Some new and exciting things are on their way to WVFC.

First, let's take a look at HWD. The Hayward branch has been open since May 12. Since then, we have begun flying aircraft and signing up new members there. The facility is divided into two parts. Downstairs is a front office and dispatch area, with a weather computer, copier, vending machines, coffee, and hopefully soon a small couch to facilitate those hangar flying debates. (Anyone who would like to donate a love seat in nice condition, please let Joel know - jharris@wvfc.org.) Upstairs we have a flight planning room and a large classroom with several whiteboard stations. Eventually, we will have Safety Seminars, Ground Schools, and B&B Fridays set up, just like we do at the other member facilities. The address is 21015 Skywest Drive, which is directly across from Home Depot. Please look for the Open House on Saturday, June 26, from 10am to 4pm. There will be soda, hot dogs, and giveaways, so please stop by! If you have friends who live in the East Bay and have been looking for a great place to fly, now is the time.

The next big set of questions have been around the Stearman. To bring everyone up to speed, WVFC now has a 1945 PT-18 on line. Many have asked… What are the requirements? Will I be able to rent the aircraft? And we will see it open on the schedule? Well, one thing is certain - there are not many instructional books written on this aircraft. As a result, I am working closely with the owner and other individuals who have time in the aircraft to establish the best practices, training regime, and checkout requirements for the aircraft. This is a time-consuming process; however, it will lead to the best possible use of the plane and, therefore, its long and happy life on the WVFC flight line. Currently, we are working on the WVFC CFI process; next, we will be facilitating a member checkout process. The base rate of the aircraft will be $185/hr. Regardless if you check out it in it or not, this is a great plane to experience, even if just for a few hours. It really teaches one a lot about flying and how the machines we use have changed over the years.

Some exciting additions to the fleet.

• N37644 - 1979 Grumman Tiger located at Palo Alto. This particular Grumman is nicely equipped, including a Garmin 430 and an STEC Auto Pilot. Sorry, no student pilots in this bird. It boasts a 140 knot cruise, which is not bad for the rental rate.
• N35583 - 2000 172SP new to San Carlos. This aircraft includes the King Multi Function Display and is a nice addition for both IFR and primary training.
• Junior is back. That's right, 596JR, a 1998 7ECA is back at WVFC and will be a tailwheel training fixture at the Hayward Airport.
• Another bright addition to the Hayward fleet is 25525, a very clean C152 adding to our stellar primary instructional fleet. These additions bring our grand total to 73 aircraft at three locations.

The new Hayward office is in the American Aircraft Sales (AAS) building at 21015 Skywest Drive, across from the Home Depot.

Hayward controllers know where West Valley is located on the field, so your initial call can be "Hayward ground, Cessna 25525 at West Valley, taxi 28. . ."

Ground control does not provide separation until you reach taxiway alpha because the AAS building blocks their view of WVFC's tiedown spots and adjacent area. On your way to taxiway alpha, you can pass the fueling area to the west and intersect alpha perpendicularly or pass it to the northeast and take the diagonal taxiway to alpha. It's your choice as to which way to go unless ground control directs you otherwise. Thanks to CFI Derek Metro for this info.

Before engine start, pull your aircraft out of the tiedown area (not just out of the tiedown spot) onto the taxiway. WVFC staff and maintenance crew have done quite a bit of work sweeping this long-neglected tiedown area. However, there still may be a pebble or two in the area that necessitates this action. Likewise, when taxiing back to parking, shut down on the taxiway and then pull the aircraft into the tiedown area. Front desk staff will be happy to help you move your aircraft.

The city of Hayward has a brochure that shows an aerial photo of the airport with departure paths, noise abatement, etc. You can pick one up at the HWD WVFC office or the city of Hayward office located on the first floor of the HWD tower.

We and the AAS folks would like members to park in the Sullivan Propeller parking lot to free up the AAS parking lot for new business and visitors. If you do park in the AAS parking area and you're the last one to leave, please close the parking lot gate.

