It was a warm sunday morning, and I had just gotten back from Turlock,
after having spent the night there. I pulled out the maps and was deciding
where today was going to take me. I decided to go on a northern trip, since I
hadn't been that way too much, in fact, I hadn't been past Lodi as of yet!
I headed off towards Lodi, taking in the familiar scenery past Lake Woodward,
and watching the morning clouds rise higher and higher as the morning went by.
Within an hour, I was nearing Lodi airport at about 2,000 feet. I checked my
fuel and thought, "No problem making it to Yolo, no need to waste my altitude
when I still have half a tank." Hmmmm.....
I continue north, finally seeing new scenery now. I can see all of Sacramento,
from downtown all the way out towards Roseville. As I get to within 15 miles of
Yolo, I keep looking up at my fuel level, It's now at 1 gallon. I fly a little
further and decide that I'm not going to make it all the way to Yolo, I'd better
land. I had the fuel with me to go to Yolo, it was just not in the tank. I'm
very near the Sacramento river at this point, and where it curves around, I see
a great place to land. The problem is, I'm now at 1/2 gallon, and 2,000 feet.
If I nose down sharply to descend, my fuel can move so far forward in the tank,
I might starve the engine and have to make a forced landing. If I glide down
slowly, the time it takes will use my fuel, and I'll have to make a forced
landing. So, here I am, way up in the air thinking, how am I going to burn a
lot of altitude and at the same time, keep the fuel in the tank level?
I decide that spiraling uses a lot of energy and I will come down the fastest
that way. I begin turning at 45 degrees with the engine near idle and the nose
down just enough to keep my airspeed up. I check the gas and where it is sitting
in the fuel tank. So far, so good. I'm losing altitude much faster than a
straight forward glide, and my fuel is sitting in the tank about where I'd expect.
Down, down, down I go, turning over the field I want to land at. After a while,
I was getting a bit dizzy from turning at such a sharp rate for so many turns, so
I pull out straight and enter a turn in the other direction, and keep descending.
I reversed again before I was ready to land.
At 500 feet or so, I start gliding into position for my landing. I look at my
fuel supply and it's at maybe a quarter gallon left. Boy, this one is gonna be
close! At the last 100 feet, when I know I will make the dirt road, I nose down
and pick up the final speed I'll need for my landing. I figure if the engine
quits now, no big deal, since I am on final anyway.
I land and kill the engine (it didn't quit), and put the rest of my gas can into
the tank. I take a look at my maps to check my next destination. Off I go, for
the now short flight to Yolo. I'm quite a bit lower than I was, not needing to
climb just to come right back down.
I cross over the runway at Yolo, enter the pattern, and land. I top off my tank
and my reserve and head off. Lesson learned. Never miss an opportunity to top
off!
I check my maps once again, and head off for Colusa. This part of the route
takes me over Watts-Woodland airport, and I can see Woodland to my right, with
Sacramento shrinking in the distance. I am taking in the scenery as I continue
North. I can see the coastal range very near my left, and the Sierras to my
right. I can see pretty far north up the valley, and as I start getting close
to Colusa, I can see mountains at the end of the valley! Wow! the very northern
part of the Central Valley! Visability must be 100 miles today! As I look, I
notice one snow-capped peak that stands out from everything else. Mount Shasta!
I'm actually seeing Mount Shasta! This is great! I've seen to the limits of
where I can fly.
After I land at Colusa, I fuel up, and have a look around. There's nobody here!
Good thing the pumps run on credit card. After a little rest, and looking at the
time, I decide that going further north would put me at home past dark, so I look
for where else I could go, rather than go back exactly the way I came. I decide
that flying to Lincoln will take me safely between the controlled airspaces of
both Beale AFB and Sacramento, where I can then turn south and fly along the
foothills, landing at Mather while I'm at it.
I head off, with Sutter Butte to my left and Sacramento way off in the distance
slightly to my right. There is some really
interesting sights out here. I
finally start getting close to Lincoln and tune my radio to the local traffic
frequency. I listen for which runway everyone is using and what direction and
pattern they are flying. Sounds like a busy place! As I get within a few miles,
I radio that I'm Coming in from the west to enter the pattern, and of course, that
I'm an ultrlight and won't be there for a bit. I finally enter the pattern and
land. I taxi up to the pumps and start getting my fuel.
After I'm done, I am
again checking my maps for the next leg of the trip. If you're wondering at this
point why I check my maps so often after landing, it's because I didn't have a
way of referring to them in the air. Ever try to read a map with 40MPH winds?
So, I'd memorize what I needed and tuck my map away while flying.
While I'm having a look at my best route to Mather (and around Sacramento), a
couple of guys come up and are asking me all the standard questions of "how high
can you fly? how far? how fast?". We talk for a while and I'm very well received.
Finally, it's time to go, so I pack up my map, and taxi out to the run-up area.
I radio my intention of taking the active runway and push the throttle to full
power. I lift off this 6,000 foot runway in less than 50 feet (a little windy
today) and start climbing. I radio to the other planes in the pattern that I'm
moving to the side of the runway, so as not to hamper their progress. By the
time I'm halfway down the field, I'm over 500 feet high and continuing to climb.
As I'm leaving Lincoln I hear the constant chatter of a very busy place. By the
time I'm at the end of the runway I can see Folsom lake, my next waypoint. I fly
on, watching under me for my emergency landing spots, which were getting a little
thin in some places because of all the housing. A little more than I expected,
given what the sectional showed, but safe enough, there were places to go.
Finally, I'm nearing Folsom dam and I turn towards Mather, checking my altitude.
I descend a little as I follow highway 50, knowing that I'll need to stay under
Sacramento's airspace. I change frequencies to Mather and listen for a while. As
I get closer I radio my intention to use runway 22 right. It's smaller than the
main runway and I figure I'll stay out of the way of the rest of the traffic that
way. You see, the main runway is 11,300 feet long. Mather used to be an Air
Force base and they kept B-52s there. I was stationed there myself in the 80's,
which was part of the reason I wanted to land there.
A voice comes on the radio and tells me to use runway 22 left, that runway 22
right is closed. I said okay, but I may hold up traffic as I fly at 40MPH. They
said that's okay, use 22 left, so I radio final on runway 22 left and land. I
taxi and taxi and taxi, and finally get to a taxiway that will take me where I can
get fuel. Man! This place is almost as big as Castle!
I fuel up and go into the main building to rest a bit and look over the maps
again. It's now well into the afternoon, and the winds are blowing pretty good.
I check with traffic and head out, on my final leg home towards Oakdale. On the
way, I pass nearly over the Rancho Seco cooling towers (a nuclear power plant) and
get a great picture of them. I stay just outside of the fenced area, not getting
too close, as I thought I saw a guy walking around with an M-16 down there! These
towers must be pretty tall because I'm at a 1,000 feet and the tops of them are
not too much below me.
I continue on towards Oakdale, keeping the foothills to my left, and having to
crab into the wind quite a bit to keep from being blown closer to them. I see
the lakes to my left as I continue south. I stop off at Mikes house for a little
bit before heading back to Oakdale to end another days journey. This one was six
and half hours of flight time!
