Celebrity chefs: who's cooking & when

May Newsletter Online

Photo slide shows of recent MDPA trips and events

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At our September General Membership Meeting, the MDPA Board announced their list of recommended nominees for 6 of the 8 constitutionally mandated elective board positions for 2008. At that time no one had accepted the nomination for either President or Member-at-Largte and there were no additional nominations from the floor.

Since that time, Pat Miller has accepted the nomination for President and John Levy has accepted the nomination for Member-at-Large.

Although we have a full slate of candidates at this point, nominations are still being accepted. If you would like to nominate someone as an additional candidate for any of these positions or would like to be considered for nomination yourself, please send an email to nominations@mdpa.org prior to the publication of the October newsletter or contact one of the current members of the Board of Directors directly.

As provided in the Bylaws of the Association, the annual election of officers will be held at the October meeting.

The updated list of nominees recommended by the Board is as follows:

In addition, Vince Siebern has accepted the non-elective position of Past President..

Please join us in congratulating these members on their nomination and in thanking them for their willingness to serve as our elected officers for the year 2008.

The MDPA Board of Directors

That was one heck of a wonderful trip headed up by Trip Captain "Cowboy Wild Bill" Ellis.

Three aircraft made the trip, Siebern's, Potter's and Bill's. The ranch was classified as a "Guest" Ranch since it did not do the same 100% babying like a "dude" ranch. No "dudes" in our group! In general, the Gaynor River Bend Ranch was a horse ranch that ran organized trail rides for other outfits.

Jude and I (with dog) arrived on Saturday afternoon after a fuel stop in Burns, Oregon. Weather was good all the way into Kalispell where we were picked up by my son and his family. We shared a very comfy cabin for 5 days. Bill brought his most recent girl friend (his most delightful mom) and another charming couple from Piedmont.

I had used Air Nav to get details on Kalispell GPI airport, as well as Whitefish, but really did not carefully read the info I had printed out. I got the fuel from the FBO at a premium price and then had to suck-it up when they said that they were going to charge me a hefty parking fee to-boot for the 5 days. (When leaving I told them I would barf so ultimately they did not charge me when I started making noise about talking to the management.) One way or the other they had you since GPI had no transient parking other than the one and only FBO. Bill had done his homework. He fueled at the self-serve fuel depot but he had to pay for parking at the FBO measured by aircraft weight. Bill always does his homework when it comes to money and he got his money's worth I guess because they greeted him with a red carpet and a fire truck. (For the next visit, I got it figured out. Fly direct to the little airstrip in Whitefish with less than 50% fuel and then, on departure, fly to GPI and self-serve fuel and then use the long runway for leaving with a load.) 

Jude and I "rested" for most of the visit while our hyper kids mountain biked, white water river rafting, hiked did Frisbee-golfing and covered Glacier Nat'l Park. There is plenty to do on the ranch and in the surrounding area and there is something for everybody. We did join them for the western town 4th of July parade in Kalispell and the fireworks outside our cabin door; compliments of the heir of McDonalds whose 40 minute display from her ranch equaled that of any bay area town.

Vince is a mountain bike guy so he hung out with the youngin's. Jude and Diane, along with Wild Bill, rode the horse trail. (That was the first time in almost 18 years that Jude had gotten on a horse, and she owned one for 4 years!) 

I just continued "resting," with my early evening multiple lite "Coors" and reading material.  Every once in a while I'd open my eyes and look around for bears.

The ranch meals were on a pay-as-you-go basis and were stupendous. Don and Nancy Gaynor outdid themselves with the food they put out.  All agreed this was a great trip and a four-star ranch that deserves a return visit. I would go back in a heart beat.

Jude and I returned via Idaho Falls after staying over night in the mining town of Phillipsburg where we had friends. High elevation, hot, short strip----had to leave before 0900 the next morning. We made a fuel stop in Winnamucca but since I lost my flaps inbound could only take on a partial fuel load in order to get out. At 4740' elevation, hot and no flaps it was not a comfortable take off, but the runway was 7000' long and that made all of the difference. I think I used all of it before allowing the aircraft to rotate.  

Giddyup!  John (& Jude) 

2088 nautical miles. Several hundred gallons of aviation fuel. 3 airplanes. About 25 hours of flight time each. 9 people. Hundreds of bugs. About 12 take off’s and landings for each plane. 1 aborted take off. Gallons of Margarita’s. Thousands of dollars spent. Learning to embrace the difference between an ordeal and an adventure, priceless.

This year’s trip to La Paz Mexico was a series of firsts for me. It was the first time I’ve flown outside of the United States. It was the first time I flew so many hours in one stretch. It was the first time I landed at dirt strip. And it was the first time I went on an MDPA trip. What an amazing experience!

The first leg from KCCR (Concord) to KIPL (Imperial) was pretty routine except it was the first time I shared airspace with Unmanned Aerial Vehicles. While getting flight following from Palmdale I heard the controllers talking to UAV pilots (probably in Nevada somewhere) and getting direction from them. It was interesting to hear, “UAV 4 traffic ahead is a Cessna 172, suggest an immediate right turn to 270 degrees”.

