Lunch in Oceano

For the last couple of weeks, I’d been dying to fly. It had been rainy during a couple of weekends and so I spent alot of time at home do what I call – “dream flight planning.” It’s like daydreaming for pilot geeks, who have a laptop and an iPhone, coupled with the best aviation app ever – Foreflight Mobile. Not only is great to have on rainy days, when you can just sit around plotting courses and estimating flight times of future destinations, it’s also provides a cool mental escape during a hectic workday.

Given that I work only about 10 minutes from Palo Alto (KPAO) airport, I try to get out there about 1-2/week to simply walk the ramp with my radio, listening to the air traffic, while watching planes come and go. It’s one of my greatest escapes. Ironically, on Friday, while doing just that, I was offered the opportunity to take a quick gas-up run with a King Air pilot from KPAO to Tracy (about a 15 min flight in the King Air). The pilot was going to Tracy get some cheaper fuel and figured why not have an interested co-pilot alongside. Oh how I’d dreamt of a moment like this since I was 14 years old, hanging out at Lansing Municipal Airport in Chicago with my dad and playing the King Airs and Citations in their hangar. But alas, I declined the invitation. First, I had just met the guy and didn’t know him from Adam and also I was planning to meet some friends for drinks in less than an hour. The flight would take at least that long, if not a bit more. Perhaps someday, I’ll see him again and get a chance to ride First Officer style in a King Air.

I ended up meeting up with my friends Marc and Christianne at Joya in Palo Alto for one weekly salute to the conclusion of yet another hectic week. During our libational festivities, I’d mentioned to Marc that I was planning to fly down to the Central Coast for the day on Saturday. Given that he and Christianne weren’t doing anything on Saturday, they decided to come along with me. It really was pretty spur of the moment, since I knew a week prior that I’d be flying somewhere that weekend, so long as the weather held up. Now it was great to have some eager passengers; passengers that I’d previously hoped to fly someday. We concluded our night with an interesting bottle of wine at The Wine Room in Palo Alto (you can read about that experience at my other blog Jarard.com – Il Amante di Vino). And thus it was set…we planned to meet at PAO airport in the mid morning for a flight down to Oceano (L52) near San Luis Obispo in the California Central Coast.

Heading out to L52

Earlier in the week, I’d reserved the newer Archer III that just came on the line at West Valley Flying Club. It actually worked out great, since I can barely put enough fuel (34 gals to the tabs) in the other Archer III (N343MM) and take two other people. Whereas in N9294Q, I can fill it to the tabs, which gives enough gas for a 2.5 flight and enough weight remaining for two others and a little baggage. The clouds in the Bay were a little annoying in the morning, as they were hovering around 2100 ft at PAO and SJC. But beyond SJC it was clear skies.

After a preflighting, picking up my passengers, and running them through a few safety procedures, I headed for the run-up. Traffic at PAO is always interesting. It’s the tiniest little airport but the traffic can really be crazy at times. From the time I started the engine to the time I arrived in the run-up area, there went from being 2-3 aircraft in the pattern, to there being about 4-5 in the pattern and 4-5 in the run-up area. That said, I was fourth in line for departure and we had to wait about 15 minutes prior to receiving an immediate takeoff clearance.

Departure and Climb Out

We took a Right Dumbarton Departure out of KPAO and climbed to about 1200 ft. I wanted to stay clear of the clouds and also out of the initial segment of San Jose Approach Control, since I needed to receive a quick handoff from PAO after departure. We stayed at about 1500ft for the first 20 miles of the trip until getting south of SJC. At that point we received clearance to climb to our desired altitude of 7500ft, which took awhile to reach. I started climbing around Reid-Hillview (KRHV) and didn’t reach cruise altitude until I was almost near Salinas (KSNS). The initial few thousand feet were great but after reaching 5000ft, the Archer started to settle down to about 350-450 ft/min climb versus the 700-1000 ft/min that I witnessed at lower altitudes.

The higher altitude was also more favorable for my passengers. The first 20 minutes of the flight were a bit bumpy, given the cloud coverage but as soon as we hit 3000ft, there were smooth skies. And also by the time we reached out cruise altitude, we were beyond San Jose Class C airspace, so the radio chatter died down substantially. Marc mentioned that he really had to give the controllers “props” on their job…he really didn’t know how crazy it can be on the radio.

