Thursday, October 20, 2005
I left Colusa around 8am and flew about an hour to Redding, CA, where I chowed down in the flight terminal with a nice breakfast of toast, eggs and bacon. It really hit the spot!
I refueled and departed for Klamath Falls, OR. This was rugged mountain territory, but the flight was smooth. I passed over Crater Lake and sailed past Mt. Shasta. It's quite a different view than you get from a car on Interstate 5.
I landed at Klamath Falls about 1-hour and 30-min. later. The Oregon Air National Guard bases their F-15's there (right next to where I parked the helicopter) and it so happened that they were having a big combat exercise involving several other countries. It was quite fun to watch all the take-off's, in full afterburner, and dream of the years ago that I did all that fun stuff. (I'm sure I'd have traded my little Robinson R22, straight across, for an opportunity to fly one of their F-15's that day. Easy to say - I know - because it ain't gonna happen!)
The next stop was to be The Dalles, OR, but due to "less than ideal weather," 1/4 mile visibility with fog and mist, I decided to make a flight plan change and fly to Madera, OR, refuel and go directly home to the R J Ranch*. It was a little longer flight leg, with about 2 1/2 hours of flying, proceeding almost a straight line from Madera to Pendleton, OR, to Walla Walla, WA and home. Official sunset was 6:00pm and I landed at 5:45pm, to a beautiful late Pullman afternoon.
After making my landing approach over the house, I landed on the concrete pad next to our barn (hereafter referred to as "The Hanger."). I was expecting to see Jacquie rush out in excited anticipation of my arrival - but, it didn't happen. After sitting for about five minutes, cooling down the engine, I deplaned and walked to the house. I opened the back door and a surprised Jacquie said, "Where did you come from? Where is the helicopter?" So that just proves that I'm not the only one that doesn't hear well! (Just kidding, Jacquie ... I know the house is well sound insulated.)
All in all, other than having to beat on the battery relay with a screwdriver, it was a great flight back. There were a lot of very interesting sights that you miss, traveling by car:
I saw at least four "cornfield mazes." Some were very professional and elaborate and others were pretty simple. They must be popular because there were plenty of cars parked at each one.
Flying between Colusa and Red Bluff, I flew over a huge wildlife refuge area. For almost as far as you could see in every direction there were marshes and swamps that reminded me of the delta area in South Vietnam. Something else also reminded me of Vietnam: There were literally millions of bird flocks both sitting in the water and also flying. All of a sudden it seemed like there were flocks of birds (BIG one's) passing over me, under me ... and luckily not through me. I quickly realized that if one of those flocks of birds (BIG one's!) ever got mixed up with the helicopter rotor it would be very bad news for the birds ... and ME! The way they were all over and with the swampy marshes, it was easy to be transported, mentally, to Vietnam and imagine all the birds shooting at me - with the same undesirable consequences. There wasn't much I could do about the situation, at this point, except hope the birds had a keen sense of survival ... which they did. (When I was a young Air Force pilot going through flight school, my instructor once told me not to try to dodge birds. He said thay could hear you coming and would instinctively move quickly out of the flight path. He was right!) If a large flock, of say, fifty birds, were headed my way at my altitude, they simply either folded their wings back and quickly dropped down or they split-off left or right and away. It was quite a sight to see, albeit a bit scary.
*R J Ranch (Roger & Jacquie's Ranch)
