Stop #1 - Butte Valley Airport Flyby to Land at Klamath Falls



Ah it's been a month since the race ended - much transpired on the race this year...it's time to tell the rest of the story...

The launch out of Concord was perfect, and our spirits were flying high too. Everyone making the launch at the Start feels like a winner. Each team strives to fly its perfect cross country - gauging the weather and flying the plane to get its maximum performance. Making a "quick turn" at a stop can make or break your race. Sometimes you need to wait out weather or hold for some more favorable winds. But at the start of the race, it's usually important to get in and out of that first stop as fast as you can. Yes...a quick turn will be important.

Making a "quick turn" is essential at Stop #1, because it's the most congested traffic with the planes still bunched together. Some planes can carry enough fuel to make a "flyby to continue" - skip the stop and fly on to Stop #2 - get ahead of "the pack" and have fewer people to deal with on that fuel stop. Not so for my Cardinal and not so for Sue's Sundowner. We are "flyby to land" at Klamath Falls...along with 30 or more other teams...a "quick turn" here will mean just getting fueled in order of landing...

It was a nice ride to Butte Valley Airport (Dorris CA) for the first flyby. Some really pretty terrain below us...emerald green...ribbons of streams and rivers...a few scattered clouds around us. Then we see a really beautiful sight - snowcapped Mount Shasta - 14162 feet. A cloud partially obscures the sight asit drifts across, but it's still pretty gorgeous.

As we approach Butte Valley, we are initially fooled and identify the wrong strip of land as the airport on our horizon. Once we realize the error, we quickly adjust and lock in on the REAL Butte Valley. The airspace is getting a bit busy with some coming in for the flyby to land at Klamath Falls and others returning from Klamath Falls and setting up for their flybys to continue on to Stop #2. Sue makes our first flyby - just 200 ft above the ground at top speed! Whoosh!

We continue on to Klamath Falls OR. The control tower is doing an awesome job managing all the traffic. We taxi into the space we're directed to, take an ice cold water from our welcomes. We are #2 for fueling - great news...a quick turn...nope, not so fast...1.5 hours later - still no fuel - I have to call the Stop Chair over and express our frustration with not being fueled in proper order...it proves to be a critical delay for us...