Mountain Checkout (092102)
http://photos.mmchu.com/mmchu/piloting/mountaincheckout092102/
So, Jim Schmidt and I did my mountain checkout to Alpine County (Q82) - South Lake Tahoe (TVL) - Truckee (TRK) - Blue Canyon-Nyack (BLU) this Saturday (9/21)... :-) We spent about an hour to an hour and a half chatting about relevant stuff at PAO before leaving and ended up actually taking off from PAO at 12:15pm... we had a flight plan filed from PAO to TVL with an indicated route of PAO-ECA VOR-O22-Q82-TVL... we gave a 3 hour enroute time to allow for our brief stop in Alpine County.
Originally planning to do 7500' up to around Columbia (O22) and then start heading up to 9500' and then adjusting altitude as necessary as we followed highway 4. I was hoping Bay would just clear me into bravo so I could just shoot straight up to 7500' but no such luck... darn... :-) Got a 3000' cap for opposing traffic up to the east bay hills... then got a 4500' cap until I got handed off to Stockton Approach... from who I promptly requested 7500' and got it... :-) Homed in on the Manteca VOR direct on about 229 radial inbound... then about 46 radial outbound towards Columbia...
Around Columbia we started to head up to 9500' while Jim broke out the oxygen cannullas and it was time to look like a mouse while we donned the cannullas... :-) (too bad we didn't get a shot of us wearing the cannullas... :-))... we made a relative course towards the town of Arnold and tried to pick up highway 4... we finally picked it up (boy, I can't imagine if it was all covered with snow! :-) a tiny little highway in the mountains doesn't stand out all that much... :-) having a handheld moving map GPS helped... :-))... from there we followed highway 4 past Bear Valley where Jim wanted me to see a private landing strip there for future emergency landing reference... along the way we started getting hit by moderate turbulence that Jim suspected was largely due to thermals... :-)
From Bear Valley, Jim pointed out a couple of prominent hills and valleys which he knew were near Alpine County and had me do a straight path towards those... by now we had picked up additional altitude and were at about 10500'. Coming into Alpine County, there wasn't anyone else home so we picked up the windsock and setup for a right pattern on 35... now, this was the first time where, 1) I had a real obstacle in my way on the upwind leg of the pattern... and 2) on the downwind leg, I had a canyon under me... :-) definitely not your usual PAO pattern... this was my first introduction to learning to improvise a bit where there are obstacles in your pattern path... :-)
Overall, good experience there since it was my first mountain airport to land at... :-) we stopped, stretched, and took pictures (there was only one other airplane there...) Jim and I broke out our cell phones to check for signals... I got marginal digital signal and passable analog roaming signal (Verizon)... Jim got receivable signal but the transmission didn't make it out... so advise... if you are going to these airports, carry a phone capable of analog roaming... :-)... we took off and went around the pattern 2 more times... once I did a go around since I was coming in a bit too "hot"... :-)
From there, we did a straight out departure up north towards Minden and Reno (well, straight out is a relative term... more like left 45... :-))... went to about 9500' and Jim pointed out Minden and we then headed for a pass near stateline (at this point we clipped Nevada a bit... :-))... made a left at the casinos... :-) and tried to pick up Tahoe ASOS... picked it up and tower had us report left base for 18... made a pretty simple approach into Tahoe (although I think my perspective was a bit screwed up after doing a few landings at Alpine County so when I was landing at Tahoe, I flared a little too high... from Jim's seat it probably looked okay... :-) he was saying, very nice... :-) and then... thump... okay... maybe not so nice... :-) eh... :-) will be better next time... :-))... we had Oasis fill us up while Jim and I, it now being 2:30pm, caught some lunch (hot roast beef po'boy sandwiches)... :-) we hung around and chatted about flying and stuff and then went to pay our gas bill and file a plan from TVL back to PAO with a TRK stop and BLU stop (again we went for 3 hours)...
Took off (this time from 36)... and headed up the east side of Tahoe... made it up to Truckee, made a left pattern 28 to avoid gliders, touch and go, and then headed out to BLU... :-) Along the way, Jim had me level off and showed me an emergency maneuver for getting out of a canyon in a small radius... :-) (pitch up, full power, drop flaps, steep turn, pitch down, pull flaps, level out)... BTW, note for people flying out of the mountains in the afternoon... if you are going west, you will have the sun in your face the entire time! :-) doh! :-)
We headed out to Blue Canyon, the the pattern a few times there... :-) (I still takes some getting used to when the terrain under you is rising and falling all over the place during the pattern... :-))... stopped, took a breather, and then said good bye to BLU and the mountains and followed 80 toward lower ground... :-) we had decided that, once reaching flatter ground, we'd cancel our flight plan in the air and pick up flight following as an alternative (so we didn't have to worry about amending the time, etc... :-)). Pretty uneventful the rest of the way back... SAC VOR direct and the direct PAO... :-) except for the dutch rolls Jim was showing me when we were getting near Mt. Diablo... :-) When someone else is dutch rolling the airplane, it can really make you queasy... :-) but it was neat nonetheless... :-)
Ended up getting into PAO and tying down around 7:15pm... (got a glimpse at a beautiful sunset... :-) what a wonderful day to go flying... :-) crystal clear! :-) and toasty... :-) density altitude at Tahoe was 8500'. :-))... so, 10am-~8pm and with 5.2hrs on the hobbs, it was an excellent adventure. :-) Next week, weather permitting, Santa Barbara! :-) (actually first Warrior checkout and then Santa Barbara... :-)).
Okay, enough typing for me since, unfortunately I sliced my finger a bit today trying to get my parents' computer's cd writer to work... doh! :-)
Michael.
Last updated: 092302