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...

 

Race Morning - Mon June 16th - Beautiful Weather, Sunshine, and a Launch

On the ramp with "Sylvia 2" - ready for Launch

Sue's toenails painted to match "Sylvia 2"

Well, it was a busy weekend of race briefings mixed with a bit of relaxation. Racer moods turn to the business of the race... focus... high energy... some edginess and tension with the anticipation of 50 planes launching only about 60-90 seconds apart.

Fire crash truck at the ready in the background

Classic 30, a V-tail Bonanza, on the roll leaving CCR

For me, the night before the race just always reminds me of that excitement and anticipation that I had as a kid on Christmas Eve. In Concord, our hotel room overlooked the ramp area with all the planes tied down. We can look out on Sylvia 2 resting at her tie down spot, waiting for her big moment Monday morning. Time to catch some shut eye...

The morning dawns cool, sunny, and blue skies above. Perfect launch weather, which is a welcome contrast to the 2013 Start in Pasco where low clouds blocked our launch. The Concord crowd will get a great launch watching us all lift off to fly north to our first timing line and flyby in Dorris CA (A32) with a fuel stop in Klamath Falls OR.

Sue caught a pedicure to get her toenails painted to match the trim on the SlowDowner. The Sundowner has a pretty blue ribbon painted on her right wing (only) to note the special edition of her plane. Yep, no matching ribbon on the left wing. Hhmmm...doesn't that make the right wing heavier?

Classic 33, just ahead in the taxi line, running up her engine

As Classic 34, we have about 30+ planes to launch ahead of  us. We start our engines in groups of 5-7 planes with each group taxiing down and running up their engines on the final check. We can see Classic 30 taxi out to the runway and zoom off. Classic 33 just in front of us runs up and launches. Finally, it's our turn and we're off on our 2014 Air Race Classic adventure.

We're OFF!!! Climbing and turning out from Concord CA...

And oh what an adventure this one proves to be...

Just One More Little Excursion Before the Race (Sat June 14th)

Leaving the ferry port for a ride in the Bay.

Well, we have a little gap between briefings, and Sue convinces me that we need to get out on BART to go see a bit of San Francisco. Today's mission - the ferry to Sausalito and back in time for the Start Banquet.

We hop BART from the Concord stop and ride to the Golden Gate Ferry Terminal.  The Baldwin Family Flyers (Classic 26 - Caroline, Lydia, and Cara) are with us too. We sort out the buttonology on the BART machines and then the bottonology on the machines to get a "Clipper" ferry ticket. All done just in time to board the Sausalito Ferry.

The San Francisco skyline

It's a great ride on the water - pretty breezy...or "airish" as Sue is fond of saying. As we pull away from the terminal, we get a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco skyline.

We have one VERY windswept photo of our group on the ferry, but I've censored it from the blog.

Alcatraz

As we churn through the water, we pass Alcatraz, which always reminds me of the old Kirk Douglas movie, "Birdman of Alcatraz."

San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge

The sailboats on the water are beautiful and relaxing to gaze at.

Sailboats in the Bay

 Finally, we pull into the Terminal at Sausalito, only to discover that we have about 15 min for a very quick hike up and down the main drag before we need to reboard for our return trip to SF and Concord. It is a very picturesque place, and pretty full of tourists. Nonetheless, it will be a great place to keep in mind for my next visit to the Bay Area. Lots of little shops and restaurants.

A quick walk in Sausalito

Friday the Thirteenth (06/13/2014) - Walking the Ramp

.Well, it was Friday the 13th, but still a fun day. We passed through our credentials check...after Sue found her current medical. On to airplane inspections, and the Slowdowner got a high pass after we resolved the question of the landing vs. taxi lights. Since Sue is a daytime VFR pilot, these lights don't get used often. So it was a lesson in toggle switchery - down, taxi lights; up, landing lights. Yep, we are always learning new things about our planes...all the time.

Sue's Sundowner sunning itself just below our hotel window

Our friend, Elaine Stook's cool 1950s Cessna on the hotel ramp

A pretty perky Flower Power plane on the ramp

It is always fun to reconnect with returning racers each year and to meet the newbies. There is always a bit of drama as the last teams arrive fighting weather and mechanical issues to make the sign-in deadline...everyone rooting and cheering them in.

An Aviatt Husky - my favorite balloon tundra tires...

As the day winds down, its time for a walk around the ramp with all the planes cleaned, waxed and numbered. Fifty planes registered to race, and just a couple missed the party.

