lights of the city, bright clusters against the aphotic expanse of the Bay and the ocean in the distance, slowly appeared over the umbrage of the rocky cliffs. Up to 2,500ft, it was a few minutes of cruising before we reached the San Rafael Bridge; the predetermined point at which I was instructed to call approach for advisories. Kim took on the dual rolls of tour guide and flight instructor, telling me both about the area and what she was doing with the plane. To include an excellent tutorial on the "EGT needle-mometer." (We flew rich of peak, if anyone cares).
As we approached the bridge I called NorCal (and only called them San Francisco Approach once). They had no traffic in the area, so we had the bay to ourselves as long as we stayed north of the Bay Bridge. Kim handed me the controls as we started the bay tour. A couple laps around the Bay (pictures to follow) and we called NorCal again to head to Half Moon. I tried (and failed) to get a Bravo clearance, so we headed out to the coastline for the short trip south.
I knew there were some hills along the coast between us and Half Moon, but geezz, they sure did do a good job of hiding the airport until we were almost on top of it! NorCal dropped us very shortly after we passed their departure corridor; right about the time we got the airport in sight. We were set up for an almost perfect 45-to-the-downwind entry, so I handed the controls back to Kim, lest I scare everyone in the county trying to land - my chance for that came later in the flight.
Up 'till now we had had a perfectly nice, normal flight; considerably more normal than the last time. But this is where things got weird. We were checking out this
SeaBee, which lives there in Half Moon, when we heard the strangest sound from across the ramp. In the shadows it looked like another SeaBee. It certainly wasn't, though! Having just heard about this unusual phenomena, we quickly recognized the source of the noise...IT WAS A BEACHED WHALE!
Kim ran with a quickness back to the plane. She began doing some rough performance calculations, while I thought back to what I had learned from Tony and Matt M. and all the other glider guys. Using just the items found in the baggage compartment I MacGyvered a tow hook. Thankfully we had a roll of duct tape with which we could secure the hook to the plane and fashion a tow rope (seriously, what CAN'T this stuff do? Other than repair ducts...)! With some quick thinking and truly masterful flying, Kim was able to airlift the poor whale back into the sea. My quick-release tailhook worked perfectly, as well. I don't see why people bother with the 180hp conversions. That 31 year old 160hp engine had no problem hoisting that 30,000lb animal.
After that excitement we piled back into 56G for the short ride back to Petaluma. This time I must have sounded much more pathetic on the radio as we actually got a Bravo transition! Kim let me fly again as we passed SFO. We caught them at just the right time to be in the way of their heavy departures. Nothing beats taking a 747 2,000 above your head.
We paralleled the Golden Gate northbound, then headed over the top of San Quentin before NorCal dropped us again. After a brief search, we found the pathetically dim lights of Petaluma. I tried to give Kim the plane back for the landing, but she said no - it was my turn. Crap.
I'm not saying what I did to that poor runway was completely intentional, but I felt I should let the whole country side (and everyone on board) know that we had OFFICIALLY landed...after all three bounces. 70kts, by the way, is unnaturally slow! "Take that, Petaluma!" was an appropriate call out after that(those) landing(s). BUT, the plane could be reused, so I count that as a win!
True story. Mostly.
Many thanks to Kim and Owen for taking me for a ride, and not making fun of my many bounces; it's a beautiful city y'all have there!
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