You couldn't help but notice the last time you went to the pump to fill up your car that it was a painful experience. Gas prices have soared in the past few months and not just for cars. AvGas prices have gone up commensurately, and this extra cost is having a huge effect on our owners.

With these costs growing, we must unfortunately take the action of creating a Fuel Surcharge for each flight, as has been done in the past when AvGas prices rose dramatically.

As a result, beginning June 1, 2004, a $5 per hour increase in all plane rates will be implemented to cover the increased cost of fuel to our owners.

The surcharge will be re-evaluated monthly and made effective on the first of each month while AvGas prices remain above $3 per gallon. The amount in effect will be posted at both Front Desks so you'll know what the current amount is. The fuel surcharge will be calculated as follows:

• Based on the price of fuel in effect at PAO on the last day of each month.
• For each 10 cents above $3, the fuel surcharge will be $1 per hour. For example, if fuel is $3.50 per gallon (5 increments of 10 cents) the surcharge will be $5 per hour.
• This does not apply to HWD, where gas prices are still significantly below $3.00/gallon.

The big news, of course, is that Hayward has opened; directions are available at the front desks. We will be adding more aircraft over the month of June and assume some longer hours as the activity increases.

The open-house and grand opening party/BBQ is scheduled for Saturday, June 26. Details of the event will be announced later in the month and posted on the website.

We have added some new staff members for the summer months. Max Ullrich, a West Valley member and Student Pilot is working mornings in the PAO office. Louis Tumminaro, also a member and Private Pilot, is floating between all three offices and filling in for the desk.

Our library stock has been slowly diminishing due to borrowing and trying to stock Hayward with books and tapes. If any members have extra aviation books they don't need and are willing to donate, the offices could sure use them.

The SQL office will close early on Saturday, June 12, due to runway closures associated with the Hiller Vertical Challenge Airshow. Books will be in the lockbox. Stop by to visit at the club's booth at the airshow!

We will continue to keep the 0830-1800 hours for PAO and 0900-1700 hours for SQL through the month of June.

West Valley Flying Club received a letter from Karl Liang's friend, Michael, expressing his positive opinions about the rigorous and extensive interview and hiring process that WVFC has in place for Flight Instructor applicants. This process includes extensive background checks, multiple interviews, and flight demonstrations of flight instruction knowledge.

In his letter, Michael expressed his confidence in WVFC as a whole and the quality of its operations. Thanks, Michael. We will strive to continue making WVFC the friendly and safety-conscious place that pilots and their families want us to be.

WVFC has just landed at Hayward Airport (East Bay), and we are there to stay! We currently have four airplanes there: two C-152s, one Piper Archer, and one Mooney M20-J. By next year, we plan to increase the Hayward fleet to 12-15 airplanes. On June 26, we are planning an open house at our new location. There will be refreshments and BBQ for all! Come out and join us!

Let's have fun flying and continue being environmentally conscious. The San Francisco Fish and Wildlife Service would like to remind all pilots that during the breeding season from March 15 through August 15, seabirds are very sensitive to disturbance from aircraft. Aircraft that come too close to these colonies cause adults to flush from their nests, knocking their eggs from the nest and breaking them, or leaving eggs or chicks exposed for predators such as gulls and ravens to feed on. Please fly at least 2000 feet above these nesting colonies.

OK, maybe I am lazy. I really hate paperwork. The thing I hate most is getting stuff kicked back for some tiny error.

IACRA (Integrated Airman Certification and Rating Application) may be the answer. IACRA is the FAA's newest creation: an online 8710. I used it for the first time just last week, and it worked beautifully. It saved the applicant's time, the CFI's time, and my time. The applicant will also get his "hard" certificate much sooner with less chance of hassles over small mistakes.

How does it work?
When you are ready for your flight test, go to the FAA's IACRA website at http://acra.faa.gov/iacra/. You register and get a user ID, password, and FAA Tracking Number (FTN). You then fill in the 8710-1 Airman's Application on-line. The application is stored on the FAA's IACRA web server.