Lost Communications

We essentially flew down the US-101 Valley between Salinas and Paso Robles cruising at about 125 kts groundspeed. Near Paso (PRB), I remained clear the Roberts Military Operating Area (MOA). I could have requested clearance to fly through it, but staying out of it was just as easy. I only needed to remain on the east side of the 101, which would take me right over PRB, then a slight 50 degree turn to the right would take me right over San Luis Obispo (KSBP) and down into Oceano (L52). After passing PRB, I realized that my radio communications were becoming more and more faint. I called NorCal to make sure they still had me under their purview, but I wasn’t able to make contact. I then checked my sectional chart and tried a few frequencies listed in the area. After several minutes of trying, I wasn’t able to reach anyone. So I opted for the tried and true Flight Service Station. I radioed Hawthorne Radio (122.4) while near the PRB VOR and reached a very helpful specialist. He helped me locate the nearest frequency (which was actually Santa Barbara Approach) and also gave me update weather for the area. I contacted SBA Approach and readied for my descent over SBP into L52.

Approach into L52

It’s always interesting flying into a new airport…especially an uncontrolled one with no weather reporting. If there’s an airport that would be best served by an automated weather station, Oceano is it. The airport is literally 1/4 mile from the ocean and seems to have completely different weather than KSBP, which is 8 miles to the north. KSBP sits in a valley of sorts, while L52 is completely exposed to the wind. I started our descent over KSBP at 7500ft and by the time I crossed L52 at midfield, I was only at 2000ft (still 1000ft above the pattern altitude). So I headed SW over the ocean and did a quick 180-degree turn back in for a 45-degree entry into left traffic for runway 29. The traffic in the pattern was pretty hectic, but most of the pilots used good radio communications. Well, outside of the guy that called in on a 45-degree entry into downwind at the same time as me. When I asked, I’m on downwind, where are you, can you see me? He said, “oh, I’m still out two miles, but I see you.” Well, hell next time don’t say you’re entering downwind if you’re still two miles out.

My first approach (yes…first) into L52 was a bit fast, so I decided to slow it down using full flaps. About 100 ft AGL we got hit with some pretty fierce gusts and crosswinds, so much that as I crossed the 2325ft x 50 ft runway, I wasn’t even lined up with the runway…I was lined up with the grass to the right of the runway. So I decided to go-around. Boy, what a great way to introduce my friends to my flying skills by having a jacked up final approach and go-around. I climbed out and stayed in the pattern for my second approach (yes…it gets better). Since the winds were a bit fierce and unpredictable, I decided to try a two-flap landing rather than full flaps. N9294Q has wheel fairings, which give it about 3-5 knots extra speed. This means that my approaches need to be flown at reduced RPM settings than I’m used to in the Archer. I was hitting 75-80kts on final with full flaps at like 1200 RPM…so I needed to make some adjustments. I also wondered if all the BBQ grills in the campgrounds near the airport were causing the air in the vicinity to rise quickly (similar to heat thermals). Regardless, I needed to land but land safely.

On the second approach, I used two notches of full flaps and told myself that I would just fly the plane to the ground. I wanted to make it land along the middle of the runway and I’d deal with slowing it down once my wheels were firmly on the ground. Using some heavy rudders skills, I got my wheels to touch the ground and the plane to track down the centerline (for the most part), but to my angst, the plane bounced on the main wheels…not much but perhaps there was enough of a gust to keep it airborne. It felt like it was airborne for about 10 secs above the runway (but it was probably more like 2 secs in reality). It was long enough for me to sense that we were getting close the point of perhaps stalling at about 5 -7 feet above the runway. So as soon as I had that feeling, and given that the plane had also yawed left while I was tracking right of the centerline, I decided to go-around for yet another time.

At this point, I felt interestingly enough very confident in my skills but also a little embarrassed for my passengers. This was their first time flying with me and I was really getting tested. As I told them later in the day, everything I did to make sure we landed appropriately was good piloting skills; I know that it’s hard for passengers to understand that. On the third attempt, I used two notches of flaps, flew it to the ground, and planted it on the runway. As soon as we hit the pavement, I let the nose down and tried to slow it down. The aircraft skidded a bit to the left and then the right, but unlike my episode with my father at Pontiac on my first night landing, no one had to use a roll bar to keep from coming out of their seat :). (If you want to know more about my Pontiac experience, send me an email for a copy of my book – The Two Musketeers).

