Walking on the Moon

In my continuing effort to sharpen back up before I head off to Seattle, I tooled out to do some landings and take-offs. There aren’t that many airports that let you do touch-and-goes on the weekends, but Whiteman and El Monte do. I planned to hit them both today. I like to practice at other airports, because they’re unfamiliar enough that landings feel different from the zillion I’ve done at Santa Monica.

Image of a brushfire behind WHP (color enhanced)

The first interesting thing was that there was a smoke plume coming from out Whiteman way. The briefer hadn’t mentioned any closures or fire, so I figured I’d creep out that way and see if WHP was still open. It turns out it was, but the fire was close enough that I felt like I was in the way. They were conducting normal ops, though. I saw a banner tow pick up a banner and head out.

I did break one of my usual rules and take a picture of the smoke plume from near the coast in flight. From WHP you could see the flames.

After getting only 2 landings in at WHP, I went over to EMT for a few more. Overall these were OK, with little improvements, but I bounced the last one, so I decided to do a few more at SMO. I also aborted one takeoff on a touch-and-go because there was a big pack of birds on the runway milling about ominously.

Back at SMO the landings were decent. There was a good deal of gusty wind, which didn’t simplify anything, but still, one likes to do better. I did close out the session with a very nice short approach if I do say so myself.

Overall I’m feeling much less rusty.

We had the day off Friday, and I’d finally gotten my medical renewed (it was delayed by a combination of a loss of a flight surgeon and a lot of travel), so I decided to get up and shake some rust off.

I’d originally planned to go out to California City, a favorite desert spot, but I realized that Mojave’s tower would be open today, and the idea of adding a new airport to my list was attractive. Mojave Air and Space Port is famous for being the home of Scaled Composites, Dick Rutan’s company that built SpaceShip One and the Rutan Voyager. It’s also a facility for mothballing (and cannibalizing) airliners that aren’t in use. Importantly, there’s also a restaurant there – specifically one run by the same folks who run the restaurant at William J. Fox field (and California City).

Santa Monica was reporting a scattered layer at 800 feet, which at Santa Monica usually means that there’s a marine layer on the south end of the field, which was the case when I got there. I departed runway 3 (with a significant tailwind, but it’s a long runway by Archer standards) and had to kind of thread my way past a couple aircraft getting out. There was a combination of the layer, some close airspace, a burst of traffic, and a new controller in the tower than made it more cramped than I would have liked, but no big deal.

The actual flight out to Mojave was pretty uneventful. Fairly smooth air and little traffic. The air was clear, but not crystal.

On the way in, I heard another aircraft heading for Mojave, one calling “heavy” after its callsign. That’s an indication of not only an airliner, but a big one. Sure enough, when I got there the mothball facility was taking in a brand new Boeing (looked to me like a 767, but I’m lousy at this). I’m sure that was fun to land in a 20kt crosswind without an ILS.

Um, yeah, there was some wind. And some heat. When I got there they were reporting 12kts, with gusts to 21, and 34 degrees Celsius. As a result I landed on the narrow, short (relative standards – the runway was nearly as long as the one at SMO) runway 22. With all the gusts and the high density altitude, the landing a good challenge, but uneventful. I taxied up to the restaurant and took some pictures.

The food was good, as expected, and it was nice to be out of the hot, dry wind. As an airport restaurant, they’re required to have a bunch of airplane stuff on the wall, but the local boys do particularly well here. My menu was signed by Dick Rutan (and I suspect that most were) and there were plenty of pictures of him and his crew around. It had the vibe of supporting the airport family and was a nice one to pick up.

Getting ready to leave, it was time to address density altitude and gusts again. After leaning out for altitude, I took the longer, more convenient runway 26 for departure. The takeoff was a pretty good crosswind takeoff, but you could definitely feel the wind as you got off the ground. There was some turbulence, even at a low level, and work to do to keep everything straight and safe. It worked out well, though and I began putt-putting for home. And the putt-putting indicated that there was a pretty good headwind going back. I was seeing speeds in the low 90’s when I was indicating 110 or so, meaning 20 kts of headwind.

On the way back I got to relay a message for ATC to an aircraft that wasn’t hearing the transmitter. It’s just a little thing, but I always feel helpful doing it.

As I closed in on SMO, the field went IFR – the marine layer had walked back over the airport. While I had other choices, I figured the easiest thing to do was to get an IFR clearance. I’d gotten the weather before the controller, but he set me right up with the clearance.

The approach itself was one I’m used to being based at SMO. I wasn’t ever in the clouds, had the field in sight the whole way, but the regulations say no VFR (though special VFR was a choice). Still there are nuances. As I contacted SMO tower the same new voice from earlier was on the frequency. He asked me to report the field in sight, and I did immediately. He started to clear me for a visual approach, but I heard a familiar voice in the background say “<bzzzt> Wrong. Continue approach,” which he instructed me to do. I’m assuming that because I couldn’t go around in VFR conditions that they couldn’t issue me a visual approach clearance. And by “assuming” I mean that I’ll be looking it up…

I caught a little gust low, which made my landing less than beautiful, but it was still a good day.

On the one hand, I think this is kind of cool, but on the other I was hoping Obama would avoid these kinds of shenanigans.

Several reviews up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

Another awesome thing tweeted by Gareth.

What can one say? I love the Muppet Show.  This is really perfect, from the song selection to the off-key execution.

This is kind of sad news.  Not that I’m a huge polka fan, but it seems sad.

Will Eisner’s The Spirit #28, Uslan, DeSnato, Justiniano, Wong. I’ve been enjoying these fellows’ take on The Spirit, but this issue didn’t have the winning character interaction from the core team that’s been holding up the short run. I found the plotting a little convoluted – a lot of exposition to introduce – and the art had some gratuitously odd perspective that didn’t improve the storytelling or look convincing. Still any issue that includes the line “Ellen, they poisoned my ketchup…” has something redeeming in it.

Glamourpuss #7, Sim. Honestly, too much unfunny parody, too little meticulously rendered comics history. Definitely playing away form the series’s strength from my perspective.

Seaguy: Slaves of Mickey Eye #3, Morrison & Stewart. An ending of sorts for Seaguy. In keeping with the rest of the series, it’s not so much that Seaguy’s changed his world, but he’s definitely done what he can, and emerged different. The art’s still gorgeous and the odd world is consistent throughout. If you liked the other issues, you’ll like this one. I may be an old softie, but I thought the closing sequence was very sweet.

Secret Six #10, Simone, Scott, Hazlewood. After the last couple issues of one-shots, we’re back to a longer arc. Simone reminds us that these folks are bad guys, even with their redeeming qualities, by having them accept a job from some very bad guys. Beneath this rollicking adventure series is a very interesting look at good and evil, with very sympathetic but flawed characters asking hard questions. And it’s a smart, rollicking adventure. With art perfectly tuned to the story, and to communicating the characters internals. If you can stomach super-stuff at all, this should be on your reading list.

Capsules for The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, The Audacity of Hope, and The Kite Runner are up on Bell, Book, and Candle.

I’ve always been kind of proud of my valedictory address, but Jeffrey Rowland has shown me the error of my ways.