Later, your flight instructor logs on the same way. If he/she has not already registered, he/she does so then. After reviewing the application on-line, he/she digitally signs it. That's it!

On the test day, you do not need a paper application. You do need a computer connected to the internet, preferably by broadband. Luckily, WVFC has a bunch of those. Your examiner (me, I hope) logs in and brings up the application using your FTN. You digitally sign the application at that time.

Now the test proceeds as usual. You still need your log book, license, medical, driver's license or passport, and aircraft logs. You should also bring your knowledge test results. Those results are also in the IACRA server, but the first time I used it, the questions missed were wrong on IACRA.

At the end of the test, IACRA prints out the temporary certificate (or, gulp, the pink slip) if a printer is available.

Why should I use it?

1. It is much easier for you to fill in the form and make corrections on IACRA.
2. The system detects and traps many of the usual mistakes applicants make. Thus, the form you present to your instructor and the examiner is more likely to be errorless.
3. You should get your license much more quickly than by conventional paperwork. This system bypasses the local FSDO and other layers of the FAA bureaucracy.
4. Your examiner will be happy. That is a good thing.

One of the oddities of the instrument rating, until recently, has been how to handle the modern equipment we have in some of our airplanes. When you have an HSI, how do you do partial panel (since this presupposes not only a failure of the vacuum system, but also a failure of the HSI at the same time)? How can you do an NDB approach when the airplane has no ADF? BTW, many of us consider removal of the ADF from an airplane to be an upgrade. Worst of all, how do you teach and test partial panel in an airplane with the PFD (like our Cirruses), or the Garmin 1000s and Entegras that are in the new Pipers, Cessnas, and Mooneys? Put soap holders onto the PFD screen, as if there were some mechanism that could possibly result in a failure of the attitude indicator and heading indicator simultaneously, while leaving the rest of the display? And by the way, when the PFD fails, you're left with a grand total of four steam gauges: an airspeed indicator, an altimeter, an attitude indicator, and a wet compass. Note the lack of any VOR head, heading indicator, or VSI.

What about airplanes with no vacuum system? One FSDO was caught off guard when asking about a Pilatus that was planned for a charter business. They wanted to know if it had dual vacuum systems. Actually it doesn't have ANY vacuum system. But then neither does a Cirrus or a Katana. The world is changing.

As it turns out, the FAA is changing as well. The recently published Instrument Rating Practical Test Standard has captured the avionics advances and has leapfrogged into the 21st century. The new PTS will become effective October 1, 2004. The following few paragraphs are quotes from the new PTS.

"Modern technology has introduced into aviation a new method of displaying flight instruments, such as Electronic Flight Instrument Systems, Integrated Flight Deck displays, and others. For purposes of the practical test standards, any flight instrument display that utilizes LCD or picture tube like displays will be referred to as "Electronic Flight Instrument Display." Aircraft equipped with this technology may or may not have separate backup flight instruments installed. The abnormal or emergency procedure for loss of the electronic flight instrument display appropriate to the aircraft will be evaluated in the Loss of Primary Instruments TASK. The loss of the primary electronic flight instrument display must be tailored to failures that would normally be encountered in the aircraft. If the aircraft is capable, total failure of the electronic flight instrument display or a supporting component, with access only to the standby flight instruments or backup display shall be evaluated.

"The applicant is expected to utilize an autopilot and/or flight management system (FMS), if properly installed, during the instrument practical test to assist in the management of the aircraft. The examiner is expected to test the applicant's knowledge of the systems that are installed and operative during the oral and flight portions of the practical test. The applicant will be required to demonstrate the use of the autopilot and/or FMS during one of the nonprecision approaches." Where was this when I took my instrument check ride?

"If the practical test is conducted in the aircraft, and the aircraft has an operable and properly installed GPS, the applicant must demonstrate GPS approach proficiency when asked."

