Flying to Harris Ranch

This was my first fly-in event with the Airventurers flying club, and a great burger and steak run. There were high winds forecast for the mountain and passes areas of LA County this morning, but no AIRMET Tangos (turbulence for light aircraft) were issued.   Turns out the ride was just some occasional light turbulence over the mountains then smooth as glass over the entire San Joaquin valley.  We flew over the grapevine northbound and crossed the (GMN) VOR at 8,500', (then 7500' for the return trip).   When on flight following LA Center handles this area on 125.8 Mhz. Bakersfield Approach handled us on 118.8, followed by 118.9 Mhz through the San Joaquin Valley.   Leemore Approach then followed us the rest of the way to Harris Ranch on 118.5 Mhz.   The Leemore NAS ATIS didn't have any weather info, so I used the New Coalinga (C80) AWOS.   There is no AWOS and no taxiway at Harris Ranch.  We flew on the upwind and crossed overhead to the downwind for runway 32.  Despite the runway being only 30' feet wide, it was no problem in the C172.  Harris Ranch is bigger than I thought it was, huge restaurant, gift shop with steaks for sale, and a beautiful hotel and pool.  Fantastic burgers here, and the beef jerky is to die for.  I brought home some steaks too, they vacuum seal them and pack them on a sealed block of ice for you so it will travel up to 8 hours.  Brian got some great pics and videos.




HARRIS RANCH GEOFEED HERE

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Flying to Taft-Kern County Airport

Jumpers in the air!  I did some cross-country training in the C182, so we did a flight to Taft.  Bakersfield approach was announcing jumpers in the air over Taft on 118.8 Mhz.   Taft has a strange runway setup.  It has a very noticeable 2.2% grade, so we landed going uphill and departed going downhill.  Runway 7 has an "x" on it and is used for takeoffs only.   Runway 25 is for landings.  The drop zone is right in the middle of the airport, so be careful flying overhead.  The folks on the CTAF gave us some wind info and let us know when the jumpers were on the ground.  When flying the 182 in cruise flight we got to pull back on the prop pitch to get some better gas mileage.  The hardest thing to remember:cowl flaps!  Close the cowl flaps when you level off at your cruise altitude, get in the habit of that.   Getting out the checklist alot with this airplane will definitely help, as there's a little more stuff to check compared to the 172.