West Coast Mooney 2016 Get Together

[xrs135]

To add to the chaos... Skydive Monterey operates out of Watsonville. You can be sure they will be jumping ALL DAY with this break in the weather!

 

Edited January 8, 2016 by xrs135

[flight2000]

I'm back in.  Got word this morning that they will finish up the repairs this afternoon and I'll get the keys back.  Yea..... 

Still +2 for me. 

Cheers,

Brian

[Immelman]

I have been based at WVI for 8 yrs. The weekends can get pretty crazy. But throw in any "not perfect sunny-sky VFR", any time mid-week, or early/late (say, before 10/after 4 on the weekends) and it is a great, sleepy air field with a reasonable pattern. I went up yesterday, and enjoyed getting the airplane in a bit of rain, some great circular rainbows, and some sun.... great VFR, no one in the pattern.

I will be honest.... I avoid those peak pattern times for my local joy-ride type flights. Working at an airline now I am off mid-week plenty so its not so much of a concern to me personally. But there are times, during the weekend, where the pattern is just nuts. My advice if you show up at a peak time: take a scenic detour for 5-10 minutes and it will usually sort itself out.

Also beware of the "lemming" effect of 20 being the preferred calm wind runway. Nothing like seeing people depart into a fog bank (which claimed a new private pilot and his family in their Mooney) when 3 other runway choices are available, or operate with a tailwind... seen it happen too many times. Make good PIC decisions with runway selection, even if that means bucking the herd. The herd will follow.

If the skydivers are jumping their drop zone is on the left base to runway 9, 1.5 mi NE of the field. Their 182 often enters downwind from above.

Edited January 8, 2016 by Immelman

[brad]

KMEV was 100 1/4 til 1000 this AM.  32V maybe a little late.

[Larry]

I have to cancel.  Maybe next time.

[FlyDave]

Quick update:

Fuel: They will have 2 fuel trucks running on Sunday for us. If you plan to get fuel there please request it from the truck right after you park. We may have as many as 37 planes and if everyone lines up at the fuel island before departure some may not get out until 8 PM .

Restaurant: The fuelers should be distributing business cards for Ella's to people that purchase fuel. Per the airport manager this will get you a 10% discount on the pilot's meal only. When I talked to the lady at Ella's this afternoon she kinda sorta said if multiple meals are on one ticket they'll probably give the 10% on the entire ticket. My take is I'm not worried about 10% off on food ($1.50 each?) as they are working with us on the ramp and in the restaurant. Just my $0.02 (or $1.50, depending on how you look at it).

The weather looks VFR over most of CA on Sunday. Right now NOAA is showing mostly sunny and 57 dF for Watsonville on Sunday - doesn't get much nicer than that on a winter Sunday afternoon!

See 'ya Sunday,

Dave

[bonal]

Boy sure is looking good, I will be carrying round trip fuel so won't add to the confusion and don't care about the 10% just thinking about ramp parking. I've only been to Watsoville once is the transient parking in front of the restaurant my approach will be from south county north east of Watsoville will cancel flight following there and get on the CTAF but will monitor on com 2 I'm planning on being fashionabley late so most should be already parked. When last there it was for their air show and things were real crazy that day but they had a temp CT and they did a great job of controlling all the traffic. Good advise on the jumpers I hear those guys all the time since they are on the same freq as home. 

[Immelman]

If transient fills up, there are plenty of vacant permanent tie down spots out on the ramp.

[MB65E]

Thanks for the local tribal knowledge guys. I cleared work, now to clear Wx. Launching out of Mojave sat night overnight at e16 then to Watsonville in the morning. 

Should be fun putting names to faces!

Be safe everyone. I think we'll pull it off better than any other pilot group.

-Matt

 

[FlyDave]

 

Boy sure is looking good, I will be carrying round trip fuel so won't add to the confusion and don't care about the 10% just thinking about ramp parking. I've only been to Watsoville once is the transient parking in front of the restaurant my approach will be from south county north east of Watsoville will cancel flight following there and get on the CTAF but will monitor on com 2 I'm planning on being fashionabley late so most should be already parked. When last there it was for their air show and things were real crazy that day but they had a temp CT and they did a great job of controlling all the traffic. Good advise on the jumpers I hear those guys all the time since they are on the same freq as home. 

Airport management told me they have arranged parking for the 37+ airplanes between transient in front of the restaurant and the adjacent jet parking. Airport operations will be marshaling us to parking. KWVI is "an overflow airport for the Superbowl" and will be using us to work out the kinks for their "Really Big Shew" around 2/7.

