Why Three More Flights?
Why did I make three more break-in flights? The cylinder head temps had come down from the initial time period indicating they had been broken in. I had 13.7 hours on the new engine which should be enough time for them to be broken in and the other indicator, oil consumption stabilized, is one that just takes hours to establish. The circumstantial evidence pointed to the engine being broken in, but you only get one shot at it and once you start flying at higher altitudes if it isn’t broken in, well it gets expensive. Now you are talking about pulling cylinders and having them re-honed.
With that in mind and a trip to St. George coming up, where you must fly higher or run into rocks, I took the opportunity to turn more fuel (money) into fun in the sky.
Fullerton to Salinas and Back
On a wall in our house I have a 3′ x 5′ VFR Planning Chart of the United States. I drew distance circles at 2 hour intervals from our home base and there are color coded pins for every airport I have landed at depending on who was in the plane with me. With a Sunday afternoon flight in mind, I took a look at the 2 hour circle and what airports I could get to while staying under 5,000′. I also didn’t want to head too far inland where it was going to be hot in the afternoon.
Just inside the two hour circle is Salinas and Monterey along the coast. That met the time requirement, it should be cooler along the coast, and perhaps a bit scenic, a trifecta. Next up was checking out the fuel prices at the two airports. There wasn’t much difference, and I chose the ease of getting in and out of Salinas, a Delta Class Airport over Monterey, a Charlie Class where I would also need to coordinate with Clearance Delivery and more traffic.
After church in the morning I came home, changed clothes, got my briefing for the flight plans I had filed the night before, and headed to the airport. I departed to the west and climbed to 4,500′ to go through the Special Flight Rules area above LAX and then turned to the northwest past Satna Barbara and into the Santa Maria Valley.
It was a beautiful flight and even at 4,500′ the temperatures were comfortable. I had hoped for some great views along the coast near Morro Bay but the low marine layer was pushed right up against the hills so I continued cruising northwest past Paso Robles towards Salinas.
Sometimes when you are flying into a place you have never been to your brain picks out a landmark and you “think” that is where the airport is located. I called up the tower and was told to “Make straight in runway three-one, report a three mile final.”
There I am, happily making my descent from 4,500′ and looking at a cluster of low buildings that looked very much like rows of hangars, leading me to think that was the airport. I’m glad I had been told to report a three mile final. I was paying close attention to the remaining distance to the airport when I realized those buildings were a lot further away than the four miles it said I had left and “Whoah! that’s the runway right down there in front of me.”
I pulled power back even more to get to gear extension speed, dropped the gear, and by that point was at a three mile final so gave tower a position report and was cleared to land. Yes, I realize I could have loaded the approach in my navigation which would have helped with the distance confusion…
I exited the runway, asked to taxi to the fuel pumps, and was thrilled to see a C-130 on the ramp loading up and getting ready to depart. My dad flew them into Cambodia after the “official end” of the Vietnam War and then again in the early 1980’s with the Air Rescue Squadron out of Elmendorf AFB in Alaska. I took a few pictures and texted them to him.
I told him the 8 bladed props looked amazing. He said he wasn’t sure why they needed so many blades, they must be hauling gold. He only had 4 when he was flying.
It was a quick turn on the ground for fuel and a restroom break and I was back on my way home to Fullerton. I basically retraced my route on the way back and was surprised when I looked at the flights later. The flight there was 318 miles in 1:52 and the flight back was 307 miles in 1:51. Not bad for a Sunday afternoon.
Laps Above the Marine Layer at Sunset
Wednesday of that same week I made the short drive form work to the airport with plans to cruise up and down the coast for about an hour. Plans and reality are often quite different.
The preflight briefing showed clear skies at Fullerton and Long Beach, few clouds at 6,000′ at Los Alamitos, and John Wayne with few clouds at 900′ and scattered at 6,500′. The TAF’s at Long Beach, Los Alamitos, and John Wayne also indicated that VFR conditions leading me to believe I could make the aforementioned run along the coast.
