North by North-West
After purchasing N97051 I spent a lot of time in the pattern at KSBP, and then a slowly growing radius as I gained comfort with the aircraft. IT was time for a flight outside of my comfort zone, and this quick trip would put me on my toes.
The plan was to fly up the coast, there’s a beautiful sea-side strip called Shelter Cover (0Q5) in northern California, and I was headed for it. The flight was normal, up and around the bay area, then I was bearing down on my destination and dam. For those unfamiliar with the marine layer, it’s s an air mass which develops over the surface of a large body of water such as the ocean or large lake in the presence of a temperature inversion. The inversion itself is usually initiated by the cooling effect of the water on the surface layer of an otherwise warm air mass. The result, a cloud along the cost preventing me from getting in. Well in pre-flight I planned a deviation inland, and made for it… but forgot to check the notams at my alternate, it was VFR and I was a low time pilot. Turns out, it was under construction, the runway was cut..
It wasn’t that late, but my nerves were up, I had some 4 hours of fuel on board, which was more than enough to “solve the problem” but this was the first time my flight plan didn’t go to plan, and I was looking for options in rising terrain ever weary of daylight remaining. I made my way North to Hyapom (H47) and was relieved to not only find a beautiful runway on a river, but also a great place to camp with me and Nikki. The maneuvering into onto the runway was unusual, probably because of my low time in the Skylane, but it worked out. I made a downwind, then proceeded into the next valley to pull a u-turn and then make straight in for the runway. I learned my lesson about preflight, and after a fun night on the river, the next day I was greeted with amazing views as I made my way up to Grant’s Pass. This is where I met my first Stearman, quite an impressive machine that I knew little about. It was beautiful, and sounded amazing on takeoff. This was only a quick weekend trip, so like that, it was almost direct back to San Luis with a little sightseeing and runway touching along the way.
