Oct 12 2011

Day 13… The last leg

After a wonderful night at Tim and Karen’s house, it was time to say good bye to my new friends.

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I really like the way their house is decorated. Rich colors, lots of unique art, simple and uncluttered.

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Tim took me for a quick drive around Tehachipi where I spotted another mural on the side of a building. What a cool little town. Every one seems to be into aviation around here due to all the aerospace companies which help support the town.

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My next stop was to see Klaus in Santa Paula to exchange his loaner electronic ignition for the repaired one. Tim mentioned the local bakery was excellent so I thought I would pick up a peace offering to give to the great Klaus to keep him from beating me up too bad when I saw him for burning up his boxes. They had some german specialties which I though would be good.

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Tehachapi is an excellent location for wind generation and there were thousands of them on the hill sides. What an great way to generate electricity. These pictures show only a small fraction of what covered the hill sides.

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One of the things I really love with the GTR EFIS is the traffic/weather display (from the ADS-B receiver) and the synthetic vision (shows computer generated terrain). This unit has so many cool features I HAVE to install one in my plane…I am addicted to the situation awareness I get from it. Flying around the west coast is vastly different from the east coast. There are mountains, hills, valleys everywhere. A bit unnerving at times. I really found the synthetic vision helpful when flying up a valley to get to the Tehachapi airport. I am so used to flat country having the extra information from the GRT in the cockpit is very helpful.

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After a short 20 minute flight, I arrived in Santa Paula. It is a small airport in a tight valley with a very short strip, sort of unusual as there are no real taxi ways. Just a big wide strip of asphalt with painted lines which separates the runway area from the taxi /parking area. This airport is tight and small.

Klaus met me at his hangar/workshop. I really like this picture as it looks like he just had a beer in the mug and is quite happy (maybe it was the apple strudel I brought). Actually the mug is the one he kindly served me water in. We had a great time chatting about Germany and flying. What a cool guy and we had a lot in common with our love of vinyl records, home built speakers and planes. After showing me his work shop and demonstrating his ignitions to me on the test stand, I am definitely buying them for my I0-540 which will go into my Cozy 4 Ultimate.

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After quickly replacing his loaner ignition Klaus offered to fly with me in the new LongEZ he is refining. The plane weighs in at 900 lbs with a 0-360 in it with his custom electronic fuel injection. Talk about fast!!!! When we took off (he was first) and I couldn’t believe how quick it was. As fast as this bird is, he just disappeared like he engaged a warp drive. A little while later, he appeared next to me for some photo shots.

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Klaus pulled it in so close to my wing, I though we would touch. He is certainly an excellent formation flier. After a few minutes of flying off the coast, Kluas bid goodbye, throttled up, and just pulled away from me in a climb. I was doing 160 kts and left me like I would flying next to a 150 Cessna. Wow…. I am impressed!

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Another quick flight to Whiteman airport to meet up with Steven Crouch to chat awhile. It was funny, the Santa Anna winds were blowing and it was over 100 degrees (with no humidity). I had no idea it was so hot, as I had no sweat on me (evaporating) and it just felt dry. These locals don’t know real South Carolina heat with all the humidity thrown in.

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After leaving Whiteman, it was a another quick flight to Fullerton (KFUL) for to bring the plane home. Pat showed up after work to take his first quick look at it and off we went to get the rental car as it was getting dark.

I am finally here….