When I called up Ground for my taxi clearance I also asked if Los Al Tower was open for two reasons. First, I wanted to know if I was going to need to request transition or just make position announcements on the CTAF. And second, if the tower was open I would need an early handoff. He replied that yes, the tower was open.
I took off, turning crosswind and was promptly handed off to Los Alamitos tower who approved my transition at 1,000′ due to another plan inbound on the VOR approach into Fullerton. He would be descending out of 2,600′ for 1,500′ flying the opposite direction, requiring me to stop my climb and cruise along at 1,000′.
It was only a few moments before I saw a potential problem developing. Up ahead, just past Los Alamitos AAF which was accurately reporting clear skies was a very thin, but solid, marine layer. If I stayed at 1,000′ much longer I would be stuck under it and unable to climb VFR. The other concern is that often out over the ocean the marine layer will drop even lower, an insidious trap that is hard to see until you are in the clouds.
All of this was running through my head as I considered my options. My get out of jail free card would be to request a return to Fullerton from the Los Al Tower before sliding under the approaching clouds, but then I glanced to my right. Out there, past my wing, lit up by the golden setting sun, was the Port of Long Beach.
If there was that much sun shining on the port I knew there was a big enough hole for me to go up through and get on top of the layer, so I continued on. Tower gave me a frequency change, I switched to the frequency for the Long Beach Practice Area, and turned toward the harbor and open sky. Sure enough, right there over the harbor it was as if someone had just shoved the clouds back and held them at bay.
I popped up through the hole into a brilliant blue sky that was just beginning to show hints of the approaching sunset. For the next 45 minutes I flew back and forth from Pointe Vicente to Huntington Beach with the skies getting more beautiful as the clocked ticked on. At one point in the flight I was rewarded with a Pilot’s Glory as the sun reflected off the moisture in the clouds below me, showing the shadow of my plane circled by a rainbow.
As the sun set I turned back to Fullerton, landing just shy of an hour of flying. One more high power, low level flight in the books.
One More for Good Luck
Saturday we would be flying to St. George, so Friday after work I decided to get in one last low level, high power flight. For something just a little different than the Orange County coastal flights I thought I would head towards Santa Barbara and see how far I could get in about 45 minutes before turning around.
I took the low level route over Dodgers Stadium, no home game TFR, and then past Pacific Palisades and Malibu, and over the Santa Monica Mountains. I flew past Camarillo and Oxnard, turning around just past Lake Casitas.
On the return flight I picked up the coastline near Point Mugu and took the Special Flight Rules Area over LAX. 201 miles and one hour and fourteen minutes of flying later I was on the ground. With 20.10 hours on the engine I am calling it ready for regular duty.
Honorable Mention - St. George Day Trip
The next day was Saturday and the reason I had been trying to get in all those break-in flights in a short period. We needed to go to St. George to offer our love and support to my wife’s brother and sister-in-law’s families. As I was getting up and mentally going through the day I thought, “I need to change the AC schedule so it doesn’t cool all the way down overnight.” That was followed quickly by, “Wait, I’m going to be home tonight, I don’t want to change the schedule.” I am still caught off guard by how easy it is to make a day trip out of going somewhere that would be a 6 hour drive each way.
The flights were uneventful, mostly, and the winds were light resulting in flight times of 2:12 going and 2:19 returning. It was also wonderful to spend the day with family. I say they were “mostly” given the flight back was beginning to have a little of the typical summer afternoon storm build ups over the desert.
Off to the east there were some large cells developing, but along our route there weren’t any big towering clouds boiling and building up, just a few small ones here and there with rain showers coming from them that were so light they were transparent. I was working our way around them, no reason to fly under them or through the rain, when up ahead at the very edge of the cloud I saw a bolt of lightning from a cloud all the way to the ground. “Okay” I said to myself, “let’s give this a little wider berth.”
I saw another bolt of lightning again about 40 minutes later in the flight as we approached the tiniest of clouds and angled westward to give it some room too. I love our magic Mooney time machine.
