Memorial Day Week End

It started for me on the Friday night before the three-day weekend which included Monday. I finally got out of the Bay Area and on to Oakdale where my plane is kept. Arriving near sunset, I didn't have time for a quick flight around the field, but busied myself with checking over my plane and the gear to be taken on the trip. I also saw other friends that night and we talked about the trip Dan and I were taking, and other cross-country trips in general.

Saturday morning I got up before sunrise and was busy in the hangar making sure everything was bungeed down securely, and was confident that I was ready. I had already filled out our flight plan for my other flying friends, and was waiting for Dan to show up so we could go over the route. This was to be his first cross-country and I wanted him to understand where we were going and what to expect. I don't like other pilots to depend on me 100% in case something happens to me.

About 7am Dan shows up in his plane and after the regular greetings of "How was the air?", "This is gonna be great!", etc. I sat down with him and we went over the sectional with me explaining the route and our next gas stop, along with a landing spot halfway, in case we needed it. To fly to Los Banos airport (our first scheduled stop) from Oakdale would be about an hour and a half. We would be flying right over Turlock Airpark in 45 minutes. We also went over the traffic patterns at both of those airfields. Confident that Dan understood what we were doing, I put away the map, looked at him and looked to the planes. He needed no further prompting. He walked to his plane and put on his helmet and started her up. I did the same and taxied out to the main runway. Radioing our intentions, we took off in the brisk morning air. At 700 feet, I turned left and headed towards Turlock, checking behind me to see that Dan was only a 1000 feet or so behind me and a little lower. As I reached our cruise altitude of 1500 feet, I pulled the power back a little and slowed down as much as I could to let Dan get beside me. Within minutes, he was there, 10 feet off my left wing, and we flew in formation pretty much all the way to Turlock.

As we approached Turlock, I looked over to Dan, then dove slightly and gained speed to get ahead of him. He indicated no problems, so we circled Turlock airpark once, then continued on to Los Banos. As before, we flew in formation as we pushed on. Nearing Los Banos, I began to cut power and descend, with Dan doing the same, holding back some so we could get into the pattern single file. I radioed our intentions as we were within a mile or so of the airport. Finally on Downwind, I looked back to see Dan right where he should be, and I continued my descent on Base and then Final. I touched down and took the first turn-off towards the gas pumps, stopping momentarily to watch Dan's landing. Beautiful! A nice smooth landing! I got up to the pumps and turned my engine off and got out, waiting for Dan. Dan taxied up, shut down, and got out excitedly. He couldn't get his helmet off fast enough to exclaim, "Wow! This is SO COOL!".

We gassed up, checked our planes and our gear, and I went over the next leg of our journey to Hollister. This would be the part I was nervous about, since we had to cross the hills and emergency landing spots would be scarce. I showed Dan the terrain on the map, and we talked about procedures for a bit. We would climb to 4000 feet and stay near highway 152 through Pacheco Pass.

We took off and headed towards the San Luis reservoir, climbing all the way. We stayed separated by a good 200 feet as we each concentrated on where we would land if there were engine problems.

In case you are wondering, this is just the way we are taught to fly an ultralight. Always fly as if the engine could quit at any time, so when (not if) it does, you will not be in a bad situation.

About 30 minutes later, we are past the hills and over the flat valley floor containing Hollister. Finally able to relax a little, Dan closes in and we both start to descend towards Hollister. I tune the radio to Hollister traffic and listen as we are about 10 minutes from being there. Dan has no radio, so I am doing all the radio work for both of us. As usual, it's a busy day at Hollister, with General Aviation traffic, sailplanes, and the twin engine plane used to take up skydivers. At 3 miles out, I transmit, "Hollister traffic, two ultralights approaching from the northeast, we're 3 miles out, ETA five minutes, at 1500 feet." As we get closer and I hear what the other traffic is doing, I call our entry into the pattern, the downwind leg, base, and final. As we land and taxi up to the transient parking area, I notice that we have a bit of an audience. Just as we are putting our helmets away and preparing to walk over to the restaurant (it's lunchtime by now), a couple of guys come up to meet us from a nearby hangar. "Say...", the one guy says,"That's pretty cool! We were in our hangar listening to the radio and heard you coming.", as they were eyeing our little planes. Dan and I knew what was next, the standard three questions! "How fast can you go? How high can you go? How far can you go?". So we chat with them a bit, when the one older gentleman introduces himself as George. George says,"We are having a barbeque at my hangar tonight, why don't y'all come over, I'll feed ya, and we'll talk about these machines of yours!". I looked at Dan and then to George, and said,"We wanted to see the ocean today, but we should be back in time. Where is your hangar?". George points it out and I nod and acknowledge this.

