Windfarm and parasail flight

[cgmg]

Last Friday, Cathy and I headed up to the hangar to go flying. Along the way I noticed some wind towers that hadn't been visible two weeks earlier. So we decided to go check them out on our flight.

There is a wind farm going in right around our hangar, but nothing has been started yet. I'm not sure whether this windfarm, about 7 miles away, is part of the windfarm going in around us. The crop sprayers which are about to invade our airstrip are not going to be happy when they see this new windfarm.

Below are several shots Cathy took showing the various stages of construction. It is interesting to see how wide a swath the contractors take to run the wiring from each tower to the substation. I would guess the tracks are 20-30 feet wide.

 

[cgmg]

For the last several weeks, a parasail pilot has been launching from our airstrip. Mark and his wife Donna showed up just before we took off. After we returned from checking out the windfarm, it was calm enough for Mark to launch, so once he did, Cathy took some air-to-air shots. They're kind of long shots, since I hadn't discussed how close he felt comfortable with us being to him.

In the first picture, you can see Mark and Donna sitting on the trailer, watching us take off as he waits for the wind to die down a little more.

 

[Vance]

Nice pictures Cathy and Mark!

Nice pictures Cathy and Mark!

Thank you for sharing.

We have lots of wind farms in California but they are mostly away from agricultural land.

The ones in Rio Vista caused some challenges for the airport.

It is amazing to me that they can be a commercial success.

At the wind farm near Palm Springs often more than half of the windmills appear to be dysfunctional and yet they keep erecting more.

I would not want to joust with them.

Thank you, Vance

 

[cgmg]

Our flight lasted about 75 minutes. Here's a shot of the dash just before I started a climb to let Cathy take the stick for a while. The second shot is of us flying along I-39, which is about 3 miles east of our airstrip.

Cathy ended up taking the stick for about 20 minutes of the flight. She did well doing right turns, but was a little rough completing left turns. We both got a laugh at her attempts to go left.

This was only my third time up this year, and the second time for Cathy to be up with me. It was a really enjoyable time together.

 

[StanFoster]

Mark- Thanks for sharing your flight. Nice pictures. The other day I went uo east of you to Marseilles...and I could not beliece the size of that one windfarm just south of that town about 10 miles.


Stan

 

[All_In]

I do enjoy seeing and hearing about your flights!!!
Thank you for sharing the fun.

 

[Mike484]

Cool picture Mark. It's amazing how huge those things really are, you just don't realize it until your up close to one.

 

[Aussie_Paul]

Envious!!!!

Envious!!!!

I am sooo jealous Mark!!!! thanks for the pics.

Aussie Paul.