What an incredible flight!
The morning started with an extensive weather briefing, since I had never flown this high or over the Sierras, and wanted to make sure I didn't miss something big. But while conditions at my home airport (CCR) were on the verge of marginal because of haze, the mountains were totally clear under FL200.
Drove out and met my copilot - a student pilot I've met and who is just about to get to her solo - and got the plane ready. It was fun to be on the experienced side for a change, and get to explain things about the 182 that are different than the 172 she is training in.
We got out finally around 10:30AM, into the haze which covered everything up to about 6000ft all the way to the Sierras themselves. It pretty much stayed that way the whole day. Still, visibility was decent and we climbed quickly to 7500 heading east. My plan was to go more or less over MPI before heading east, threading south of Mt Ritter and intercepting V230 before crossing Mammoth Pass.
The first indication that this was going to be a very special flight was when we were getting close to the mountains en route to MPI, and climbed to FL95. It was almost like flying between cloud layers - the haze layer underneath, at that particular point and altitude, looked almost solid if you didn't stare it too hard, and the FL200 overcast on top gave a "sandwich" feeling, with us as the filling and the snowy mountain ranges in front of us looking entirely magical. With the air being so stable it was like floating in a dreamland.
Flying over Yosemite was beyond words. I just can't describe it; she took lots of photos and as soon as I get them, I'll post them to my flickr photostream and link from here. We got as high as FL125 heading east before intercepting V230, and seeing Mammoth Pass emerge as we came around Mt Ritter I could in my mind paint the airway between the mountains peaks.
At that point I had a request from OAK center to relay a message to a lost plane. I tried but no luck. He was lost over the mountains, apparently; I do hope not to see a report about that anytime soon.
We got through Mammoth Pass and made a beeline to MMH. At 7300 elevation, it is by far the highest airport I ever landed in. With the weather so calm, and the sky so clear (both clouds on top and haze were gone once we got to the mountains, as per the weather briefing), it was a breeze to get in. The lady at the FBO there, Carrie, was beyond super nice, and we treated ourselves to a couple snacks before heading back out.
Did I mention climb performance? or lack thereof? I had already noticed how hard the 182 was working to gain altitude in the mountains; taking off from MMH it became very noticeable, as the 800-900 fpm I am used to without trying too hard at sea level became more like "500 fpm with a lot of concentration". Headed north to Mono Lake, and surrounded the big hill south of Lee Vining (O24) to make a touch-n-go there. Without a doubt, this was one of the most beautiful air strips I have ever landed in, sitting as it does right at the edge of the lake, what with an absolutely crisp day making everything seem like it was high-def. I was so preoccupied with the scenery I forgot to turn carb-heat off on the "go" part of the touch-n-go, which led to a few seconds of anxiety as my climb performance went to something like 200 fpm, trying to desperately get off the ground in this high elevation. A quick scan of controls pointed out the problem.
I then circled once to get up to FL105 before trying to brave the Sierras west of Lee Vining. Got close and started feeling the turbulence, and told my copilot "you know something? I want more altitude before trying this". Spent another few minutes in a big circle gaining another 1500ft and got back in. The peaks in that area are as high as 13,500, and it looked it. But it was absolutely stunning.
I spent the next 20 minutes both awed by the scenery and in high concentration mode, trying to gain some more altitude and getting as high as 13,800 before getting past the real high peaks. A frozen Tioga Pass provided another amazing moment, and pointing the nose towards Columbia, some of the sheer drops into the Yosemite valley were breath taking.
Came in over Columbia (O22) way too high, so pointed the nose down and lost about 3000ft in two minutes. Ouch, the ears. Landed in Columbia, went to the old town and grabbed lunch, and came back for the last leg of our journey back to CCR.
Which is when I looked at my copilot and asked "wanna try something new?". She knew immediately what I was talking about, and nodded enthusiastically. We took off from runway 29, the soft (grass) field. A textbook soft field takeoff made me appreciate all the elements of it, in particular the need to roll onto the soft field so as not to get stuck. But with the nose leading high we got off with no trouble. It was my first ever actual soft field experience, and while it was kinda cool, I have no desire to attempt landing into one at this point without someone far more experienced at the controls. It just felt like too much could go wrong with just a minor error on a landing.
The flight back to CCR was uneventful, although the haze was still heavy, which led to a very uncomfortable moment trying to get downwind on 1R. With the haze being so heavy, and the sun right in my eyes coming in from Bay Point over the hills, for about 10-20 seconds it was really hard to see anything at all. Certainly an interesting effect of the setting sun through the haze.
And that was it. We landed, taxied back to parking, and found out that the Hobbs had logged an impressive 3.8 hours, about an hour more than I thought this was going to take.
It was an incredible experience, and one that I will not soon forget. What a privilege to be out there today!