The next day was reserved for shopping for souvenirs and more ways to spend our money. Which we did a pretty good job of. Byron and Sarah took the local bus to Playa Tecolate, the best beach in the area and had a great time. The rest of us just looked for ways to spend money.

By Monday it was time to fly on to Loreto for a stay at the Hotel Oasis. Stewart, Byron, and Sarah were going to fly back to Concord since they had work schedules to contend with. We all headed to the airport, completed our ritual flight planning, and paid our user fee payments. Diane and I schlepped our baggage out to the back 40 to preflight our plane. I didn’t need any fuel since I’d filled up at Loreto on my way to La Paz and they’re only about 120 miles apart.

All was well until I went to start the plane and the prop would not turn. It was a low battery as the voltmeter only showed about 10 volts. It seems that all that static I had been hearing had been an intermittent short that was slowing draining the battery. I looked around for help. Vince had already taken off but Stewart was still over by the fueling station. I ran over there to see if he could help me. I got there just a Stewart was arguing with the attendant because they wouldn’t accept Visa or Mastercard, and he didn’t have any cash. With a panic look on his face,

Stewart asked if he could borrow some cash. I told him, I’d trade if he could help me start my plane. The “Pro” that Stewart is he was able to hand prop our plane and get it started. I had the hand held radio to use if the battery went dead. But we would be ok.

Loreto is a fabulous quaint quiet town, with a beautiful Malecon, and cobblestone streets. The shopping was great, and the Dianes ( Siebern, and Kennedy) found many places of interest.

The Landstra’s had planned a possible 4th stop on the trip in Alfonsina, a fabulous, but very primitive and rustic community. With the problems on our club 182, I choose to skip this part of the trip. Vince, Diane, Bill, and Suzie continued on to this garden spot.

Upon leaving Loreto, Vince and Bill were prepared in case I had battery problems again. I didn’t. It started right up. The trip into San Felipe is about 355 miles, which is right about the max range for this 182, with standard tanks, and a 1 hour reserve. So to insure I had enough fuel, I went to Max Economy Cruise according to the Pilot Operating Handbook (POH). We normally burned between 12 and 13 GPH. Imagine my surprise, when I checked fuel burn in San Felipe and found it to be 10GPH.

Before leaving San Felipe, I called San Diego Flight Service (who by the way had temporarily moved to Arizona and changed their phone number over the Memorial Day weekend) and changed the arrival time on my flight plan. They in turn notified US Customs of our arrival time. Once in the air I called San Diego Radio about 30 minutes out and gave them an exact arrival time. We were warned that on arrival to Calexico we were to not leave our plane. We were told the fines could be as high as $15,000. Needless to say, we didn’t get out of the plane. Two very young immigration agents, one who reminded me of Barney Fife, and the other as his faithful assistant, came out to the plane and did a quick look inside. Then they said, “let’s get out of this heat. There are restrooms and drinks inside.” The process was pretty straightforward from there. It was now about 4:30 in the afternoon, and it was about 100 degrees. We had been flying for about 5 hours and were pretty tired and hot. The thought of flying over the Tehachapi's with the late afternoon convection was more than I could bear. So Diane and I spent the night in Imperial again. The desk clerk and the manager remembered our party and us. They asked if the rest of the group was back in Concord. We ate at the same restaurant, and were equally as underwhelmed by their food. Although the waiter impressed me by remembering what each of us had ordered the last time we were all there several days earlier.

The flight home on Wednesday from Imperial was pretty routine. The battery stayed charged, and everything went fine. I saw things I’ve never experienced before on this trip. I saw a sandstorm just south of the Mexican border that stretched for miles, and extended up to 5,000 feet. I did things as a pilot that I had never done before, like hand prop’ing a plane, and landing at a dirt strip. But most of all, I found that acquaintances that I had made at MDPA meetings turned into friends that I’ll have for many years to come. That is truly the part of the story that is “priceless”!

Wednesday, Nov. 9th, dawned bright and clear for a perfect flying day. No weather was forecasted between CCR and Palm Springs. Diane took our dog Mickey to her Mom's early in the morning and we were able to get one of our two sibling cats into the carrier for a trip to the cat hotel. The second cat ended up to be impossible to capture and get into the carrier without "four wheeling" with claws out… I ended up going back to the cat hotel and bailing out the other cat so they both could be together, unsupervised at home for a few days. (It all worked out!!). We had rental car reservations at Banning Airport because there were no cars available at Palm Springs or the relieving airports. Bermuda Dunes and Thermal. The flight was tailwind friendly and after 2 hours and 12 minutes, we were at Banning. The parking was full and with a light twin, we had help in pushing LIZZY back into a tie down spot. After about 45 minutes we had our car and were underway to Palm Springs.

We had dinner that night at the Chop House in downtown Palm Springs. Absolutely the best filet with sauces that I have ever had. Weather was warm and comfortable.

