From: Tony Texeira tonytex@cox.net
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What a great flight we had to California City on Dec 17th. Would you believe we had SEVEN PLANES AND SIXTEEN PEOPLE.
From Montgomery there was: a C-172 with Tony & Jim; another C-172 with Mike & Hillary; another C-172 with Andy & George; a Beech Musketeer with Oge, Kevin & Colleen; a C-172RG with Chris, Bill, Jeanette & Juan; an RV4 with Dennis; and from Brown Field a C-140 with Dave & MaryBeth. The latter two came in from camping at Death Valley to meet us. Yea, it was a mis-mash of different planes, but we had a ball.
It was a beautiful, spectacular, severe clear day and smooth all the way to California City. There was only a little minor chop over the mountains. From above Riverside we were treated to an unusual view. We could see all the way to the city of Los Angeles, it was really CLEAR.
The trip from San Diego to California City should have taken an hour and a half. However, Mother Nature's headwinds made it a TWO HOUR trip. And it was fun finding each other in the air, and then when we did, wondering how close the other guy was going to come in formation.
The airport restuarant food was average, but with sixteen of us doing lots of "hangar flying", who cared about the food. It was probably the biggest crowd they had at one time in many years.
Just before departing, we helped each other pull the planes over to the fuel pumps to top off and then paraded single file for take off.
We did "sort of" a six plane single file formation takeoff. Mike got a clearance and lead us like a gaggle of stray geese through R-2515 restricted area and over Edwards Air Force Base and we eye-balled some exotic aircraft on the ground. Our formations ranged from 200-300 feet apart, to a mile or two, and sometimes to "Where the hell are you".
On the return trip we had tailwinds and it took us less than an hour and a half. About 30 miles north of San Diego, we all scattered and each went our own way to Montgomery and Brown. A good time was had by all.
Go to the excellent website (cyberthought.com/tonytex) that Chris Claborne set up so you can put some faces and planes to the above names.
OKAY... NEXT BRUNCH FLY-IN... JANUARY 14. Mark your calendar and schedule a plane NOW.
There was a suggestion to go to Blythe (BLH). It's 98 miles on the JLI (Julian) VOR 060 radial. And another to Bullhead City. Do you have any ideas? Shoot me an email for alternates or any info you may have on these airports.
Oge was the one that suggested Blythe because he said there's a good "truck drivers" restaurant there. Oge, what does that mean and where did you say it was located? On the field or "down the road a ways"?
Anyway, we got a date nailed down... now for the airport. Let's hear some more suggestions. When we get three or more suggesting an airport, that's where we'll go.
Best of clear skies and tailwinds,
TONY TEX Home: 619-697-4858 Cell: 619-997-4858
