West Coast Taylorcraft Rendezvous

[clear_prop1961]

Re: West Coast Taylorcraft Rendezvou

Here are a few more photos from the fly-in from Ron Sawyer. Jerry

[Jim Meeker]

Re: West Coast Taylorcraft Rendezvous

It looked like the weather and traffic gods were conspiring against me for a Friday departure. First a jack knifed 18 wheeler in the Santa Ana canyon turned a normal 1 hour drive to Riverside airport into a 3 hour wait in traffic. Once getting to the airport a heavy marine layer and a low ceiling prevented a departure. Stayed in the hanger over night to get an early departure on Saturday and woke up to another heavy marine layer. Around 9:30 am I spotted a whole beginning to develop south of the field over Lake Mathews. I was wheels up by 10:00 am and spent 20 minutes climbing in circles in the hole to get on top which was 6,000 ft.. First picture shows the edge of the hole just as I was getting on top. Next picture shows the San Gabriel Mountains. Under all those clouds is Bracket Field where poor George Wacker was stuck and unfortunately could not make the Rendezvous. My plan was to cross over the Tehachapis on the western end closer to the Tejon Pass. Past experience with southerly winds down the valley has been the clouds back up further at the Tehachapi Pass. Since I was fighting a head wind I knew that when I approached the lee side of the Tehachapis I would encounter a down draft so I climbed to 9,000 ft plus. The next photo is off to the west and you can see cloud cover Tejon and the last photo is where I passed over the Tehachapis. When I hit the lee down draft I started to loose altitude until passing the ridge at 6,000ft using the sail plane tactic of lowering your nose in a down draft to get through it quicker. I then dropped under the scattered clouds which were at 6,000 to 3,000 and headed straight towards Columbia. I would have preferred to fly on top for a smoother ride but head winds were too great. This made for rather a bumpy ride. After passing east of the Fresno airspace and starting to cross the Sierra Nevada foot hills the ceiling starting dropping and I could see rain cells ahead. So I diverted to the valley. At this point it was 4 hours into the flight and I had a physical need to land decided to divert to Oakdale O27 because the gas was $3.99 a gallon. Landing at O27 I flew 4 hours and 40 minutes, 384 miles, average ground speed of 82 mph and took on 20.45 gallons for a burn rate of 4.38 gallons an hour and an average of 18.78 miles per gallon.

[Jim Meeker]

Re: West Coast Taylorcraft Rendezvous

I took off from Oakdale O27 at about 3:35pm and headed to Columbia O22 landing 29 minutes later. Pictures below show the Taylorcraft planes. As others have said Ron and Rosemary Sawyer are wonderful hosts, last two pictures are their spectacular rose garden and a group of the pilots sitting in the gazebo at the top of the garden.

[Jim Meeker]

Re: West Coast Taylorcraft Rendezvous

The next day, Sunday, most departed for home. First two pictures are the Fries taking off. Ron kindly offered the use of his guest house to spend an extra night. Monday morning I took off at 8:39 am. I knew there was a marine layer in the LA basin but out at Riverside it was supposed to burn off by 11:00 about an hour before my ETA. Going home I had head winds again but they were not too bad at altitude. Went over the Tehachapi Pass at 10,000 feet and headed for the Cajon Pass. Since I was at altitude for most of the trip, I was aggressively using the altitude adjustment on the Stromber carburetor which also added about 150 RPM. Picture looks into the basin from just outside the Cajon pass. Solid coverage at 12:00, Riverside RAL is reporting 2,000. So I enter the basin and head towards Banning BNG that is reporting clear. After flying over Redlands REI I could see holes which I dropped down through. While I was setting up an approach to land at REI, RAL started reporting 3,500 and broken so I went on and flew into home base. I flew 4 hours and 53 minutes, an average ground speed of 81.9 miles per hour, and 400 miles. I had drained both wing tanks but only topped off the main with 5.69 gallons so I figured that I burned 17.69 gallons for a burn rate of 3.62 gallons an hour. For me, the Stromberg makes its biggest difference in fuel burn. Going to O22 it was 4.38 gallons an hour, returning it was 3.62 a tad over ¾ a gallon per hour difference. And my mileage improved to 22.61 miles per gallon. All in all, a fun trip.

[Jim Meeker]

Re: West Coast Taylorcraft Rendezvous

Pictures for last post

[Jim Meeker]

Re: West Coast Taylorcraft Rendezvous

I took off from Oakdale O27 at about 3:35pm and headed to Columbia O22 landing 29 minutes later. Pictures below show the Taylorcraft planes. As others have said Ron and Rosemary Sawyer are wonderful hosts, last two pictures are their spectacular rose garden and a group of the pilots sitting in the gazebo at the top of the garden.

pictures added