26 | February-March 2017 | Powered Sport Flying Gyroplane Adventure Leg 10–136 mi to General Fox: This was one of the best legs of the trip. We were able to fly at 500’ agl pretty much the whole way, enjoying the varied scenery after the starkness of the desert. We passed little towns and areas of Joshua trees, and were aware of the buildup of the LA basin south in the distance. We also flew over the landing strip used by Chapter 1 of the Popular Rotorcraft Association. It’s a private strip so we didn’t land, but we circled and waved at someone we could see on the ground. General Fox was a class Delta and we had a very enjoyable lunch there. Dayton had warned me that trying to get anywhere quickly in a gyro was not really straightforward, as people always want to stop you and chat, and we had already experienced quite a bit of that. But this particular airport had a great diner in full view of where we got out of the gyro and we were there for ages, with people coming over to chat and ask questions, or just tell us their own experiences. It was very friendly and warm and meant we stayed a lot longer than we’d intended. Leg 11–150 mi to Paso Robles: Taking off and heading for the next range of mountains, we knew that beyond them was the California Central Valley. We climbed past wind farms, which complemented the solar arrays we could still see in the area–obviously a very ‘green’ state, California. Dayton took over from the back seat and flew us to 8,000 feet to clear the last big range of mountains we’d need to cross. We could see the cultivated crop fields, looking somewhat unnatural after all the hues of brown we’d been looking at. Heading up the Central Valley, we were suddenly over an extraordinarily dense array of oil derricks, busily pumping away. Strangely, this was a much higher concentration of them than anything we’d seen in Texas. (Oh well, California’s not just green then.) Paso Robles was busy, with lots of planes landing there. We refueled and got straight back in the air for the last leg. Leg 12–111mi to San Martin: Okay, I confess, I slowed down on the last leg. It had been a long trip with many hours in the air, but I really didn’t want it to end. We were flying low and enjoying the scenery when I suddenly heard a call sign I recognized. We were tuned to a local airport on the way to our destination and were just monitoring it for traffic awareness, but I knew that call sign. And indeed that voice. It was my friend Robert, a fellow Brit also living in California, who had introduced me to flying in the first place, many years ago. We quickly made a (somewhat unnecessary) radio call announcing our location so that he would hear it, and he requested that the tower “pass a message to us,” which allowed him to suggest a frequency change and talk directly to us. Well, after that, we had to meet up for some air-to-air photography. Robert had a good camera with him, and more importantly, another pilot who could fly the Cessna 182 they were in. I flew straight and level while his friend Tom slowed the Cessna and maneuvered to be close enough for Robert to take some great photos. We then both flew on to San Martin and I landed and took the gyro to its new hangar, which we’d rented a few days previously. It was a wonderful feeling to be safe on the ground, knowing we had made it and with the gyro now in its new home, and we got a great welcome from Robert, Tom and my fellow new owner, Jim.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUwNDI3MA==