The parade of planes had happened on Wednesday, so on Thursday, when we arrived at the Convention Center, all the airplanes were in place around the building. It was impressive the number of planes that were on display. The opening general session was a panel discussion about User Fees. The panel members, including Boyer, Pobrenzey, the president of GAMA and the president of the Business Aircraft Association along with a House of Representative member from the Midwest were the panel. By their explanation, User fees were initially requested by the legacy airlines to level the playing field between them and Southwest. Congress actually reversed what the airlines wanted at that time and increased taxes on the legacy carriers. Now the airlines (all) are after increasing user fees to GA to transfer 2 billion dollars of costs to GA from the airlines. Secondarily, the airlines would control the landing spots at critical airlines along with access to IFR routings. Phil Boyer promised that the joint resources of AOPA, EAA, ABAA, and GAMA would be working together to defeat user fees. It was a very interesting and powerful meeting.

Diane and I attended several seminars; the first was "Extreme Adventures – Alaska off the beaten Trail." Thomas Koff of Talkeetna Air Taxi gave an hour presentation on flying in Alaska, landing on Glaciers, traveling to watch salmon jumping waterfalls, only to land in Bears' mouths waiting at the top of the waterfall. He followed the Iditarod sled dog race and explained the small aircraft support of that race.

We attended the Opening Luncheon where several awards were presented to Newsmen who presented the pilots viewpoint of various aircraft incidents or benefits. Barry Schiff spoke as well and was both interesting and moving. I can describe Barry as the commensurate pilot with a love of life and friendships past. The rest of Thursday was spent looking at new airplanes and walking the show.

A couple of interesting things we found in order of importance were:

• Clarity Aloft Headsets. I had purchased and returned two different "in-your-ear" headsets that just didn't work for me. Diane has always complained about the headaches she gets from wearing headsets. We purchased two of the Clarity Aloft headsets with a 30 day return policy. On the flight home, they worked superbly, and provided better hearing protection than Bose sets. On a scale of 1 to 10 they are a 10.
  
• I have an inflatable door seal on the 310 and I am concerned that over the past years, the door is pulled away from the fuselage when the seal is pumped up. We found a retired engineer from Rockwell that uses space age foam to create a door seal that reduces wind noise. I have installed it and will report on its effectiveness later. The door closes really easy now compared to the inflatable seal.
• We will be installing Garmin equipment in the 310 shortly. Garmin adds so much information over my King silver crown equipment that there is no comparision.
• I was able to speak with Jeppesen and now understand how their updates to Garmin and their displays that handle Chart View work. Just fly the line!!!!
• Diane found Elephant Hair Bracelets and purchased them for out daughter and prospective daughter in law. Really neat stuff!

The Cocktail party Thursday Night was fun, set around the pool at the Windham hotel. A band played and sang great songs and we met some really neat people. One person we met was a man from Alaska who gave a recommendation on using a float company or company to land on the Glaciers. He was the chief pilot for Alaska for the Department of the Interior. He had all the ratings and had been flying Alaska for over 40 years!!!

After the party, we were had dinner at the "Blue Coyote" with former MDPA'ers including Ken and Diane Cole, Rod Powers, Jerry Burg, Paul Chelew and Shirley McKenzie. What a great reunion of old friends.

Friday morning was spent checking out Rancho Mirage for a winter retreat, and then more seminars. Diane attended the Pinch Hitter course for 4 hours which probably should have been only 2 hours. I attended Rod Machado's session which left me breathless due to uncontrolled laughter. He is a really funny man. I then attended Bruce Landsberg's "Do the Right Thing.. IFR Decision Making for Pilots". It was a very interesting visual presentation where a pilot plans and departs on an IFR flight. The winds change the weather moves in and different scenario's can be chosen by the group. It was an excellent training session. The final session was with Lori McNichol from McCall Idaho in "Flying the Idaho Backcountry: You found it now what?" Lots of videos of landing at various strips and the thought process involved in setting airspeed, attitude and the landing plan.

Friday dinner at the Palm Springs Air Museum was great. The food and drink was excellent and the surrounding aircraft and WWII displays were great. The museum also was presenting the traveling exhibition of DeVinci's engineering feats. If you get a chance to see this as it moves around the country, it is a must see!!!

Saturday Morning dawned with a high overcast. We finally were ready to depart Banning about 11:30 and had a slow flight back. 20/30 knot headwinds slowed our progress. We were able to fly VFR to Shafter VOR and then picked up a prefiled IFR to CCR. We were able to see Buchanan Field over Antioch and landed without incident.

For future reference, the advantages of going to Banning instead of Palm Springs are:

	Palm Springs	Banning
Tiedown charges (Twin):	$35.00	$3.50
Fuel (Avgas):	> $5.00	$3.88
Savings:	Paid for the rental car

And this isn't even counting the frustrations the pilots that landed at Palm Springs experienced due to high traffic.

Brian and Diane