Another perfect summer day in November!

Vance

Gyroplane CFI
Staff member
Joined
Oct 30, 2003
Messages
18,363
Location
Santa Maria, California
Aircraft
Givens Predator
Total Flight Time
2600+ in rotorcraft
The engagement party was great but it wasn’t flying so Ed needed her flying fix.

It was 60 degrees, calm and clear at 8 am Sunday when we checked ATIS. We headed for the airport with the top down and the heater on. A fresh crop of strawberries filled the air with that special ambrosia.

I took some extra time with the preflight because I was in a hurry to fly and that is when I make mistakes. I waxed the rotor blades as Ed cleaned up the tail. I called Lockheed Martin and it was a great day to relive my first solo flight to Paso Robles.

It was already 72 degrees as we left the hanger. We filled her up to the top because I had been in such a hurry to put her away that day before for the engagement party, I hadn’t stopped at the pumps.

The magneto check went well and I called for a straight out departure to the North West. We were up, up and away with our shadow for company.

There was a lot of smoke from the fires and it hung hauntingly in many of the canyons.

There was no fog as we approached the beach with unlimited visibility and left Santa Maria behind.

We flew over where they filmed “Pirates of the Caribean.”

More to come!
 

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Beautiful pictures, Vance & Ed! That's the quintessential Santa Ana feeling: the warm, dry air, deep blue skies, everything looks so crisp and close.

-- Chris.
 
She cherished flying to Paso Robles because most of the flight was in the county she grew up in and she loves to see familiar places from a different point of view.

We passed Oso Flaco Lake and the refinery and left Guadalupe behind.

I showed Edna my new faster, lower way to fly the beach. She loved it.

Things were very busy as we headed up the beach and we reported location and altitude every mile as we neared the Oceano airport, L52.

Just past the Pismo Beach pier we were at 75 miles per hour and 300 feet when I pulled back to 50 miles per hour and quickly climbed to 500 feet as we cut over to the Coast Highway at Dinosaur Caves Park.

More to come!
 

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As we left Pismo Beach behind I called the San Luis Obispo tower and asked for a transition to the north along 101 and we began our climb for the Questa Grade. The radio transmissions from the tower were a little garbled because we were next to some tall hills. ATC thought I wanted to land and remembered how I like to enter the pattern rather than a straight in from Lopez Lake. I clarified my intentions and they approved my transition to the north at an unspecified altitude. We continued to climb and were at 1,600 feet as we crossed the centerline. They did a great job of watching out for traffic and warning people about the “experimental gyroplane” heading north and climbing. There were four aircraft in the pattern as we transitioned north past the hills of Edna Valley.

More to come!
 

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We headed past San Luis Obispo’s Little Lake and The Seven Sisters dormant Volcanoes. Morrow Rock is in the background.

We were a 2,200 feet as we topped the Questa Grade. The mountains seem to go on forever to the east. The smoke looked mystical as it caressed the peaks.

More to come tomorrow, as it is time for bed.

Thank you, Vance
 

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Thank you Chris, you did such a great job, you have inspired me to be more thorough.

I need to learn to use fewer words as you did, but that will come with practice.

Thank you, Vance
 
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Note the theme here:

  • Another perfect summer day in November...
  • We headed for the airport with the top down and the heater on...
  • It was 60 degrees, calm and clear at 8 AM...
  • It was already 72 degrees...
  • ...rakkata rakkata...

Yes, I'm jealous. We've had unseasonably warm weather here all week (effect here of the Santa Ana that causes so much mischief down the coast from you? Probably not). But have I enjoyed it? Hell, no. I've been chained to my desk at home, working.

And now the deliverable is off my desk for the moment, as of three this morning my time (right around the time Mr Breese was posting this, it says here), and the weather is regressing to the mean -- which in New England in November, means thirties and twenties. Today is the last warm-ish day with an expected high of 52º.

I guess I'll make sure I have my gloves and hat and book a plane for later this week. I'm too tired to be safe flying right now.

I remember my days in Monterey, with the consistent cool, foggy mornings and sunny afternoons. "What season is it? Who cares?" Many of the people I know in California complain about the taxes, the cost of living, the crowds. They complain about their movie-star governors, except when the governor isn't a movie star -- they complain about them too, but who voted 'em in? What most of them don't do is pack up and move (of course, now they're most of 'em underwater on their mortgages, so they can't move).

Days like this might be a clue as to why. (Of course, many of the folks I know out there are aviators anyway).

Vance, thanks for sharing again!

cheers

-=K=-
 
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Fantastic pictures, thanks for sharing.
 
Sorry Kevin, my intention was not to make you jealous. I was trying to describe the things that made the day special for us.

I have found that if I don’t appreciate the good things in my life that it diminishes their value. I try to set aside a half hour each day to focus on my gratitude for all the lovely things in my life.

In 1984 I quit racing as a lifestyle and began to work in earnest. In 1986 I sold my engineering job shop in San Carlos, Ca. I lived in Redwood City, Ca.

