FLIGHT LOG: N723RC Fullerton to Colusa, CA

Parked at the Colusa, CA airport, at dusk.

Tuesday, October 18, 2005
I arrived in Long Beach, CA, on Alaska Airlines, at 11:00am. Larry Otto, an old - long lost - friend from my school days in Spokane, picked me up at the airport. We had lunch at a great Thai restaurant, then he drove me to the Fullerton airport to pick up my Robinson R22 Mariner helicopter. (It's called a "Mariner" because it has detachable floats. When installed, we can land on lakes and rivers. I can hardly wait!)

After checking it over carefully, I departed Fullerton and flew the 10-minute flight to the Long Beach airport.

Wednesday, October 19, 2005
In the morning, I took a training flight with my instructor, Justin, from Rotors Aviation, Long Beach. We flew about and hour and practiced landing and autorotation landings. (An autorotation is what you do if the engine quits! It's a good thing to know.)

After a slight mechanical snag (I had to "tap" the battery relay with a screwdriver to get the electrical power to shut-off after the training flight.), I departed for Fresno. The flight took me through the busiest part of the LA flight region. From there it was up the "grapevine" (Actually Interstate 5) and over the pass and down into the San Joaquin valley. The weather was quite nice for this portion of the trip. I had been worried about bad weather or high winds through the pass, (there was a big storm in LA the night before) but it turned out to be "no sweat." My ground speed averaged about 90 mph. Flight time was about 2-hours.

I refueled in Fresno and departed for Colusa, CA. The flight to Colusa was about 1-hour, 45-minutes. Colusa is a very small town, located about 75-miles north of Sacramento, just about 10-miles east of I-5. It's a town of about 2500 people. I arrived about dusk and was greeted by several of the local pilots who were having a "tailgate party" at one of the hangers. They said as soon as I got refueled, come on over and have a hamburger and a beer ... Which I did. (What a way to travel!) As I had no transportation into town, about 3-miles away, the Riverside Inn motel owner drove out to pick me up. Very nice. Interesting town ... Great people.

** The flight continues tomorrow **