Though I bought a travel bag with a beach towel, football, and sandals, we knew as soon as we opened the aircraft door that we wouldn’t be spending a lot of time on the beach. The winds were strong and it was pretty chilly. We took a quick stroll around town (past a couple of eerie sights, including a store with a pit-bull out front and skull/crossbones and confederate flags waving in the wind – not to the mention the pickup truck we saw drive my with confederate flags waving). Let’s just say, it didn’t make me feel welcome.

Lunch on the Railroad

We ended up having lunch at a Rock and Roll diner located in an old railcar. It was a pretty interesting setup. The interior was decorated with thousands of business cards from previous visitors, as well as magazine covers, maps, and playbills from mid-1900s. Marc killed the BBQ platter and Christianne attempted to devour their gargantuan burger, while I pussyfooted with their meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I think next time I’ll order the BBQ instead. We didn’t stay too long, since there wasn’t much reason to stay on the beach. As we entered the airport, there were two aircraft in line to get self-service fuel and I didn’t care to wait. I also preferred to fly somewhere and get filled up by a truck, so that I could get a receipt for my reimbursement through the flying club. So I decided to fly to PRB to get some gas. We flew down with enough gas for 3.1 hrs and the flight was only 1.7hrs. It should have only been 1.5, had it not been for my 3 attempts to land.

Getting Gas in Paso

While we readied to departure out of L52, we witnessed a few interesting takeoffs and landings given the winds. I noticed the windsock and it wasn’t a steady flow of strong wind. In one second it was limp and then five seconds later, it was straight out. But as I told my passengers while taxing for takeoff, I’m more concerned with the wind on landing than I am on takeoff…especially if it’s coming straight down the runway. However, given the gusts, I decided to allow the plane to stay on the runway about 5-7 knots more than usual before lifting off. After crossing the shoreline, I made a 90-degree turn to the north and contacted KSBP tower for a transition clearance. We climbed to 3500 ft to clear the mountains between KSBP and PRB, and proceeded direct to KPRB. I entered a 45-degree downwind on runway 19 and noticed that I was still high when I turned final. Thankfully, the winds were calm at PRB and the runway is much longer and wider than L52. So decided not to force the aircraft to descend too quickly, since I’d have to make up for it in lost runway distance, while I attempted to slow it down. My landing in PRB wasn’t nearly as whacky at L52 and I’m sure it settled my passengers’ nerves, but I knew I could do better. I joked and said that I was looking forward to getting back to KPAO and showing them a nice landing.

I’d been to KPRB a couple of years ago with my roommate Brad and so I knew the airport well. As we exited the runway, I contacted Unicom and requested a fuel truck, but there was no one around to hear me. There were numerous trucks parked on the airfield but no one working at the time. The airport had a self-service station but I’d rather use the truck. Well, I didn’t have an option. I spoke to the lone soul working the ramp that day and he mentioned that not only had the restaurant closed at PRB (Matthews) but also the Paso Robles Jet Center was recently closed/evicted. The Jet Center would have been the people that would have responded to me on the Unicom. The ramp guy helped me refuel using the self-service station and I was able to get an appropriate receipt for the fuel. After a quick restart and run-up, we headed out of PRB for the quick 1hr flight back to PAO.

The Ride Home

After departing PRB, I again was unable to locate a suitable ATC frequency, so I called up my pals at FSS and again received excellent assistance. Soon after I contacted Oakland Center and received flight following back into the Bay Area. Along the way, we saw a red baron practice aerobatics along the mountainside and an Arrow, a Citation, and a few Southwest Airlines jets also passed us. It was pretty cool to say the least. On the way back, we flew at about 6500 ft and cruised at 120-125kts. Not bad for the Archer III…I had estimated average cruise speeds in that range, so everything went as planned. Rather than arriving back via Salinas, Gilroy, and theb SJC, I decided that we had enough altitude to clear the Santa Cruz Mountains before making our descent over Los Gatos, Cupertino, and into Mountain View. We received our landing clearance into PAO for runway 31 while over Moffett Field. Now the winds had began to pick up at PAO, as they were reporting 330 at 18kts – but at least there weren’t any gusts.

True to form, my approach and landing into PAO were smooth. After we touched down, Marc echoed “nice landing” from the back. I joked and said, “I told you I could make up for it.” And with that…we ended a beautiful day and flight through Central California. I’m happy was able to take my two peeps up for a bit and I know they thoroughly enjoyed it. Now…it’s on to the next adventure. Until next time…”keep the dirty side down.”