[Tankinbarber]

Hey guys did this ever happen? Im out of Las Vegas and would love to join.

[MB65E]

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday. Jan 10 2016!!

-Matt 

[Tankinbarber]

Shoot!!! Ok! My baby is in for annual but it might be ready by sunday. Let me check. I will let you guys know if i can make it. 

[Perilous]

Too bad we can't coordinate this on-line today so that we split up the traffic coming into Watsonville tomorrow.

We could divide the group into 4 time frames so that we all don't come in at the same time. Anyone interested in trying this today, say before a 5pm deadline?

I'm totally flexible about when to arrive between 8am and 12 noon. Shouldn't be too hard to coordinate 30 planes into 4 hour slots...just to get an approximate idea.

Newbee to the post, but just givin' it a try for safety....

Perilous    

[bonal]

I was thinking that would be a good idea to at least indicate your intended ETA and you anticipated approach heading. The problem that I expect is departure weather at home and I won't know that till morning. Right now even you IFR guys would be pressed to get out of my home base. Cloud base is on the ground and less than 1/4 vis. Forecast is for much improvement for tomorrow but heavy ground fog is common here with this type of weather pattern. If it means arriving late I still plan on attending eating lunch is nothing compared to meeting Mooney folks and their airplanes 

[wishboneash]

Seems like today's storm system is pushing out late and another one moving mid afternoon Sunday. I may have to file IFR to get out of LVK and figure out best time to leave. Hopefully between 0900 and 1000. This is going to get interesting. Appears to be 70% cloud cover most of tomorrow and am guessing the bases will be 2500 or so given temp/dewpoint.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[M016576]

Well.. A big snow storm here in K-Falls today and freezing fog likely tomorrow-. It's not looking like I'll be able to make it.  But we'll see!

[MHemperly]

I'm not going to be able to make it. Trip is too long for me with how questionable the weather is. Take lots of pics and have fun! I'll be at the next one! 

 

Mike

[Bennett]

I'll be there even if I decide to drive. I'll decide in the morning. I'm looking forward to matching up MS names with real people. The forecast for San Carlos is worse than for Watsonville.

[Immelman]

I took the plane up this evening after filling with the cheap fuel.. hardly anyone out, a broken cloud deck above but great viz and good VFR. I guess its all your comfort level.. the TAFs look OK to me but that is just my own judgement. Then again, I am comfortable flying around all day at 1000 AGL... I get enough 'flight level' business at work.

KSJC 092320Z
  FM101500 16005KT P6SM BKN025
  FM102000 13004KT P6SM OVC050

KMRY 092320Z
  FM101500 10003KT P6SM BKN025
  FM102000 30004KT P6SM BKN030

KSNS 092320Z
  FM101500 12008KT P6SM BKN025
  FM102200 20006KT P6SM BKN030

Edited January 10, 2016 by Immelman

[mooneygirl]

I am going to check the weather in the morning.  Not looking too great coming out of Santa Maria, but it would be fun to see everyone.  Today was crappy weather all day!

[DaV8or]

I will check the WX early tomorrow, but if it's like today, it's a big maybe. I am just VFR these days. There was a short part of today that looked OK and people were flying, but it didn't last long. Scud running the mountains between Byron and Watsonville is not why I bought a plane. I do want to go though...

[bonal]

Waiting for first light to see the sky. All the fields close to home are low IFR, IFR or marginal. We finally get a real good west coast get together and it comes when the much needed wet winter arrives. last three years you could fly all season long. Even though I'm thankful for the rain.

[Perilous]

Doesn't look like I can make it out of my Sierra foothills home here at E45. Ceiling is 4000 with a steady cloud forecast throughout the rest of the day.

I'm VFR and need to climb above the cloud base in order to cross the 4500' peaks. Then, I'll have to find a clearing for descent into Watsonville... "Been there, done that" and it's not worth taking the chance.

Count "Perilous" out, unless the WX changes....

But I'll certainly be looking forward to the next meeting.

A big thanks to all my good fellow Mooney comrades.      

[stevesm20b]

Does not look like the weather is going to cooperate for me for this trip. Even if I filed IFR the mountains are obscured by clouds and freezing level below mountain top level, and the weather is forecast to get worse as the day progresses. So, even if I could fly there, the trip back would be even less likely.