π
2017-08-20 01:01
in Flying, Nflying
ILike many other people, Jennifer and I went to Madras to go see the total solar eclipse, but thankfully we didn't have to drive. It was a slightly less than 4H flight thanks to a tailwind (I was afraid it would be more in a slow C172, the best plane I could get for that day since most planes were of course booked for that time.
I had planned to take off before 07:00, but my fuel order the previous day, was not filled, and I was forced to wait until the competing fuel company opened up and could fuel us up. We eventually took off a bit after 07:20. Better than nothing.
plane was pretty packed with 2 bikes and all our hiking and camping stuff
I flew by Mt Shasta on the way up:
Sadly California had multiple fires, which made visibility often bad, especially by noon or so. On the way up, it wasn't too bad though and we got to see Crater Lake which was totally smoked in later on, on most days. We had actually planned to go to crater lake, but I cancelled that part of our trip once I saw how bad the visibility was on most days:
I think that's the hike down to the ferry that goes around the lake
We eventually got to Madras, which had nice scenery:
After watching the eclipse, we flew to Klamath Falls, with its big lakes:
once on the ground, we drove to that bridge to see the lake from both sides, you can see the falls aren't that big afterall :)
big runway, hard to miss (I was asked to land long)
there is an air force training base onsite
We first landed in Klamath Falls to see Lava Beds National Park, and then on the way back, we had a look at the town.
We were supposed to fly out the day after, but when we arrived, there was a line of thunderstorms around the airport and another one around Lassen where we were going, so I opted for us to stay the night in Klamath and fly down to Lassen early the next morning just after sunrise:
got lots of pictures from Lassen on the way
and finally landed at Chester/Rogers airport, from where we had a rental car waiting, and we drove back up (1h) to Lassen
After a full day in Lassen, we flew back at sunset (20:00) and got home in Palo Alto just before 22:00, tired, but happy from all the nice sightseeing |