I went looking for a new way to make a living and a new place to live. I had lived every place by accident and it seemed to me that I should live somewhere on purpose.

I have traveled all over the country racing so I had a head start about what I liked. I spent several months on this adventure and ended up in Santa Maria, Ca. It was a town of 55,000 people then and as it grew it became less desirable.

I have since moved to Nipomo, Ca, overlooking the Santa Maria Valley. There were 7,000 people when I moved here in 1994 and the traffic light only blinked. Now there are 12,000 and we have multi colored traffic lights, combination gas station/McDonalds and we are over drafting our water.

I still love it here and when I fly it lifts me above any of the problems on the ground.

It is often too windy for me to fly and my share of the hanger costs $100 each month.

I have found that for me, happiness is a state of mind and it is possible to be happy anywhere in any circumstance.

Thank you, Vance
 
Fantastic pictures, thanks for sharing.

Your welcome Mike, we are glad to have you along.

It is Edna’s gift. She took over 900 pictures and would have taken more if the camera hadn’t malfunctioned.

She sees the world through an artist’s eye and finds pleasure in sharing the images.

Thank you, Vance
 
Keep the words, I like reading the story you tell.

-- Chris.

Hello Chris,

I was inspired by your post with all of its history, information and emotion.

You were able to portray the feelings with fewer words.

I would like to learn to do that.

I liked the way you tied the words to the pictures so I am experimenting with that. Because I am collaborating with Edna it slows the process.

I get lost in the challenge of trying to identify the feelings and communicate them to people who weren’t there. This forum is a great audience because many have shared similar experiences and a common passion. I usually start with triple the word count and pare it down from there. You were able to take it even further without losing the romance.

I am glad you are able to enjoy my words as they are because change comes slowly to me.

Thank you for the lesson, Vance
 
Hello Timothy,

I have never seen that movie. Ed knew about filming there. I just assumed it was filmed in the Caribbean. There are a lot of aircraft around Oceano, I bet they lost more than one take to modern stuff in the picture. I try to patrol the beach regularly when the fog is not in and John, my hanger mate, practices his aerobatics in his Acrosport a little to the south.

As nice as the pictures are they cannot portray the feeling and smell of the ocean and the joy of flight.

The tide was in so the space to land is narrow, when the tide is out I worry about the tide coming in before I get the Predator out. We regularly lose four wheelers to the tide, it is not pretty. So far I have not needed to find out. I do check the tide tables.

Thank you, Vance
 
Absolutely beautiful photos and great reporting on the flight Vance. Thank you for sharing with us. Looking forward to more of your postings.
 
Hello to All!!

Another Gorgeous, Sunny California Winter…Yup you guessed it Santa Claus comes here for his Suntan!
We are lucky and grateful to be living in paradise…of course I never thought that as a child. I never got to explore the area in which I live and thought the world stopped at the end of the driveway where I grew up, which is the beautiful San Luis Obispo County on the Central Coast.

To say I was drained After my son Ryan’s engagement party is not quite how I would put it. The party was fantastic and a very Happy Day for them and myself, but as you could well guess it left me feeling physically and emotionally tapped out. Ghost from my past were there ever present…haunting and taunting me!

The build up of all sorts of things seem to come to the for front that day left me feeling emotionless. When I went we went to bed Saturday night I was not feeling inspired. I felt everything I had gone into this party and I could give no more.

Relieving the past…most of it very good some not so much…if ya’ll no what I’m sayin! Water under the bridge, the bridge had run dry by evenings end.
So when Vance said wanna go flyin?? Hell yea!! Anything to help blow the dust and cobwebs from my mind...It was needed badly!

Here is some of the mind blowing that went on...more pics and words to come soon! Until this evening for the rest of the story.
;-)
SgurlEd
Down the Oceano Beach, other people recreatating like us!
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My Snookums!!
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The Beautiful Surf!
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Approching Pismo Beach Pier
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Approching Shell Beach...one of my favorite places to go sea shell and rock hunting. Ask Vance about my rock collecting... ;-O
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This is a long view of Avila Beach and Pier a very beautiful place!
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Vance,don't change a thing I love the way you explain your flights and the radio work. that really put us right there with ya.

the Pics are great you and Edna make a great team.

Hope ya'll are well away from all those fires.

take care and we look forward to your next flight.
 
Hello Timothy,

Thank you for the kind words.

I like to keep trying different things and I liked the way Chris shared his adventure, I found inspiration in it.

I feel that I get lost trying to capture the emotions and I stumble around with too many words.

I am waiting on Ed to pick out the pictures to go with the words I have already written about the rest of our flight to Paso Robles and the fun we had there.

We hope to do some night flying so it may not get posted tonight.

Thank you, Vance
 
Vance and Edna: You two are an awesome pair. I enjoy reading your text and viewing those pictures. You are such a professional flying pair!

Keep up the fantastic flying threads...I will be watching!

Stan
 
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