Hello,
This is the story of my 6 day 1100 mile trip around the California Central Valley on a motorized hang glider.
Day 1, September 13th
I was hoping for an early morning take off but due to different technical problems the start slipped to 11. Installed the cameras, one on the left wing tip and the second on the steering bar. Also realized that I left the third camera mount at home. This was the first significant technical problem during the trip. But I didn’t have time to think much about this and went ahead to load the gear and fill up with fuel. Then off we flew, me and my tiny plane.
The first leg took me from Turlock (which is in the middle of the Valley south of Modesto) to the west side . At Gustine I turned south and headed to my first planned stop at Los Baños. This is a nice little airport where I got a few friendly smiles and waves. This became typical during the trip. A lot of people came over to look at the plane, have a chat and ask me where I was coming from.
The second stop was Firebaugh. The route took me along huge almond orchards and grassy fields. In Firebaugh I walked to village to get fuel and noticed the second major technical problem that from then on haunted me all along the trip. The collapsible fuel tank had a pinhole. No problem – I thought – quickly discarded it because I had a spare one. Later I wished I would not have thrown it away as the second fuel tank also developed holes – three at the end. Due to these holes re-fueling and mixing oil for the two stroke engine become a miserable experience and I regularly spilled fuel on myself and the gear.
The third leg took me along the California Aqueduct – an amazing engineering feat stretching from the Sacramento River Delta 444 miles down south. The weather got bumpy and I was riding in 10+ ft/second lifts and sinks. Refueled at Harris and talked to some folks with a nice jet. When they heard about the goal of my trip – to find support for The Blind Judo Foundation – they quickly said good-bye. This happened more than once during the trip – when some people learnt about the fundraiser, they quickly disappeared.
The fourth leg along the Aqueduct took me to my final destination of the day, Lost Hills. This is a broken-down rarely used airstrip next to a trailer park in the middle of nowhere. After tying down the plane I walked for an hour to get fuel. Then it took somewhat more time to get back hauling 4 gals of gas. When I got to the plane a few local folks showed up, Milo and Rodolfo. Milo is a tattoo artist, I am not sure about Rodolfo. We
talked about the local life, the low paying agricultural jobs and the oil jobs. Those pay better, 60-70K, which is good money down there. They warned me about scorpions and snakes and left. My tent zips up well so I did not worry much. Nor the sounds of gunshots and Mariachi music worried me and quickly went to sleep. Around 2am I woke up to a horrific noise which is hard to describe. Then heard hooting and realized that it was an owl. Then a second owl came and they had a conversation for a while… And I had the privilege to listening to it.
Day 2, September 14th
Got up at 5am and took off around 7. Early morning flying is so beautiful with the smooth air and the rising sun. I continued flying south to Ford City, my next destination. Along the way I saw hundreds and hundreds of oil wells. It is hard to get a good feel of the huge expanse of the oil fields unless seeing them from the air. In Ford City I met a retired oil worker who told me about the local life and economy. The airport also has active parachuting life and the jump master also came over to look at my plane.
The next stop was Bakersfield, a large impersonal airport. Along the way I have seen gigantic dairy farms. On one farm the cows were running and that looked strange. Then I saw a truck spreading feed. I guess hungry cows do run. Also noticed huge mansions with swimming pools in the middle of some of these farms, probably the owner’s houses. Must be a luxurious life – except for the smell that was strong even at 3000′.
Bakersfield was my southernmost stop. From there I started to work my way up on the east side of the Valley. Again – it was amazing to see the extent of the oil fields from the air.
After a quick fuel stop in Delano I headed north. The landscape became greener with orchards and plantations. When getting closer to my next stop at Porterville I saw that large fire fighter planes were landing and taking off. Got on the downwind leg of the pattern when I noticed a plane also on the downwind leg, outside of my position and behind me, catching up with me. The only thing I could do was to narrow my pattern and quickly land. I have pulled the bar and sunk at 15ft/second, landed in a few minutes and got off the strip. As I pulled over I saw a large twin turbo plane flying over, it had to do another circle to land, could not squeeze in behind me. Once I landed the airport manager came over and we discussed the situation. He was ok with my landing procedures but warned me that I was supposed to land on the taxiway – being an ultralight plane with no radio gear. My response was that I would have done so, but this special instruction is mentioned neither in the current airport directory nor on the Internet. Then the twin turbo landed, that I have “pushed off the pattern” and turned very close to my plane blowing at her so hard that the two 500lbs tie-down lines broke and I had to run to catch her to prevent her from flipping over. The airport manager went over to the pilots and shouted at them too. Then the copilot came over and apologized. They thought that I was not on the pattern when they saw me. I described that in a wind like this, my nose points to a different direction since my speed is so slow. His plane at 300 mph does not feel the wind that makes me fly at 45 degrees to my destination at 35 mph. The copilot offered me to take a picture of my plane with his in the background but I didn’t take the opportunity. I thought rather he should take the picture with my plane in the background. After all I was the rare bird. So I just filled up with fuel and took off from the taxiway…
The last stop of the day was Reedley and I had a nice flight for a change after being almost run over by the Grumman S-2. In Reedley I met Dave, an airplane mechanic. He took me to town to grab some food and gave an interview for the DVD of the trip. I was allowed to set up my tent on the nice grass next to the airport office. There was only one little detail I missed… At midnight the sprinkler system started. For a while I was jumping around in the darkness on the grass trying to do something. But I could not do anything with the powerful pop-up sprinklers so I went back to the tent and zipped up. My jumping around in underwear must have looked like a primitive anti-rain dance. And I just listened the water hitting the tent… 3 times five minutes and around 2am for a whole hour. The only other interesting thing about the night was a few coyotes hauling. They make ugly sounds for sure.
