No Way to Get Through the Pass

When we entered the Bow River Valley east of Banff, the fog was gone and the visibility was excellent. Flying past the mountains, many over 10,000 feet high, the views were incredibly beautiful. Jan nevertheless complained that my wing tips were only a foot from the steep mountain slopes, which was exaggerated of course.

When we approached Golden, I noticed that the air above Rogers Pass was black with rain or snow. I inquired over the radio and was told the visibility was near zero in that area. I kiddingly told Jan that my wing span was too big to fly through the railroad tunnel there, so we had to make an instant change in flight direction. I had not made any plans for that and was temporarily at a loss what to do now....

World War II over Bellingham? When we arrived over the Bellingham airport the sky was full of World War II aircraft There were a B-17, some Mustangs, P-38s, and I was right in the middle of them. These guys at the Bellingham airport could have told me to divert to another airport. Finally after much circling I was able to squeeze in and land. A customs officer drove right out to the plane and told me to get the hell out of there as fast as possible, because mock aerial fights were going to take place with low level flybys of the various fighter aircraft. It had escaped us that it was the 4th of July....

My Guardian Angel Had a Busy Day

I am not superstitious but sometimes I wonder about psychic phenomena that seem to have strange connections with reality. A month after my mother's death, on Mother's Day, I had taken off for a flight to Oceano with Jan in the copilot seat and Joe with Ludmilla in the back seat of the Cessna. I had never flown my airplane with four people on board. I was surprised at how sluggish we climbed up to the Gaviota VOR....

The VOR had a prohibited area surrounding it, because President Reagan's ranch was right next to it. When I reached the vicinity of the VOR I leveled the plane off at 5,000 ft. and leaned the fuel mixture. All of a sudden the engine started an unnerving racket, vibrating like crazy while backfiring.

I was desperately trying to manipulate engine controls to calm the engine down, and assessing my options if I didn't succeed. I could glide down to the Santa Ynez airport, but it was still fogged in. Landing on Reagan's ranch was another possibility, but I could see the headlines:"Russian spy crashing on President Reagan's ranch." Just what I needed. I could land on a private ranch with a paved runway near Lake Cachuma....

With a sputtering engine I was able to taxi to the terminal. After getting out of the plane we kissed the ground and walked over to the airport restaurant to have a Mother's Day champagne brunch.