My new Paint and interior

Oh wow. That looks great!

That is when you know it's not a rental plane, when things look that good.
 
VERY NICE!!

Very cool on the color shifting paint, did you come up with the paint scheme?

Interior looks great too!!
 
That is real nice! That red dot west of AVE is PRB VOR. 24 miles west (263*) of PRB is my home. It looks like you had a great x/c.
 
Looks absloutely stunning! Great complimentary colors and design scheme. That is one spiffy-lookin' plane!

Congratulations!
 
larrysb said:
I came up with the scheme by photoshopping a bunch of ideas onto a Cherokee photo that I had whited out.

Oh man, the ride home was an ordeal!

My friend gave me a ride from RHV to Kingman on Friday morning. We were in the soup, but it was 'nice' IFR and we could have gone VFR without any problems.

Got there, paid the bill and headed back. He's got an Arrow, so soon left me in the dust and took a direct turn to BFL from Dagget. My transponder was out and as I paddled my way west, the winds got stronger and stronger. I could see over the Tehachapis that the WX in the central valley had gotten a lot worse in the last couple of hours. Decided to put down at Fox (KWJF in Lancaster) hoping to fix the transponder, gas up and get a weather update. Once I got the weather I knew I wasn't going anywhere and got a room for the night.

Saturday, got up bright and early to clear skies, but very strong howling winds. Went to the airport and got the weather. The words "SIGMET OSCAR - moderate to severe turbulence" got my attention. I watched all day as people came and went and came back. One couple in a Bonanza figured they'd make it, I asked them to make a Pirep if they made it through. Got some lunch. About the time I got done and was steeling myself up for an attempt, the Bonanza came taxiing back in. They'd tried for over an hour to get over or around and gave up. Things smoothed out over 11500, but they encounted downdrafts in excess of 1000-2000 fpm near the mountains. His wife said that in 41 years of flying, that was the first time she'd been scared. Bob and I wound up walking down to the museum and poking around for a couple hours. When we got back, there were lots more stranded pilots, scared wives and all the tiedowns were full.

Gave up and went to the hotel for night #2 in Lancaster California. The Oxford hotel is a bit pricey for the middle of nowhere, but it is clean and they have free shuttle service, two beers and snacks in the evening and hot breakfast in the morning.

The winds died down overnight, but it got real cold and everyone had problems getting started. I pulled around to let the sun melt the frost off my wings and help warm the engine before starting it up. Oddly enough, the 4 of us who sat around having beers at the hotel the night before wound up being the first to leave, me being #2. There was a headwind, but the ride was smooth all the way back home.

Aviation is not for people in a hurry.
Click to expand...
Hey, good write up. You weren't expecting uneventful flight in smooth air were you? Yeah, the winds can sure howl in that region.
 
Great job Larry!! Does it ride smoother now? Go a little faster :D
This will sure look good on the ramp!! Now, if you could just get a color radar blip!!

Dave
 
larrysb said:
Saturday, got up bright and early to clear skies, but very strong howling winds. Went to the airport and got the weather. The words "SIGMET OSCAR - moderate to severe turbulence" got my attention. I watched all day as people came and went and came back. One couple in a Bonanza figured they'd make it, I asked them to make a Pirep if they made it through. Got some lunch. About the time I got done and was steeling myself up for an attempt, the Bonanza came taxiing back in. They'd tried for over an hour to get over or around and gave up. Things smoothed out over 11500, but they encounted downdrafts in excess of 1000-2000 fpm near the mountains. His wife said that in 41 years of flying, that was the first time she'd been scared. Bob and I wound up walking down to the museum and poking around for a couple hours. When we got back, there were lots more stranded pilots, scared wives and all the tiedowns were full.
Click to expand...

Larry,

The plane looks great.

You made a good choice to stay another night. You would have been
fighting a 55Kt or better headwind above 11,000 ft. I flew from Hayward
to Orange County on Saturday. Left at 9am no mention of Severe turbulance
from the briefer. I was monitoring flightwatch and heard the Sigmet and
pilot reports of Mod to Severe turbulance at 5000 and 9000. We stayed
at 11000 the whole way and only had ocn light chop. I was ready to turn
and head to BFL if things got worse but we got lucky.

greg
 
river_rat said:
Larry,

The plane looks great.

You made a good choice to stay another night. You would have been
fighting a 55Kt or better headwind above 11,000 ft. I flew from Hayward
to Orange County on Saturday. Left at 9am no mention of Severe turbulance
from the briefer. I was monitoring flightwatch and heard the Sigmet and
pilot reports of Mod to Severe turbulance at 5000 and 9000. We stayed
at 11000 the whole way and only had ocn light chop. I was ready to turn
and head to BFL if things got worse but we got lucky.

greg
Click to expand...
Would you have been able to climb if only for that 20 minutes above the mtn terrain? I mean, that would have been a better option than being stranded at BFL. BTDT OTOH, sometimes turning west is a viable option. The problem there is huge up and down drafts north of Santa Barbara and being blocked by R-airspace north of that which means overlying Santa Paula or thereabouts. The Shoreline transition (VFR flight) then becomes your best option.
 
Larry,
The plane looks really great. Congratulations on the transformation, you did an awesome job.
 
Richard said:
Would you have been able to climb if only for that 20 minutes above the mtn terrain? I mean, that would have been a better option than being stranded at BFL. BTDT OTOH, sometimes turning west is a viable option. The problem there is huge up and down drafts north of Santa Barbara and being blocked by R-airspace north of that which means overlying Santa Paula or thereabouts. The Shoreline transition (VFR flight) then becomes your best option.
Click to expand...


I thought about going to the coast as an option and then I remembered
the mountains at Santa Barbara so I wasn't sure that would have been
better. I was in a 172 so I might have made it to 13,000, the sigmet was
for anything below 18,000. I was either above it all or lucky in the
routing I chose.

greg
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top