Pilot's Blog

I spent 14 hours in the pilot's seat over three days. After that my back was in a knot. I don't know how the long haul truck drivers do it.

Last week I did a run to Fresno and had the day to kill while there. My Iphone has been giving me trouble and I learned that Fresno had an Apple Store, so I set out on my folding bike to find the mall. Along the way I got a good look at downtown Fresno. What a sad state of affairs. It looked as if there had been a heyday perhaps in the 30s and 40s, but today there are these impressive old buildings and wide streets with no people around to occupy them. I was, however, impressed by the hospital I saw near the downtown. The mall was impressive as well compared to anything in the North State.

I also made two round trips to San Diego area, one to pick up my sister's family to bring them to Chico for my parent's 50th anniversary party. We had a great time at Canyon Oaks while parts of Paradise burned. I will blog a bit more about my parents later.

On Sunday I will fly out to Moab, Utah for a mountain biking expedition in the San Juan Mountains. I will blog about that upon my return.

Posted by Tom Knowles at 09:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

The family and I were out on the coast last week. I invited a friend of mine and his family to fly out for an afternoon and have lunch (He is a fellow pilot and owns a Cirrus SR20). The weather on the coast was beautiful so I figured it wouldn't be a problem. Later that afternoon, he called to tell me they had tried to fly out but had been forced to turn back because of the thunder heads over the mountains. He said he had climbed to 13,000 feet and the clouds were building faster than he was climbing. This condition lasted for several days over the mountains, so when we loaded up to go back to the valley the next afternoon, I was unsure of what we would find over the high country. Once at altitude and heading east, sure enough there they were. A line of tall cumulus clouds were right in our path. The clouds looked quite a bit lower to the south down towards Clear Lake, so I altered my course and started climbing. With my wife in her "condition" (she is 8 months pregnant), I wanted to stay as low as possible to avoid any negative effects of reduced air pressure. As it was, I climbed as high as 12,000 feet to get over the top. She was not amused as her tummy swelled. Once over the top I descended down to a more comfortable altitude and we were glad to be almost home.

Posted by Tom Knowles at 09:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)