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Mountain High
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My adventures yesterday took me on my farthest cross country yet, and I also got to see a real nice Titan for sale. The purpose of my trip was to show my Challenger to a gentleman who wants to sell his new Titan and buy a Challenger. He feels the Titan is to much airplane and he wants something just below Sacramento to Cloverdale, about 25 miles north of Santa Rosa. The distance on the chart was 100 miles. My first stop was Davis Ca, home of UC Davis, where I refueled before starting the climb over the mountain range to the west. I climbed to 5000 ft to clear the mountains and provide plenty of altitude to glide to a safe landing in the event of an engine out. The mountains are quite rugged, and I also had to fly over lake Berryessa, a large reservoir right under my route. The lake's only suitable landing sites are on the NE side, and I wanted to ensure that I had plenty of glide distance to make one of them in case I needed to . After passing Lake Berryessa, I landed at the small mountain airport of Angwin. The field is located on a mountain ridge at an elevation of aprox 1900 ft, and the runway has quite an upslope to it. There was a moderate 90 degree crosswind blowing, but my landing was uneventful. My take off was another matter. The runway is bordered by trees, and as I reached the tree tops on climb out, I did one hell of a wing over at about 100 feet. It took quite a bit of aileron to right the plane. I was caught by surprise to say the least. The wind must have picked up while I was on the ground. I believe that's the only runway I've ever used that is bordered by trees. I will be sure and think about tree turbulence in the future. Up and out and then to the west, I passed over Calistoga, a field used almost exclusively by gliders. On the way home, I watched as two gliders hugged the ridge line on some mountains to the north, back and forth they went, staying in the updraft area. With the winds blowing up the mountain face, the gliders can stay up until the pilots get tired and want to go back home. Upon landing at Cloverdale and meeting John, he told me that just a few minutes before I arrived, he had broken his finger. Since I hadn't shown up on time, he had walked over to the Russian river to look around and pass the time. While walking over rocks, he tripped and broke his finger in the fall. He asked if I would go with him to the hospital to have his finger looked at, so I tagged along. Fortunately, he only dislocated it and the side excursion took about 2 hours. John's Titan is a really nice airplane. He built it last year, but has only flown it about 1 1/2 hrs. His landings haven't been too good and he has decided that a Challenger would be a better plane for him. After leaving Cloverdale, I decided to follow the Russian river at low level and wave at all the folks out enjoying the water. Only problem was the river was bordered by trees that caused a lot of turbulence unless I dropped down below the tops and the flying was very bumpy. On the trip home I bypassed Angwin and did an hour and 26 minute flight to Davis, my longest leg yet. After that leg, I was happy to get out and stretch. Total flying time for the trip was about 4 1/3 hrs. Hope you all had as enjoyable a weekend as I did.
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