Days 4 and 5 - Repairs, Flight to Concord...Finally...

We had a bit of a mechanical "scare" after lunch on Wednesday as Sue was getting ready to taxi for our departure. The engine monitor just didn't look quite up to snuff, so we had to leave it in the shop overnight. A great mechanic fixed a blown exhaust valve, and we were trying to climb out of Las Vegas, and not enjoying our air traffic controllers routing. BUT, we are just happy to get back on route with no cylinder issues.

Heading to Van Nuys Airport, home of the infamous 16R runway (documentary film). We are sharing a few photos along...green, velvety mountains...rolling, brown terrain...and then the population density begins to pick up. We fly some Los Angeles airspace...as if Las Vegas was not busy enough for us. BUSY radios. We are loving the idea of flying into VNY and are assigned 16L - fuel stop and dinner at the 94th Aero Squadron Restaurant on the field. Sweet!

King City Airport - Tutima Academy of Aviation Safety

After dawdling over dinner, we check weather and know we will not make Concord before sunset. So we set our sights on Monterey for a nice overnight. As the light was lowering, Sue was noticing some clouds drifting in...the marine layer beat us to Monterey. Drat!
We make a quick decision to land at Mesa Del Rey (KIC) just before sunset. Windy! Chilly! Deserted airport. Home of Sean D. Tucker and his Tutima Academy of Aviation Safety. Who knew that we would drop in on an international aerobatic pilots homebase. After spending the night at a local motel, we got to prowl around Tucker.s hangar and planes. Such a treat.

Sue standing in the hangar with Tucker's planes around her.

As we leave and take off from King City (Mesa Del Rey), we snap a picture of the surrounding fields. Its about an hour to Concord, and we see the marine layer still laying across Monterey as we fly by on the way to Concord and the 2014 Air Race Classic. Its a beautiful day flying the approach to CCR. Touchdown. Finally! Thursday June 12th.

We get directed to our tiedown spot...taxi up to our hotel and shut down the plane on their ramp...a shiny little radio-controlled gizmo greets us on the ramp - the inventor operates this automated tug and finesses the Sundowner into her spot.

A wing unit under construction in Sean D. Tucker's hangar.

The fields around Mesa Del Rey (KKIC)



The AC Air Technology tug on the nosewheel of Sue's plane.