Day 3, September 15th
In the morning I made a hot chocolate, packed the gear and departed for Madera. Wrestling the thermals, sitting in the 40mph wind, being cold in the air and baking on the ground left me very tired. I even though for a moment about giving up, cutting through the Valley and head home. Instead I filled up in Madera and headed for the mountains on the east side of the Valley.
The first stop was Yosemite, famous for its bumpy airs in the afternoon but nice in the morning. Ascended to 4000′ to pass the mountains and landed safely. It was a beautiful trip as the mountains slowly rose from the Valley floor. Filled up in Yosemite and talked to a couple heading to the Bay Area on a shiny twin engine 6 seat plane. They said they were envy of me… I told them I was envy of them…
The next leg took me along Bear Valley over Lake McClure and the Don Pedro Reservoir. Flying often below the 2-3000′ mountain peaks in the narrow valleys was truly amazing. I am not sure if the video footages I was shooting can show the extent of this experience and the freedom I felt. The only worry I had was the lack of landing spots. Even for my little plain that only needs a 150′ of clear path it would have been difficult to find a place to land in the dense forests. The engine rpm was not very stable so after landing in Columbia I have changed the main fuel jet in the carburetor.
From Columbia I headed north over densely forested mountains. At Westover Amador I had the most challenging landing with huge bumps and a thermal, rising right at the end of the airstrip. I saw birds circling in the thermal so I was ready for some turbulence but it was rougher than I had expected. Thanks to my 5-point safety belt me and my little plain stayed together.
After filling up I headed to Auburn but midway decided to change course to land on a small airport in the mountains, called Georgetown. Along the trip I used the aeronautical sectional charts, the compass and my watch, and only used the GPS for reference. This made it easier to follow valleys or rivers and change plans on the fly. In Georgetown I talked to a couple of folks, learned a little about the area and set up camp next to the airstrip. Several people warned me that they have seen a bear recently. Since airports are fenced around I had reasons to assume that the bear was still close by. Despite this, I had the most restful night with the full moon shining and crickets chirping. As I think back, probably it was my harmonica playing that scared the bear away.
Day 4, September 16th
Next morning I headed up even higher and landed at the highest airport of the trip in Nevada City at the elevation of 3100′. Talked to some people there. One of them has been a student of the same instructor I have learnt flying from.
From Nevada City I made my way out of the mountains to Oroville in the southwest. Slowly the Valley opened up below me and the forests were replaced by orchards and plantations. The engine was puffing along smartly and the air was silky smooth. It was beautiful flying. On the west side of the Valley I saw cumulus clouds popping up and I thought it was strange to have such a smooth flight yet strong updraft on the west. Soon I learnt the reason…
Took off from Oroville which is a beautiful place between rice fields and lakes and headed south. For the second part of this leg I followed the Sacramento river and shoot a lot of video footage. The river was curving between marsh lands and rice fields sometimes intersected by bridges with small villages along.
After about 80 minutes of flying I landed in Corning, the olive capital of California. The secretary of the airport gave me a ride to pick up fuel. She is an olive orchard owner herself. I met with a couple of local pilots (one of them was also trained by my instructor) and spent quite a bit of time talking to them. Then I noticed the thunderstorm clouds moving in from the south and the wind picking up so quickly departed to escape to the north.
I could just barely keep ahead of the storms and encountered some of the most violent turbulence so far along the trip. By the time I got up to Redding I was cold and exhausted. Safe landing spots were also diminishing as I flew north with the rice fields being replaced by forests. Managed to pull off a decent landing, tied down my plane and headed to the airport office. Here I got bad news. They did not let me set up my tent and they could not offer a more sheltered tie down spot for my plane. In the meantime the storms came in and I spent two hours holding onto her so she does not flip over in the 40+ mph wind gusts. After the storm passed I headed to town to find a place to stay. Found a motel after 30 minutes of walking. It was a very ugly place but it had a clean bed and a shower and that was all I needed.
Day 5, September 17th
I spent a good part of the night contemplating on what to do. Should I fly up to Lake Shasta which was less than 10 miles north or head south along the west side of the Valley? The weather forecast was giving 10-20 mph winds for Redding and 5-10 for Colusa My next stop. 20 mph of wind on ground level means 30 in the air. With my speed of 38 mph I would have been in big trouble. The morning air was still but I knew that the wind would start blowing again as the sun rises and I did not want to loose precious time. A trip to Shasta would have also forced me to get back to the Redding airport and I was very disappointed of the folks there and did not want to do anything with them. They put me in a hopeless situation – could not stay at the airport yet I could not secure my plane. And I knew that they had well protected spots they could have offered. …on the other hand a trip to fly around Shasta Dam would have been truly amazing. Finally I decided to play safe and headed south to Corning.
