Colombia to California: Alejandro and I had enjoyed some time in Valencia, along the beaches and dining out - great kids you have there AIr, and tell Mildred "Thanks" for cooking. Of course, one cannot hang out with "The Collector" without learning of new things out there, and we had just recently discovered that the Starbucks Coffee@ A-330 would be flying from Bogota to San Bernardino. Problem one was that I wasn't in Bogota ... Problem two was that San Bernardino was nearly 100 miles from Santa Barbara But I didn't care, this was a plane I wanted to fly! So I got back into the Goodhew Ambulance Metroliner and returned to Bogota where I caught the morning flight aboard The Coffee Cargo Airbus - "Delivering the world's coffee to the world." (See the "Coffee" video on: http://www.putfile.com/pretendpilot
Channel Islands FOTM: Once I had arrived safely into San Bernardino International (Formerly Norton AFB), I looked for appropriate wings to take me to Santa Barbara via Christy Strip. I quickly settled on the California Department of Forestry OV-10 Bronco - maybe a little bigger than I needed but "Oh Well..." Just a stones throw from KSBD is the incorporated city of Loma Linda, home of Loma Linda University where I received my professional training. Prior to that, as most of you probably know, I was a Firefighter/EMT in Riverside County which is also nearby. RCoFD shares service with CDF so this CDF repaint is, obviously, close to my heart.
Speaking of the California Department of Forestry, I found some videos on youtube:
Some Base Camp Operations:
Caught in a Burnover:
Great Footage:
Wildland Firefighting:
The CDF OV-10 Bronco Taxiing:
I decided to try flying VFR along the famous California freeway system: Ontario/Pomona, Burbank/Glendale, North Hollywood/Van Nuys, Calabasas, Thousand Oaks, over Camarillo and Oxnard and out over the Pacific to the Channel Islands. I lost the freeway somewhere after Pomona however so had to dial up the Van Nuys VOR for accuracy. After ducking through the hills, skirting Burbank and over-flying Van Nuys I turned to 250* and quickly picked up the 101 feeway again. 
I took a quick turn over my old High School before heading south toward "Old Boney Mountain Park" a 3,100-foot hill between here and Malibu. Once I could see Pt Mugu NAS off to my right I headed through a saddle in the hills, over Oxnard and across the Channel. After touring the islands (which I've also toured by boat, in the real world), I headed north into Santa Barbara.
I took a quick turn over my old High School before heading south toward "Old Boney Mountain Park" a 3,100-foot hill between here and Malibu. Once I could see Pt Mugu NAS off to my right I headed through a saddle in the hills, over Oxnard and across the Channel. After touring the islands (which I've also toured by boat, in the real world), I headed north into Santa Barbara. 
Santa B to Boeing Field: There are CRJ-700 flights between Santa Barbara and Portland (I think) but instead, I took an old DC-9 up to Seattle's Boeing Field.
The Mount Rainier FOTM: The next morning was cloudy and rainy as I transferred into the Flight Club's GA-8 Airvan for the flight to and around Mt. Rainier. Once through the clouds I had a very scenic flight - though it was a bit longer than planned and my Starbucks Coffee started nagging on the bladder. As you can see in the bottom photo, Mt St Helens looked so close and inviting .... but I HAD to stop soon. So went ahead and dived into Packwood ~ FUN!!!
Once relieved, I headed off, over and around Mt. St Helens before landing in Portland where I spent the night at home.
Once relieved, I headed off, over and around Mt. St Helens before landing in Portland where I spent the night at home.Portland to Deadhorse, AK: Early, very early the next morning I took the Bob's Red Mill 727 out from the Cargo area of PDX and set out on the 1,600-mile + flight to Deadhorse Alaska in anticipation of the final leg of this FOTM. Weather was generally nice, the flight went off without a hitch. I was treated to a nice Aurora light show and I landed long but safely in the low light and driving snow.
The brutal northern part of this FOTM: The next "morning" (if you can call it that) I fired up an oddly camoflauged DeHavilland Caribou for the flight to Fort Yukon. (He did say we were taking wounded soldiers didn't he?) The weather had called for some building storms from the southeast so I took extra coats and blankets at set out about 9:30 AM. I had to climb to 7,000 feet to eventually cross the mountain range but this seemed to pass quickly enough and I dropped back down to just 4,000 feet. The building storms never materialized but it was really windy. I kept getting an OVERSPEED alarm at anything over 200 knots IAS but my ground-speed was just 175! About 90 minutes later I was approaching Fort Yukon ... and wouldn't you know it, the wind was blasting directly ACROSS the runway. At first I was wishing that I had set up a video but as I discovered that this beast doesn't really land at anything over 70 knots I was glad to not have video of me going missed. The second time around I had in less flap, a flatter approach, and I still used up half of the gravel trying to get the thing to settle and stay down.
Finally I was able to taxi over to the buildings and park-up, concluding another fun, scenic and educational FOTM(s).
Thank you so much to all three of our hosts this month for sharing your flights with the rest of us!
Cub Flounder
pretendpilot@yahoo.com
