Quickly we entered the Travis AFB Alert area. There was much discussion during our briefings about transitioning through here but as it turned out we passed through without much hoopla and did not see any 'heavies'.
Our route took us up through the Sacramento Valley, over beautiful verdant fields. We were too high to see what crops but I expect there were many orchards and vineyards. Passed by Sacramento, Chico and eventually up near Redding. Along this portion we had a light headwind and the air was fairly smooth.
Then we climbed, up towards the cascade range, to 5000', 6000', and eventually up to 8k. Spectacular views of Mt Shasta and the Shasta lake recreational area.
Ahead of us was the first fly-by, over a 4300 foot runway, surrounded by very few buildings in the middle of I don't know what where. Ok, it was a bit hard to find. But- we continue to learn more all the time about flying and navigation. We love fore-flight, the app we use on our iPads for navigation. Linda Street-Ely was so very helpful and kind at the start with tips and aids for optimizing use of the program. Foreflight is an official sponsor of the Air Race this year.
Caroline did an outstanding job on the leg, and the team is confident she held the 200' AGL for the fly-by. And - off to Klamath Falls for fuel. We burned a lot on this leg with headwinds, climbing and the to and fro from Butte Valley fly-by and Klamath Falls. Klamath Falls was congested and the fueling process took time. Tower cycled us in and out of the airspace; incoming traffic staying below 5500 and outgoing reaching 6000 by the time we were outside of class delta. Now to find the fly-by again and cross the timing line to start the next leg. We were in a pack of about five planes proceeding back after the pit stop.
The next leg to Elko, Nevada took us up over several ridges and it started to get bumpy. We hit 152knots! Tailwinds in our favor YES! Towards the end of the leg the clouds lowered and we had scattered showers, causing a little bit of diversion here and there but not too much off course. I t was a thrill to be up high, looking over the terrain. Gold mining is a big deal in these parts. Also saw some ranches, rigs and a lot of uninhabited land.
Finding the town of Elko was not a big problem but spotting the runway turned out to be tricky again. Good grief. We landed with a decent crosswind and increasing cloud cover. Over the following hour a couple more teams arrived and also some continued on to Wyoming. We decided to stay, thinking the weather was iffy and the timing too tight. We have ARC published arrival deadlines for each day.
El Aero, the FBO at Elko have been wonderful hosts. The FBO is comfortable and friendly. Last night the community hosted a barbecue at the airport. So now here we sit and wait for the weather to improve. 15 teams are in Elko. We all arose early for a possible sunrise take-off. Goodness gracious we have not seen the sun and the temperature is 42. Snow, icing, clouds, mountain obscuration, fog....
No comments:
Post a Comment