Mountain High
My adventures yesterday took me on my farthest cross country yet, and I
also got to see a real nice Titan for sale. The purpose of my trip was to
show my Challenger to a gentleman who wants to sell his new Titan and buy a
Challenger. He feels the Titan is to much airplane and he wants something
just below Sacramento to Cloverdale, about 25 miles north of Santa Rosa. The
distance on the chart was 100 miles. My first stop was Davis Ca, home of
UC Davis, where I refueled before starting the climb over the mountain
range to the west. I climbed to 5000 ft to clear the mountains and
provide plenty of altitude to glide to a safe landing in the event of an
engine out. The mountains are quite rugged, and I also had to fly over
lake Berryessa, a large reservoir right under my route. The lake's only
suitable landing sites are on the NE side, and I wanted to ensure that I
had plenty of glide distance to make one of them in case I needed to .
After passing Lake Berryessa, I landed at the small mountain airport of
Angwin. The field is located on a mountain ridge at an elevation of aprox
1900 ft, and the runway has quite an upslope to it. There was a moderate
90 degree crosswind blowing, but my landing was uneventful. My take off
was another matter. The runway is bordered by trees, and as I reached the
tree tops on climb out, I did one hell of a wing over at about 100 feet.
It took quite a bit of aileron to right the plane. I was caught by
surprise to say the least. The wind must have picked up while I was on
the ground. I believe that's the only runway I've ever used that is
bordered by trees. I will be sure and think about tree turbulence in the
future. Up and out and then to the west, I passed over Calistoga, a
field used almost exclusively by gliders. On the way home, I watched as
two gliders hugged the ridge line on some mountains to the north, back and
forth they went, staying in the updraft area. With the winds blowing up the
mountain face, the gliders can stay up until the pilots get tired and
want to go back home. Upon landing at Cloverdale and meeting John, he
told me that just a few minutes before I arrived, he had broken his
finger. Since I hadn't shown up on time, he had walked over to the
Russian river to look around and pass the time. While walking over
rocks, he tripped and broke his finger in the fall. He asked if I would go
with him to the hospital to have his finger looked at, so I tagged along.
Fortunately, he only dislocated it and the side excursion took about 2
hours. John's Titan is a really nice airplane. He built it last year, but
has only flown it about 1 1/2 hrs. His landings haven't been too good and
he has decided that a Challenger would be a better plane for him. After
leaving Cloverdale, I decided to follow the Russian river at low level and
wave at all the folks out enjoying the water. Only problem was the river was
bordered by trees that caused a lot of turbulence unless I dropped down
below the tops and the flying was very bumpy. On the trip home I
bypassed Angwin and did an hour and 26 minute flight to Davis, my
longest leg yet. After that leg, I was happy to get out and stretch.
Total flying time for the trip was about 4 1/3 hrs. Hope you all had as
enjoyable a weekend as I did.
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