Flying in a Skyhawk with the Blimp (aka Kimberly)

Teller1900

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I am a dad!
After the adventure we had the first time we met in SFO, Kim an I both agreed that a nice peaceful night flight around the Bay area would be the way to go. And so it happened, last week, I ended up with a free day in Napa during my work week.

Kim, and her boyfriend Owen, being the nice individuals that they are, agreed to drive down to Napa, pick me up, and drive up to O69 for a night flight around the Bay. A quick check of the weather showed truly astonishing conditions: every METAR and TAF station within 100 miles is showing 00000KT P6SM SKC from noon until well after 3am. No marine layer, no winds, no nothin' but wide open clear skies. Given the unbelievably favorable conditions, Kim, in her wisdom, suggested we make a stop at Half Moon Bay, as long as we're out. I'll certainly never say no to another airport in the logbook!

Six o'clock rolls around and Kim and Owen turn up at my hotel. A short time later, we're on the now dark ramp at Petaluma. As promised by NOAA, there is not a cloud in the sky! It's chilly, but only cold enough to guarantee good performance from our ride this evening. After a thorough preflight and short taxi, and we're on our way. Kim is in the left seat, I'm in the right, for my first ride in a piston single in about two years (and my first time to ever see a "digital tach with neato mag calculator" on a Cessna product - it actually was a neato system!).

It's a dark, almost moonless night as we climb smoothly (but loudly...it is a Cessna, afterall) into the calm night sky. I must add: everyone gives such emphasis to landings, but little focus to takeoffs. A smooth takeoff is a difficult thing as well, and this was one of the best and smoothest I've been party to! We climbed southbound, over the hills, as the lights of the city, bright clusters against the aphotic expanse of the Bay and the ocean in the distance, slowly appeared over the umbrage of the rocky cliffs. Up to 2,500ft, it was a few minutes of cruising before we reached the San Rafael Bridge; the predetermined point at which I was instructed to call approach for advisories. Kim took on the dual rolls of tour guide and flight instructor, telling me both about the area and what she was doing with the plane. To include an excellent tutorial on the "EGT needle-mometer." (We flew rich of peak, if anyone cares).

As we approached the bridge I called NorCal (and only called them San Francisco Approach once). They had no traffic in the area, so we had the bay to ourselves as long as we stayed north of the Bay Bridge. Kim handed me the controls as we started the bay tour. A couple laps around the Bay (pictures to follow) and we called NorCal again to head to Half Moon. I tried (and failed) to get a Bravo clearance, so we headed out to the coastline for the short trip south.

I knew there were some hills along the coast between us and Half Moon, but geezz, they sure did do a good job of hiding the airport until we were almost on top of it! NorCal dropped us very shortly after we passed their departure corridor; right about the time we got the airport in sight. We were set up for an almost perfect 45-to-the-downwind entry, so I handed the controls back to Kim, lest I scare everyone in the county trying to land - my chance for that came later in the flight.

Up 'till now we had had a perfectly nice, normal flight; considerably more normal than the last time. But this is where things got weird. We were checking out this
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SeaBee, which lives there in Half Moon, when we heard the strangest sound from across the ramp. In the shadows it looked like another SeaBee. It certainly wasn't, though! Having just heard about this unusual phenomena, we quickly recognized the source of the noise...IT WAS A BEACHED WHALE!

Kim ran with a quickness back to the plane. She began doing some rough performance calculations, while I thought back to what I had learned from Tony and Matt M. and all the other glider guys. Using just the items found in the baggage compartment I MacGyvered a tow hook. Thankfully we had a roll of duct tape with which we could secure the hook to the plane and fashion a tow rope (seriously, what CAN'T this stuff do? Other than repair ducts...)! With some quick thinking and truly masterful flying, Kim was able to airlift the poor whale back into the sea. My quick-release tailhook worked perfectly, as well. I don't see why people bother with the 180hp conversions. That 31 year old 160hp engine had no problem hoisting that 30,000lb animal.

