Here's Allen. He keeps his plane in Petaluma. So we left work early and headed down the 101.
We talked about it for months. Then, on the day after my birthday, my old friend Allen took me up in his Cesna 151. It was unbelievable. I have been up in small planes before, but not one this small, and not one piloted by a friend who has only been flying for a couple of years. I am normally creeped out by heights, but this was very cool.
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Here's Allen. He keeps his plane in Petaluma. So we left work early and headed down the 101. |
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Allen walking the plane into position on the runway. Amazing how light it is. He showed me all of the things he was inspecting, which left me feeling like he really did know what he was doing. |
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In no time we were flying, heading for Clear Lake. This is the old Agilent site in Rohnert Park. I worked closely with Allen here for many years. Now it belongs to Codding. |
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Up into Santa Rosa, here is Lake Ralphine in front and Spring Lake in the background. |
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Mt. St. Helena. There was a little turbulence around here. Kinda creepy! |
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The Geysers off to the left. |
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Clear lake in the distance, looking through the prop. |
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Konocti in the foreground. |
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The Narrows. Chelsea and I have done a lot of sailing in this area. Very warm, windy, and beautiful! We landed at Jebsum airport just outside of Lakeport. Had a wonderful meal at the restaurant there, then took off for home. |
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Getting up altitude before crossing the mountains, this strange patch of squishy green hills. |
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We went straight west out of Clear lake, over the mountains and into Cloverdale. This is the northern part of Lake Sonoma, Yorti Creek in the foreground middle. |
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Flying south, this is Warm Springs dam (left) and the Lake Sonoma marina. |
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Allen wanted to stop in Healdsburg to fill up. The gas is 50 cents/gal. cheaper ($3.50) here than in Petaluma. |
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Filling up both tanks, one in each wing. Took about 10 gallons. (5 gal/hour). No one was there - no tower - nothing. We took off and headed for Petaluma. We were flying at night over Sebastopol. Beautiful, but too dark for pictures. It was a GREAT DAY! Thanks Allen! |
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Here area a couple of short movie clips.
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