In Corning I picked up some fuel I had left there in a can the day before, and flew to Haigh. This was really just a safety stop to make sure I had enough fuel to reach Colusa. From Haight the winds turned and my speed went up from 20-25 mph to 40-45. The flight was beautiful again, I thought I have escaped the nasty weather. It was too early to cheer… On the way to Colusa I shoot a lot of video footage, did some steep turns and stalls for the sake of the video.
Arrived to Colusa and filled up with gas. I wanted to fly around a unique volcanic mountain range in the middle of the Valley called Shutter Butte, and Colusa was the best starting point. I took off in gusting winds and headed for the mountains between swamps and rice fields when I noticed that the camera was off. I could not fix the problem in the air and did not want to fly back to the airport so I found a nice straight dirt road along a rice field and landed there. Fixed the camera and took off and rounded Shutter Butte. When I got back to the airport I re-fueled the plane and decided to camp out in the wild. Took off and chose a dirt road between a rice field and a marsh and landed there. Set up camp and started to walk along the path only to realize that at every 150′ or so it got really bad with large holes – something my plane could not handle. At the same time as the sun went down the wind really picked up and I did not have a choice but to point the wing into the wind and hold on to the nose. The stars came up, the Milky Way was visible, the wind was hauling and I was very cold although I put on everything I had. Then the Moon rise from behind the Butte and I was contemplating whether I will be able to take off from this place. This was the right time to have some of the strong Hungarian drink called Unicum. I had two shots and felt much better. Around midnight the wind calmed down and I could stop guarding the plane. I slipped into the sleeping bag wearing all my pilot gear and still felt cold.
Day 6, September 18th
I woke up around 5am in 45 degrees. Tent, plane and everything else was wet. Kept thinking of how to get out of this place. When the sun rose I headed to fix the road. The first hole got better after I broke off the dried mud edges and used it as a filling. The second area was too bad to be fixed so I was just hoping that the plane would be in the air by the time I reach it. I have walked along the path and visualized the line I had to follow with my front wheel at least 5 times. Counted my steps and knew that I had a rough spot at 150′ and a really rough one at 280′, something that my plane could not handle. Then I ditched all the water, food, clothes and other unnecessary weight, dried the wings with a couple of t-shirts, packed up and took off. My beautiful little plane just jumped in the air like a rocket shortly after the first rough spot at 150′.
The flight to my first stop at Davis was long and I had to watch my fuel. Due to the stress of the take off I forgot to switch on the camera and missed to capture the most interesting footage. The path was so narrow that the camera on the wingtip was scraping the vegetation. At around 2000′ I had favorable 10-15 mph winds but it was freezing cold and turbulent there. Above 2200′ it got warmer but I had a 5-10 mph headwind. So I stayed around 2000′ until I was shaking uncontrollably due to the cold and then went up higher to warm up a bit then back again. At Davis I followed the safest airport approach: came across mid-field of the strip 500′ above the pattern altitude and then merged the pattern to land according to the wind direction. The only problem was that I missed the parachute sign on the map and crossed the drop zone of parachutists – and they were right there jumping. I saw parachutes popping open a little above my level of flight. On the ground a parachutist came over in a wing suite. He looked like Batman and was shouting at me. And he was absolutely right. I apologized and after filling up with fuel took off for Winters in the south. I guess I was exhausted and cold and did not notice the drop zone sign on the map. Fortunately no harm has been done and I learnt a valuable lesson.
On the way to Winters I had to cross the tip of a warning zone. The map indicated that large military cargo planes may fly by and cause turbulence. Well they indeed flew by, one of them uncomfortably close. In Winters I had a strong 10-15 mph cross wind and landed almost sideways. Someone came over and asked me whether this wind was too much for my plane. I said no, but I was not a 100% sure. So I took of quickly before the weather could turn worse and headed to Oakdale. Mid air I calculated that if I stay in the turbulent cold 2000′ level I can make it back to Turlock without refueling in Oakdale. I did not want to risk one more turbulent cross wind landing so I kept flying in the cold and bumpy air until I was only about 5 miles from my destination. I was in no condition to land safely so I climbed to 3000′ where I could relax a bit and warm up. Then I nailed the landing at Turlock. I pushed back my little plane to it’s hangar and gave her a kiss on a propeller. She flew like a champ, kept me safe and allowed me to see breath-takingly beautiful places.
Stats:
Duration: 6 days
Distance: 1100 miles
Flight time: 30 hours
Highest elevation: 6700′
Shot 6 hours of video footage
Burnt 65 Gal of fuel
Lost 8 pounds
If you would like to get a DVD diary of this trip please give a donation to the Blind Judo Foundation and let me know the amount, and your mailing address. I will send you a copy when it will be ready sometimes in November.