After that excitement we piled back into 56G for the short ride back to Petaluma. This time I must have sounded much more pathetic on the radio as we actually got a Bravo transition! Kim let me fly again as we passed SFO. We caught them at just the right time to be in the way of their heavy departures. Nothing beats taking a 747 2,000 above your head.

We paralleled the Golden Gate northbound, then headed over the top of San Quentin before NorCal dropped us again. After a brief search, we found the pathetically dim lights of Petaluma. I tried to give Kim the plane back for the landing, but she said no - it was my turn. Crap.

I'm not saying what I did to that poor runway was completely intentional, but I felt I should let the whole country side (and everyone on board) know that we had OFFICIALLY landed...after all three bounces. 70kts, by the way, is unnaturally slow! "Take that, Petaluma!" was an appropriate call out after that(those) landing(s). BUT, the plane could be reused, so I count that as a win!

True story. Mostly. :D Many thanks to Kim and Owen for taking me for a ride, and not making fun of my many bounces; it's a beautiful city y'all have there!
 
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I loved the "caution wake turbulence" he said to us after that. Oh and you commenting he was grumpy pants since he asked that one pilot to EXPLAIN his reasons for the go-around. Geez.

Thanks for the story - I knew they would rather hear it from you than me. When I see the BF again - no later than Sunday - I'll post up the BEAUTIFUL pictures of this flight.

Oh and I learned a lot from you (didn't know I was the one giving instruction)! Your radio skillz are truly amazing. Oh and your - um - graceful landing skills are truly awesome too. After all, it isn't every day you get to land a 172 in the almost pitch black (runway lights stuck on dim).

Kimberly
 
Did you really call her "the Blimp"? Oy.

He was pre-authorized. Besides it is kind of a permanent nickname at this point.

I trained in a tiny 152 so it can't be truthful anyways.
Yes, Ron, but as she said herself, I asked first!! And I feel OK about it considering she is most decidedly not a blimp.

Tiny 152...Devil's 152 is more like it!
I loved the "caution wake turbulence" he said to us after that. Oh and you commenting he was grumpy pants since he asked that one pilot to EXPLAIN his reasons for the go-around. Geez.

Thanks for the story - I knew they would rather hear it from you than me. When I see the BF again - no later than Sunday - I'll post up the BEAUTIFUL pictures of this flight.

Oh and I learned a lot from you (didn't know I was the one giving instruction)! Your radio skillz are truly amazing. Oh and your - um - graceful landing skills are truly awesome too. After all, it isn't every day you get to land a 172 in the almost pitch black (runway lights stuck on dim).

Kimberly
I'm glad it's not every day I do that! It'd shorten my lifespan significantly. I look forward to the pictures. I forgot I have some I took the next day on our way out of town, let me see if I can find them on my phone.
 
Yes, Ron, but as she said herself, I asked first!! And I feel OK about it considering she is most decidedly not a blimp.

Tiny 152...Devil's 152 is more like it!

I'm glad it's not every day I do that! It'd shorten my lifespan significantly. I look forward to the pictures. I forgot I have some I took the next day on our way out of town, let me see if I can find them on my phone.

Please do find and post them, those were really good photos.

Also, that photo (above) still shows an "x" on my screen.

Additionally, let me know if I can tell them why you call the 152 the devil. Because it was hilarious.
 
Please do find and post them, those were really good photos.

Also, that photo (above) still shows an "x" on my screen.

Additionally, let me know if I can tell them why you call the 152 the devil. Because it was hilarious.

Picture SHOULD work now.

Yeah, go for it; I'm sure everyone will enjoy my awkwardness and pain!
 
Found them!
1. Night before, on the way into Napa.
2. The marine finally arrived about 12 hours after we landed.
3. SFO + marine layer.
4. I even found O69 in the FMS!
5. San Rafael bridge.
6. View from high above Northeastern California.
 

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Picture SHOULD work now.

Yeah, go for it; I'm sure everyone will enjoy my awkwardness and pain!

Yay - the SeaBee has shown up! That was the cutest plane ever.


