The Ultralight Trike Odyssey, Top to Bottom
Day Four – An Emergency landing, a run in with the cops, and high altitude fatigue.
It started with blue sky, and the hope of good food and better weather ahead. We were at the most southern part of our odyssey, time to head north, back towards Lake Tahoe. This was one of our longest flights planned so far, over two mountain ranges, to Mammoth California Airport.
As we set up the wings from our gust front experience at the ending day 3, a north head wind started building.
It appeared that a small cold front had come through the night before resulting in the gust front last night, and the typical north wind of the colder air mass was what we were seeing.
When we took off, the headwind had built up to 15 MPH. Beatty, Nevada was not going to let us get out of there easily. We decided to not take the students on this leg so we could launch as soon as possible and be more fuel efficient in the headwind.
Just as we left the town of Beatty, we noticed on our GPS that we had no headwind. Magically, the air turned calm as we headed up highway 95, next to area 51, the most sacred of the Nevada restricted airspace.
Armin radioed and said that we wanted to land because of his water temperature reading. We agreed that this was a flight safety issue to land. Not a sole in sight except our squadron of trikes for the last 15 minutes on that long lonesome highway 95. The highway looked like the best place to land. We picked a spot where we could pull off and landed to check out Armin’s engine situation. It was dead calm making it easy to land on the road. Almost immediately, traffic clogged the highway and a Nevada State Trooper stopped.
We immediately appointed Armon to explain HIS emergency situation to the officer and not to come back until he had arranged for us to take of on the highway. He pleaded to the officer that the situation had been resolved and we needed to take off on the highway and get out of his hair. The officer reluctantly agreed, blocked traffic, and we took off on the highway.
We continued to Lida Junction airport. This is a dirt strip specifically for the “Kit Cat Ranch” house. These dedicated landing strips are typical in Nevada and are handy for ultralights. We refueled, loaded the students, and started our long journey over the 2 mountain passes. This was one of our longest legs ever. We would check our fuel in Bishop and only stop if we needed to for gas. I had calculated that we could make it to mammoth as long as we did not hit any headwind. The plan was to climb to 12,000 feet and maintain altitude to make it over the mountain ranges and not be climbing and descending which would use more fuel.
As we climbed out of Lida junction, it was high noon and the thermals helped us climb. We did not circle in the thermals and loose time, but we did slow down in the updrafts and speeded through the down drafts to be most efficient. Once we got to 12,000 feet, we were above the tops of the thermals and the air was smooth and cold. There was not much moisture in the air, so there were no clouds. With the unstable air below and the thermals stopping around 11,500 feet, there must have been an inversion layer stopping the thermals and providing a smooth ride above the turbulance.
Over Bishop California, we decided to continue to Mammoth because our fuel looked good and we could start a gradual descent once we exited the Owens Valley.
Flying into Mammoth the air got warm and bumpy as we descended into the unstable air at the hottest part of the day. Mammoth airport is at 7128 feet and at 90 degrees F the density altitude was over 10,000 feet. Strong bumps, high density altitude, and loaded with 2 people, we were happy to safely touch our wheels on the ground.
Upon landing, smartly dressed gentleman greeted us in golf carts and escorted us to the tie downs right next to the restaurant. We tied down, ordered a sandwich, and laid on the grass in the shade and waited for our chase crew so we could hit the world famous hot springs.
We had arrived in paradise.
Go to Day Five – Yosemite National Park and the Mono Lake mirror
Pictures
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Taxing out of the Beatty Airport. |
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Leaving the town of Beatty, Nevada. |
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Everyone getting into flying formation in the calm air after leaving Beatty, Nevada. |
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Looking out at the long highway 95. Area 51, restricted airspace is only about a mile from the road to the right. |
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Assessing the landing and turn out by the road. |
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Landing on the road. |
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Armin negotiating with the State Trooper to keep us out of jail and allow us to take off on the highway. |
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Everyone lining up at the Lida Junction dirt strip after loading up with students and fuel. |
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Maintaining 12,000 feet altitude in between the 2 mountain ranges we had to cross. |
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Looking over the last mountain range towards Bishop California. You can see the high Sierras in the background on the other side of the Owens Valley. |
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Landing at the Mammoth Airport with over 10,000 density altitude. |