Our volunteer inspectors hanging out waiting to get some planes to inspect.

The mood begins to shift from party to race mode, as we all get ready to focus on the race briefings Saturday and Sunday.

A couple of old friends from my days at UCLA happen to live in the area. So it was a real treat to take a stroll around the planes with them to talk about this crazy passion for flying and air racing that I have developed. We enjoy a nice dinner to catch up a bit.

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.

Day 3 - Flying the Grand Canyon, Marble Canyon, and landing in Vegas...

Sue and I are up early to fly the Grand Canyon. It's a beautiful, severe clear blue sky around 0600...way early for me to be up and about. Smooth air, smooth ride. Gorgeous scenery to watch below and all around us.

No words can capture these scenes for me. You just have to sit back and enjoy. Wonder at how all this came to be. Savor the ability to soar above and around all of this and soak it in. This experience really makes me appreciate what a gift flying can be.

The special flight rules for this area divide the Canyon into 4 No Fly zones with corridors in between each No Fly zone where aircraft can criss cross the Canyon.  So we flew north at 11,500 ft up the furthest east corridor and entered Marble Canyon, traveling further north to Page AZ and Lake Powell. We made a fuel stop in Page and then headed back down to the Grand Canyon.

Sue has a great sense of flying terrain and reading the VFR maps. She picks out all kinds of landmarks way better than me and nails Corridor #4 - Fossil Corridor. We're flying at 10,500 ft heading back south and then out of the Canyon. It's a little sad to leave it all behind, as we only covered a small piece of this treasure. Definitely more territory to cover another day, another trip maybe. But we do need to move on. The Air Race Classic is calling, and we do have lots more ground to cover...

We head for Las Vegas with a plan to land at North Las Vegas Airport for fuel and lunch. It promises to be VERY hot there, so we don't want to spend too much time on the ground...get in, get out...before things heat up to much...

Not so fast though...sigh...we manage to catch a quick lunch at a fast food joint. It's 100+ degrees, and it's killing us. Upon start up, the plane doesn't sound quite right, and Sue shuts it down. We head to an FBO maintenance shop on the field to check it out. Good call. It looks like a blown exhaust to the mechanic, and we check into a hotel for the night.

Sue heads off to check out the casino, and I head off to a Quick Care place to deal with an annoying case of poison ivy. Four hours later, the good news is that the exhaust gasket is an "easy" fix and the bad news is that I'm loaded up with drugs to deal with the poison ivy. We'll be out of here in the morning though...

Day 2 - El Paso (ELP) to Grand Canyon National Park Airport (GCN)

The foothills of the Rockies as we leave El Paso

Monday morning (Jun 8), we launched out of El Paso TX. We had the foothills of the Rockies running to our north and mountains rising to our south down in Mexico. We were headed for the Grand Canyon adventure today.



It's looking a little lunar...pock-marked, scrubby terrain ...

Before we left, Sue found a great blog written by another pilot that described how to fly through the Grand Canyon Special Flight Rules Area (SFRA). We decided that it looked doable, and she got the sectional map that would allow us to do this. So our plan was to simply land at the Grand Canyon National Park Airport today and relax a bit...talk to some local pilots...and actually fly the Canyon tomorrow when the winds were calm and the air was cooler and smoother.



A stringy looking lake below...

So we just settled in for our ride today, and I had an opportunity to fly a bit and get a little more familiar with my ride for the next several days. It was definitely a better flying experience for me today.

Sue and I each fly solo much of our time during the year, and the right seat for each of us is usually used for our flight bags and gear. So it's definitely weird for the pilot to have her right seat occupied by another animate object not only displacing your regular gear but also snarking back at you all day. And then there's the "co-pilot" (aka me) now sitting in that right seat just fumbling around to utter the "foreign" call sign for Sue's Sundowner while talking to air traffic controllers. Normal flying routines are a bit rattled, but that's the fun of the race too.

 The flight to the Grand Canyon is really pretty uneventful. We had to climb to about 10,500 ft, and we made a short fuel stop at Show Low AZ. Then it was on to the Canyon. The views below were shifting with cracks and fissures in the land showing now...some filled with pretty blue water in some very elongated and contorted looking lakes. The Painted Desert below offered some absolutely lunar looking landscapes.

And finally, we began to get out first glimpses of the Grand Canyon. This was going to be a stunning highlight for our trip out west...

Positively lunar...yep, we left the planet...

Welcome to the Grand Canyon!