OK so back to the 152 thing - I didn't realize how tall Teller was (more than 6'4" or something crazy like that). So just in case, I had reserved BOTH the 152 and the 172 for the flight. This was because I kick butt in the 152 and wanted to impress the airline pilot. I don't kick butt at all in the 172 and didn't want to be super lame if I could squash him into the 152 instead and show off my mad piloting skills.

For ****s and giggles, I ask him to "try to fit inside the 152 anyways since we're here".

What happened after that was just pure comedy heaven. (Sorry, I did not know it was literally hurting the guy)

He did somehow pull each foot - by hand - into the plane. Once in the plane we tried to manipulate the yoke but found it would not move freely due to long legs. Then it was even more difficult to get him out, and I think he did some sort of manuever and I pointed out the little strut step and he kind of just fell out in the end.

A thousand apologies. I did not mean to cause any pain. And now I know not to rent the 152 ever again when Teller is in town.
 
As we approached the bridge I called NorCal (and only called them San Francisco Approach once).
Before my flight with Kim we were in the flight school and she asked who she should get flight following with and I came up with "Bay Approach". It hasn't been Bay Approach in years, possibly decades...

Sounds like a great flight!
 
Kim ran with a quickness back to the plane. She began doing some rough performance calculations, while I thought back to what I had learned from Tony and Matt M. and all the other glider guys. Using just the items found in the baggage compartment I MacGyvered a tow hook. Thankfully we had a roll of duct tape with which we could secure the hook to the plane and fashion a tow rope (seriously, what CAN'T this stuff do? Other than repair ducts...)! With some quick thinking and truly masterful flying, Kim was able to airlift the poor whale back into the sea. My quick-release tailhook worked perfectly, as well. I don't see why people bother with the 180hp conversions. That 31 year old 160hp engine had no problem hoisting that 30,000lb animal.

Did you see Captain Kirk & Mr. Spock, too? :rofl:
 
so are the whales swimming dangerously close to people or are the people swimming dangerously close to the whales?
 
There be whales here!
images
 
I tell my tallish people to scoot over on the other seat and swing their legs in like a woman in a short skirt getting in a car. That helps not torque their knees and causes interesting comments..... But 6'4". That's too tall!

Glad y'all had such a good time.
 
We had a great time and that photo of the marine layer posted by Teller is an example of why - almost year round - I can NEVER go VFR / outside the Bravo to Half Moon Bay, Monterey, or any other airport I've been dying to check out. Yes, it is too bad the planes weren't available to rent during the day but I'll take a night flight over no flight anytime . . . and I will take advantage of a non-marine layer day by going to the coastal spots that make California so beautiful.
 
so are the whales swimming dangerously close to people or are the people swimming dangerously close to the whales?

When I heard that story on the AM radio talk news station they said the people were "trying to pet the whales".
 
Don't forget the Tribbles!
 
Finally uploaded pictures. There was a short video on his cell phone but I haven't snagged that yet:

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Those blurry things in the middle are the really tall sky scrapers.
 
Great pics! Looks like it was a gorgeous night!
 
Great pics! Looks like it was a gorgeous night!

That is what we would have done. Oh well. It looks like, in another thread, you might have found yourself a pilot near you. Hopefully that works out.


Kimberly
 
That is what we would have done. Oh well. It looks like, in another thread, you might have found yourself a pilot near you. Hopefully that works out.

Thought I found a decent flying club based on the other poster's comment. It is an hour away, but they have a nice Warrior for $95 per hour wet and an even nicer-looking Skylane for $127, both IFR equipped with in-panel GPS. Membership fee is only $500 and monthly fee is $75. Not bad, compared with the $120 I was paying the flight school for the 172. But alas, so far, they're not returning e-mails.
 
Thought I found a decent flying club based on the other poster's comment. It is an hour away, but they have a nice Warrior for $95 per hour wet and an even nicer-looking Skylane for $127, both IFR equipped with in-panel GPS. Membership fee is only $500 and monthly fee is $75. Not bad, compared with the $120 I was paying the flight school for the 172. But alas, so far, they're not returning e-mails.

Perhaps try calling them? I know my flying school hasn't updated their email address / website in perhaps over 5 years.

Or maybe you could ask that other poster to give them your information the next time he is there?
 
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