Day Six–Students get their longest flights and landing back in time
While at the hotspring in Bridgeport, California on Day 5, it was agreed that the students could fly all day on Day 6, if everyone we could get to the airport early. It turned out that that the total group of 10, were able to get to the airport and close to sunrise. There was frost on the grass and the wind was completely calm.
All four Students were loaded and we topped the tanks of for a long flight. Getting all the trikes off into the air took a while.
With four trikes trying to get off with students, the first ones just circle around and wait for the others to get up. This orbiting around and waiting for everyone to get of the ground could take up to one half hour if someone for some reason has a complication.
The end of the runway drops straight into the lake. Loretta and I took off first and marveled at the green meadows, snow capped sierras, and the mirror finish on Bridgeport Lake. The air was silky smooth and not a bump could be found.
Finally, we all got into formation. It was magical because you could fly right next to the other trikes, and you could almost touch wing tips. The smoothest air on the trip. This was a joy to all to pair up and fly close to each other in the perfectly still air. This was the closest flying any of the students ever did.
The flight was through a wooded valley following the East Walker river and a road. This looked like a threatening area so we climbed up for this section. Shortly, we crossed into Nevada and the hit Smith Valley with sagebrush, farm and alfalfa fields. The air was developing texture as the fields and desert were starting to heat. It was nice air but not as smooth as when we left Brideport near sunrise.
After flying the students around the circular irrigation fields doing synchronized turns about a point, it was time to finding the next airport. Since we had the students and we were conservative with our fuel in case we hit a head wind, we decided to land at an unverified airport as our only chance at fueling midpoint between Bridgeport and Carson.
A long dirt strip with a few buildings, you had to know where it was to find it. Our chase crew plus four trikes was a challenge to navigate to where we landed and taxied to. Reliable radios and make this coordination possible. The chase crew’s mission was to find the Landing strips as number one priority, and supply fuel to the trikes who needed to keep moving before the weather materialized.
This ended up being a private airport where B–25’s were dispersed during WW2 throughout the nation. The owner approached with his cow dog barking excitingly corralling us with the airport owner.
The Hawaiian group, one of who was German, along with the chase crew was allot to decipher, especially since the four aircraft that landed there did not have a tail.
With tales of Hawaii and B 25’s during WW2, it again became difficult to fuel, load everyone up, and assemble in the air. Any stop, usually takes twice as long as you anticipate to get off the ground.
As promised, the students were all loaded and we blasted off to our last leg.
By the time we took off the thermals were starting to pump the air up and down. A great tool if you want to climb fast. By now the thermals could add 600 foot per minute climb to your rate of climb indicator. A typical noon time effect in the high desert.
We thermaled up and soon had the Minden airport in site as an option. We climbed towards the sierra crest and Lake Tahoe. At 12,000 feet the air smoothed out as we must have climbed through an inversion. Over Heavenly Valley Ski area and the spine of mountains heading north, was lake Tahoe below us and to the left, and the great basin Nevada desert to our right.
We switched to the Carson City Airport frequency and we immediately heard that jets were performing at the airport. The airport open house ended up being that day
After being anxious to get into the airport before the thermals got bad, we were radioed to hold north of the airport to wait for the jets to finish their routine and stay away from the jets. End of story.
Not many times have I been denied airspace clearance, but the air show probably had complete control of the airport. We diverted more north than normal to wait for clearance to land.
After 15 to 20 minutes the jets finished we were given clearance to land because the airfield is clear. With a clear airfield I radioed back asking permission to do a formation low pass with four ultralights. I figured it was an air show, we had four trikes in formation, and the airport was clear. The air controller responded “I do not se why not”
What a great way to end the Odyssey. We formed up did an impressive formation pass down the runway. Just as we were all thinking about how clever this was, we got hammered at the end of the runway with a down draft of a killer thermal. We all fanned out, punched the throttle, nursed it through close to the ground without stalling, and maneuvered it around the pattern one last time to land.
Getting pounded with a down draft, full load, and 8000 foot density altitude as our last event, reminded us of the power of the weather.
We had completed the Odyssey from The top to bottom. 1400 air miles measured on the GPS, in 6 days. It was sad to end this an incredible adventure flying with friends.