Palm Springs Aviation Expo

Vance Breese

Cleared for Takeoff
Joined
Oct 10, 2014
Messages
1,061
Location
Santa Maria, CA
Display Name

Display name:
Vance Breese

Attachments

  • SMX AS 421.jpg
    SMX AS 421.jpg
    93.5 KB · Views: 19
  • SMX AS 426.jpg
    SMX AS 426.jpg
    71.3 KB · Views: 16
Last edited:
I will be there! Sitting in the United Club at LAX waiting for a flight to PSP as we speak!
 
The ACE is a good spot, also papi & harrets in the high desert, NYPD is a good bar, tropical is also a good spot.

It's a interesting town.
 
For those of you who went, how was it? From the look of the videos of the parade, it was kind of sparsely attended.

I was working, else I would have been there.
 
For those of you who went, how was it? From the look of the videos of the parade, it was kind of sparsely attended.

I was working, else I would have been there.

I didn't go...but i heard the same thing.

Though the news reports say it was a 'huge success'? :confused:
 
I was there on Friday and Saturday. Friday was sparse but Sat much better. Not many airplanes were on display but inside exhibits were OK. Hope to see it grow some next year. If people show up and bring their credit cards I am sure the show will continue to grow and be more interesting. As it was you could get the attention of the exhibitors because the crowd was small.
 
I was there Sat afternoon. It was depressingly sparse. We opted to leave after 30mn and take the Mt. San Jacinto trolley up to the top of the hill, which we hadn't done before. It was IMC up there and damn cold. Then we went and relieved the Morongo Indian tribe of 150 paleface dollars, then beetled home. Gas was 2.99 at the casino.. rare and refreshing for SoCal. :D

I think they had... wha.. 12? 15? planes on static display, with a significant % being Cutter's piper squad. A random used 310. Two tesla cars.

I only went to say hi to the ABS guys, so mission accomplished there. I regret paying $55 x 2 for 30 minutes of hobnobbing, but nothing ventured, nothing gained I suppose -- after all, it could've been awesome. At least there was ample and free street parking right around the corner -- about 20 steps away. So $6 saved there. Heh.

I worry that soon it will just be Osh and SnF... AOPA's Ft. Worth show was about 10x the size of this.. and I was disappointed with that too.

$0.02
 
I was fogged in at Redlands Municipal Airport till almost noon on Friday after spending Thursday night with friends in Redlands. I did not expect low ceilings in what I thought of as desert.
The PSP tower was great and Signature took good care of me and my gyroplane.
I had a lot of fun and spent time with some wonderful pilots at the Palm Springs Aviation Expo.
I learned a lot from the seminars, the vendors and the pilots.
I never ran out of things to do and learn.
The event exceeded my expectations.
On the way home we found some exciting turbulence through the Banning pass and near the Newhall Pass by Whitman.
I stopped for a great lunch at the Way Point Café at Camarillo on Sunday with two of my favorite airshow performers.
It was four days of aviation joy for me.
 
I was fogged in at Redlands Municipal Airport till almost noon on Friday after spending Thursday night with friends in Redlands. I did not expect low ceilings in what I thought of as desert.
The PSP tower was great and Signature took good care of me and my gyroplane.
I had a lot of fun and spent time with some wonderful pilots at the Palm Springs Aviation Expo.
I learned a lot from the seminars, the vendors and the pilots.
I never ran out of things to do and learn.
The event exceeded my expectations.
On the way home we found some exciting turbulence through the Banning pass and near the Newhall Pass by Whitman.
I stopped for a great lunch at the Way Point Café at Camarillo on Sunday with two of my favorite airshow performers.
It was four days of aviation joy for me.

Tell me more about the exciting turbulance.
 
Tell me more about the exciting turbulance.

We climbed out of PSP at 1,200 feet per minute at 70kts leveling off a 2,000 feet along the 111. We climbed to 3,000 feet MSL in the Banning Pass and at 70 knots indicated air speed we were making 46knots of ground speed near BNG.In the gyroplane I am flying, a Cavalon by Auto Gyro GMBH that we call Puff, the design speed for maximum gust intensity (Vb) is 70kts.
At first I thought it would just be a slow flight until I regularly saw wind shear in excess of 16 knots and she began an irregular series of uncommanded yaw excursions of around thirty degrees. I saw a descent at full power of 800 feet per minute followed by a climb at 550 feet per minute with the throttle at idle.
Because of the high wing loading and relatively high speed of the wings a gyroplane rides pretty smoothly through such excursions but I never the less find it disquieting.
As we approached Whiteman and radar contact was established ATC asked me for wind reports. It was calm when he first asked and quickly became somewhat turbulent reaching on the high end of moderate turbulence through the Newhall Pass at 3,000 feet MSL.
Over the hills 15 miles east of Santa Paula we were again batted around a bit a little before noon.
Camarillo was smooth and nice. I don’t recall the wind speed.It was steady.
Along the ridgeline at 4,500 feet near Santa Barbara we again saw wind shear exceeding 15kts. We have experienced much worse in that area and we were able to manage our altitude within 100 feet using the full range of the throttle.
Listening to the Santa Maria tower frequency I heard a Mooney report severe turbulence and a Piper report wind shear on descent to land.
In my opinion this was to be expected because a storm had passed through the area Friday night.
It was blue skies the whole flight with some cumuliform clouds to the north and west of my route of flight.
I often wonder how close to a nonrecoverable event I am in these altitude and rapid yaw excursions.
That is what I intended to communicate by “exciting turbulence”.
 

Attachments

  • 004.JPG
    004.JPG
    195.7 KB · Views: 7
  • 010.JPG
    010.JPG
    643.3 KB · Views: 7
Back
Top