After eating and topping off our tanks, going over the route, etc. we take off and head for the coast. Very soon after taking off, I can see the Pacific and can make out the smoke stacks of Moss Landing. We get out over the beach and descend to about 30 feet above the beach. We fly along the coastline over the beach for about 5 miles, waving at the people down below us and generally having a blast. Where there were no people (tough in California) we dropped right down to the beach, flying along at 2 to 5 feet along the surf.

As we crossed over a private field, I knew we were close to Watsonville, our next stop, so I began climbing, to get to pattern altitude. Dan was right behind me as I called out our intentions on the radio. Watsonville was even busier than Hollister! There was so much traffic, I remember at some point saying on the radio,"Watsonville traffic, two ultralights turning final for runway 20, we're pedaling as fast as we can!". We managed to not hold up too many other planes as we taxied to the gas pumps. More people came out to talk to us as we prepared for our return to Hollister. By this time it was late afternoon and the sun was getting dangerously close to the horizon. We bid our goodbyes and headed off for Hollister. While we were flying towards Hollister, I noticed my engine missing on occasion. I checked the RPMS and sure enough, a 100 to 200RPM drop during each miss. I kept a close eye on all the other instruments and kept flying. "Odd", I thought. It was getting almost too dark to see the ground as we entered the pattern at Hollister and landed. We taxied over near George's hangar and tied down, being greeted by 10 or so people. We talked into the night, and finally went to sleep near midnight.

Sunday morning we woke up at 4:30 or five, still dark out, and packed the tent and sleeping bags, preparing for a long day of flying. We went over the route to King City, and I made sure Dan knew about both the terrain and the controlled airspace of Salinas we would need to stay out of. We took off just before sunrise and headed back towards the ocean. Man, was it cold this morning! Once we got past Salinas, we had a nice open valley to follow all the way to King City, and eventually, Paso Robles. At this point, Dan and I could enjoy the trip a little more. We were ahead of schedule and he was now more comfortable with cross-country flying over new land. We did stalls and wingovers, playing in the air as birds sometimes do, flying generally in the direction we needed to go, not staying right on a compass heading. We had hills on both sides, and as long as we stayed between them for the next few hours, it would lead us right to Paso Robles. We landed at King City to refuel, and met up with another Ultralight pilot that kept his plane at Paso Robles, so we flew the rest of the way with him. Now we had three planes flying along, enjoying the sky.

As we neared Paso Robles, I radioed our intentions and landed. Dan was right behind me as we taxied over to the hangar area. I met Bill Cartwright, a guy I had talked with on the Internet for almost a year, and a few others that were around that day. At 2PM we were ready to go, as we had more flying to do yet to get home. We left Paso Robles and flew towards Coalinga, over some pretty rough terrain. I was flying at almost 7000 feet and couldn't get over those hills fast enough! Finally, as we were within a few miles of Coalinga (and past the hills) I powered back a bit and began to descend. Our next stop was Harris Ranch, a nice restaurant with an airstrip right next to I-5. We got down to about 3000 feet and within 3 miles of Harris Ranch, when my engine suddenly dropped to 2000 RPM and the sound of the engine changed drastically. I thought,"Oh boy! here we go! This is what the training is all about!". I looked around and picked out a good spot to put down, where Dan could land there as well. I glided down, watching the earth get closer and closer as I descended, which with no power, was happening pretty fast. I checked my landing spot and looked in the area to see if there were any better spots. Nope, this was still the best place to put down. I made a great landing and jumped out and waited for Dan to land.

We tinkered around for a bit and got my plane running on both cylinders again, and headed off for Harris ranch. So far, so good. As I was taxiing up to the transient parking area of Harris Ranch, the engine made a "puuungh" sound and stopped completely. I pushed the plane the rest of the way to the parking area, and we messed with it for 2 or 3 hours. We decided it wasn't going to restart this time, that something must be seriously wrong. I called some of our friends in Oakdale, and they made arrangements to come down and help the next day. Ok, so we were going to spend the night here. This was not really a problem, as we were planning to eat here anyway. We had some of the best Black Angus steaks I think I've ever had, and enjoyed a nice room and a hot bath.

The next day, we prepared to dismantle my plane for trailering. As we were just finishing taking the wings and tail off, our friend arrived. We got the plane on the trailer and rechecked all the tie-downs. I went over the route with Dan to Madera, and he agreed to meet us there. Once we all met back up at Madera, I went over the route to Oakdale with Dan and he felt pretty good about it. Oakdale was only 65 more miles at this point and soon Dan would be back in familiar territory anyway. Off we went, one set in a pickup, another flying to Oakdale. Dan did well on his own, and navigated back to Oakdale just fine.

What happened on this trip is exactly why I explain where we are going, why I am picking certain routes, what to look for, and NOT to rely on me 100%. Each pilot is ultimately responsible for themselves when they fly. I did find out later that my engine had internal damage and had to be rebuilt. It's flying just fine now (until the next time it quits). It's a trip that Dan or I shall never forget.......

A Three-Day Week-end of Flying