Finally, after two years since New Cuyama and Flabob flyins, and one engine overhaul later, I went Flamping¹ again!

CFI Michel from Aerodynamic Aviation has been organizing these fly outs and I joined upon learning of this one. Kern Valley airport L05 is a familiar campground to me, always a great destination, and a base for day trips. This campground has soft grass, trees for shade and super clean open-air showers with a view of the Kern River flood plain.

Flamping

Big Thank You to Michel for organizing, for hauling grilling supplies and for feeding us! Only a few airplanes flew from San Jose, but on Saturday lots of other new pilot friends arrived from down south, as far away as San Diego!

My little Cessna C140 doesn’t like to take off and doesn’t like to climb, but cruises at over 110mph at altitude while burning under 5.5gal/hr. With camping gear, water, food items and full tanks, it is a single person aircraft with dozens, I SAID DOZENS of pounds of remaining weight allowance!

My camping loadout includes 6-12L of water bottles under the seats, enough food for a few days, two alcohol burner stoves, mini table, chair and a stool, a comfortable lightweight tent, a cot, sleeping bag, extra blanket and changes of clothes. One comfort I always have, is a bag of freshly roasted coffee beans, hand-crank burr grinder and a foldable pour-over with filters. I’m well caffeinated!

The event Michel organized was informal; meet at the destination, camp, eat food, and folks are free to organize their own time. Some stayed in the warmth of Kern Valley and relaxed, some flew to demanding desert high density altitude landing strips and I flew up and down Owen’s Valley to Bishop.

On the way back, I stopped for ice cream at Independence, CA, and for fuel at Lone Pine Airport. The atmosphere was hot, it was churning with 14kt variable winds gusting to 22kt and there was turbulence. Now I understand why May is the end of the spring season in this area.

Back at Kern Valley, I flew a two-line kite wing for the first time - thank you Chad! This was exciting, as I want to get into Powered Para Gliders and such kites can be used to train for ground handling and muscle memory against collapses.

Sunday was easy, pack up camp in 1hr, drink my gourmet coffee, blast off into the Kern Valley, climb out, get fuel in Central Valley and beeline for RHV.

All in all, I put 10 hours on the hobbs, C140 performed very well, I defied the winds and I am already looking forward to the next flamping trip :)

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