News

This is one of my favorite places to go hiking. I don’t even have to fly to get there, it is almost in walking distance from home.

…………………………………..

I had time to go flying on a very nice day, here are some pictures.

This is near Oakdale, there is plenty of water in the creek this time of the year.

This area has a lot of almond plantations. They are unfortunately monocultures with all trees of the same species and biodiversity is eliminated. It could be different, even 10 years ago there were some areas in between with other trees and more diverse plants.

I could imagine that the spaces between the almond trees could be used for growing other things, vegetables for example, at least during the wet season because the soil is quite fertile.

Until then, almonds are all you can see (or walnuts).

…………………………………..

Coming up in early May: Calaveras Airport Day

…………………………………..

For a special day I flew to a place that had been on my list of airports to visit for a while: San Luis Obispo. It is 175 nm south of here, and I took Caro for the trip. Heading south I encountered 15-20 kts of headwind, so it took a while to get there. First I crossed the long flat valley diagonally until I reached the first ridges of the coastal mountains.

The east side is dry and without trees.

Valley leading towards Paso Robles. I have started my descent. I kept checking the weather at my destination because it is close to the Pacific coast and was covered in fog earlier in the day.

On downwind, it is clear but the low clouds were just on the other side of the low hills. This airport has a tower, class D airspace and the longest runway is 6000 ft long. It was very busy, in part with airliners coming and going, other GA traffic and one small motorglider in between. One big jet was holding short for takeoff while I landed and I hurried up to get off the runway. The tower was doing a good job taking care of everyone.

I parked on the west side of the airport. It was very green in this area.

Looking north over the city. After takeoff I first climbed parallel to the mountains, until I was high enough to cross them, northbound.

View towards the ocean, which is hidden by the fog.

Crossing the first hills.

The thermals were developing over the mountains further north and I switched to “glider mode”, but with the engine still running at low power, to gain altitude more quickly by circling in the strong lift, up to 9000 ft. Now I could enjoy the tail wind, heading home. Total flight time was 4.5 hours. It was a fun flight and I enjoyed seeing new areas.

…………………………………..

After days of rain and storm that shredded part of the airplane covers, the sky turned blue again. I made good use of the brief weather break and flew Caro 1 in search of thermals.

There was some lift, but not enough for soaring. Instead I used it to climb towards the rising terrain, heading northeast, and saw that the freezing level had come low enough to coat the lower mountains with snow for the first time this winter.

I was at almost 7000 ft msl, but only a couple thousand feet above the terrain, which looked beautiful.

…………………………………..