Translated into simpler English, regardless of the type of instrumentation you have, you're required to show that you can fly with APPROPRIATE system failures. You must know how to use the autopilot, and you must be able to fly a GPS approach if you have a GPS. All this is simple enough in concept, but the execution gets a bit tricky. It requires that the instructors know how to teach the system failures and the appropriate actions to take, that the examiners understand the typical failure modes of the aircraft's avionics (when many of them have never flown this type of equipment), and that the FAA sets the standards suitable for the advanced avionics.

As it turns out, the FAA did its part with the help of our friends at Cirrus, who helped the FAA write the new PTS. At West Valley, we are on the leading edge with seven Cirrus Standardized Instructors (with more being trained) who are capable of teaching these systems and their failures. In addition, we've been training a couple of our local Designated Examiners (John Pyle and Mike Shiflett, both of whom are club members and instructors) so they know how to evaluate the performance of an applicant when one of the Cirrus Primary Flight Displays fails.

Even before the new PTS was announced, West Valley had been training to the standards that are now included in the PTS.

New aircraft, new technologies, new training standards… this is being on the leading edge.

They (the infamous "they") always say that the cockpit is the worst classroom. There are far too many things going on in a cockpit for your instructor to throw something new at you that has not been briefed beforehand. And for such pre-flight briefing, we have those lovely makeshift cubicles that were clearly designed by someone with interior decorating skills far inferior to those of a confirmed bachelor. For a change of scenery, then, might I suggest cafés? Is there a greater pleasure in life than to kick back at your favorite local caffeine dealer with your instructor and talk about what we love most - that thing that took us years of indentured servitude at (gasp) "real jobs" to be able to afford? Yes, indeed, flying in the Bay Area is not the cheapest hobby I've taken a liking to, but despite the string of expletives that follows the monthly opening of my credit card bill, I can still safely say that I think it's more than worth it. (Don't tell my instructor lest he raise his hourly rate). But I digress.

As a new student pilot trying to juggle a new city, new job, and the ever-encompassing obsession of flying, the only time during the week that I can fly is early morning. So my instructor and I have transformed various local (and seemingly run-of-the-mill) cafés into high-tech ground school centers. Instead of having all those handy-dandy sectional and terminal charts that are useful references for course plotting and airspace discussions plastering the walls like at the airport, cafés offer the much more technologically advanced options of napkins and paper tablecloths. No flight computer, no airspace vectors - all you need is a pen and an instructor who has a 3-D map in his or her head. But alas, on a recent morning ground school session, we found ourselves in a sticky situation. Pilots must always be ready for unexpected situations such as this one. Plotting our course to stay out of Bravo airspace and get to a good place to do ground reference maneuvers, we realized we had inadvertently used our high-tech terminal chart napkins to clean up our mess from breakfast. With yellowish-brown coffee stains all over them, they would have indicated the incorrect mountain elevation for our location and were therefore rendered completely useless for our needs. We would have had to interrupt our ground school flow to walk ten feet to get new napkins, so we made a split-second decision to save ourselves. The paper coffee cup my instructor had just finished drinking from became our latest terminal chart. With numerous calculations and calls to NASA cartographers, we reasoned that the curvature of the cup roughly approximated that of the earth. Technically, then, the coffee cup was a colossal evolutionary step up from the napkin.

As pilots, we are taught to always be thinking ahead. Where is a good emergency landing spot? What do I do if the engine quits? What if I have to make a go-around? Should I ground myself today if I have not had the requisite six cups of my favorite heavenly concoction of caffeine? That same kind of forward thinking should apply to ground school as well, hence our emergency use of various and sundry café discards. Fellow sierra papas, you have to be able to adapt to any situation Mother Nature hurls at you, whether it is unpredicted crosswinds, unwanted engine trouble, or unexpected loss of writing tablets.

With the summer months come summer flying activities at West Valley. Book your planes early - even with almost 70 aircraft in the fleet, your favorite might get snatched up. And if you'd like to help, or have a great event idea, contact the Activities Committee at activities@wvfc.org. We'd love the help!

