Spent the weekend in Tomales Bay. Sophia and the boys drove up earlier and picked me up in Petaluma. When I arrived a news crew was there covering a fatal ultralight accident that had happened several hours before. They interviewed me and I was on the 10 o'clock news!
Flew home IFR, in and out of IMC. Clearance delivery (phone) had me call NorCal (phone) who had me call NorCal on the radio who couldn't hear me but relayed my clearance through an airliner.
Flying Samaritans trip. Josh Jaramillo and I picked up Jacob Gregerson and his new wife, Celestine, at Montgomery, then flew to Tijuana to clear Mexican customs before continuing to our final destination: Los Pinos farm in San Quintin.
Lunch burger run with Patrick Carroll and Ryan Joseph. On the ground in WVI we saw the closest call I've ever seen -- two airplanes on short final about to land on top of each other. I made a radio call to alert them and the higher plane went around.
Met Todd Makiyama at Calaveras, where he dropped of N6005E for some avionics work. I flew him home to RHV and we stopped for dinner at Beeb's in Livermore on the way home.
Took my dad's high school friend, Tom Duzanica, up for a round of golf. Napa was fogged in, and apparently there were two other aircraft ahead of us in line on IFR flight plans. Even though they were both 20+ miles out and we were 5, they made us circle over Benicia for 30 minutes until they both landed before clearing us for the approach.
ATC helped us pick our way through a few thunderstorms the last 60nm. It got pretty bumpy and we saw lots of lightning all around the plane, but we were able to maintain VFR.
Sophia drove to Natalie's house earlier in the day and then picked me up at the airport and the whole family drove up to Judy's house in Auberry for the weekend.
Dan Burch, Chad Lunt, and I flew up to Portland to go salmon fishing with Adam Heder. Friday night we went to the Stanford vs. Oregon State football game in Corvalis.
Josh Jaramillo and I picked up Jacob and Celestine Gregerson in SD, cleared customs in Mexicali, then flew down to San Quintin for a Flying Samaritans clinic.
Disneyland trip! Almost had to scrub this flight and drive, due to icing and isolated thunderstorms. The forecasts kept getting better as departure time approached, so we went for it. Turned out to be a pretty smooth flight, with just a few encounters with IMC (mostly we were above the clouds), some trace ice, and one thunderstorm to dodge.
Return trip from Disneyland. More IMC, rain, and icing encounters. Had to descend from 10k to 8k due to icing. Picked up ice a few times at 8k as well, but nothing serious. Nasty nasty headwinds the whole way.
Flying Samaritans trip to San Quintin. Flew down with Josh Jaramillo and picked up Jacob and Celestine Gregerson at Montgomery Field. Waited in the 31 run-up at PAO for 20+ minutes for our IFR release. IFR from PAO to MYF, but very little IMC. Stiff headwinds the whole way. Flew the ILS at MYF in VMC. Had to circle forever after departing MYF to try to file and activate our border crossing flight plan.
Stopped at Brown Field to clear customs on the way home. Had to pick up a pop-up IFR clearance to get in. Flew the GPS 08L (in IMC) and circled north to land 26R. IFR from MYF to PAO to climb back up through the marine layer. VMC the rest of the way, but stiff headwinds again! Door popped on takeoff from MYF (again), so we had to land and try again.
Took off with Chad Lunt and Ian Crawford, picked up John Crawford in Truckee and flew on to Portland (Aurora), where Adam Heder picked us up and took us to his house for the night. N4WR's starter failed in Truckee, but luckily there was a shop on the field and they happened to have a used starter on the shelf! Picked up a clearance to descend through an undercast over Aurora State and flew the visual approach.
Pretty bumpy flight through Nevada. Really fun lunch stop in Jackson Hole. Borrowed a crew car and drove into town. Smooth flight to Pierre, SD until both Max and Luke threw up in the back seat in the last 45 minutes. Super helpful FBO guy gave us cleaning supplies and took us to a hotel.
Final leg from Pierre into OSH. General parking at OSH was full by the time we got there, however there was still room for us in vintage. Good thing 4WR is old! The approach in to OSH was not very crowded due to parking being full, so it was actually quite easy. We taxied a VERY long way and parked in the far reaches of the new South 40.
Departed OSH and stopped in Sioux Falls for lunch and fuel. Then on to Cheyenne. Unfortunately it's Frontier Days here all week, so the hotels are all booked and overcharging! Both legs were IFR in occasional IMC. Flew the ILS 3 in to FSD and the visual 27 at CYS.