**Meet The Candidates Sessions**
June 10, 6:30 p.m., PAO
June 12, 10:00 a.m., PAO
Your chance to meet candidates running in the upcoming Board Elections, ask them questions, or give them your comments.

**B&B Fridays are Back!**
June 11, 4:30-6:30, SQL
June 18, 4:30-6:30, PAO
Celebrate summer! Join club members, employees, and CFIs for beer and burgers Friday afternoons from 4:30 to 6:30 pm. We'll keep the grill hot for you.

**Hiller Vertical Challenge**
June 12, all day, SQL
What kind of an airshow can you have when you're surrounded by Class B airspace? Looping jets won't work, but things that hover might do the trick. Come out to the annual helicopter airshow at San Carlos Airport on Saturday, June 12. West Valley will have a booth at SQL's Vertical Challenge this year, so don't forget to stop by and say hello.

**Acro Seminar and Flight Skills Clinic**
June 13, 9:00-10:30 ground, flight sessions start at 11:00
BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND!! Do you know what to do if your aircraft rolls upside down? Ever wanted to try loops or the occasional hammerhead? Join WVFC's Acrobatic CFIs in a day of discovery. 09:00 to approximately 10:30 will be a ground session that will cover unusual attitude recovery and basic acrobatics, as well as aircraft and parachute familiarization. Starting at 11:00, we will have three aircraft available (Super Decathlons N102EC and N723CL, and Citabria N53823) for one-hour, hands-on flights. There are 15 flights available. The cost of the clinic is $60 + HOBBS time. To reserve a slot, please contact Torea Rodriguez at globug@mac.com.

**38th Annual Father's Day Fly-In to Columbia**
Saturday and Sunday, June 19 and 20
Treat Dad and the family to this flying tradition. The fun begins both days with a traditional Father's Day Pancake Breakfast from 7:00 to 11:00 AM. The entire family will enjoy seeing the Experimental, Classic, and Warbird aircraft, along with airplane and biplane rides, aviation vendor booths, food and beverage booths, CDF aircraft and demonstrations, aircraft fly-bys, a tri-tip dinner, and dancing to live music Saturday evening and more! Sunday's activities will also include a spot landing and flour bombing contest. Information at http://www.fathersdayflyin.com/. Contact Patti Andrews at whatsup@wvfc.org if you'd like to coordinate flights.

**Hayward Grand Opening**
June 26, Hayward Airport
Free BBQ, raffles and all sorts of frivolity. Join your fellow club members and CFIs to welcome members of the East Bay flying community to our new Hayward location.

**SKYDIVE!!!**
June 26, meet at PAO
That's right, on June 26th, members of the West Valley Flying Club, who would typically never entertain the thought of skydiving, will be leaving the aircraft behind and experiencing free flight for the first time on a tandem skydive. We will fly to Lodi Airport (1O3) in the morning, meet on the ground there, watch a video, and then plummet from an aircraft at 13,000'. There is a shaded grass picnic area, restroom facilities, and food available on the field. And if you're not interested in skydiving, you can watch your friends from the ground or fly along as an observer to witness them exit the plane. The cost of a tandem skydive is $100, and a video of the experience is an additional $35 (which is highly recommended). Reserve your aircraft early for this fly-in event.

We will be holding a pre fly-in seminar on Thursday, June 24, at 18:00 in the WVFC PAO back classroom. There, we will be talking about what's involved for a flight into an active drop zone and answering all your questions regarding the skydive itself. We will even be opening a parachute up to talk about its different components. A sign-up sheet is posted on the club bulletin board or contact WVFC CFI Logan Frasier. Blue Skies!!!

**Fourth Annual WVFC Landing Contest**
Saturday, July 3, 10:00, SQL
Do you want to test your landing skills? Participants in WV's landing "contests" pick their own landing challenges, so whatever your skill level, there's a landing for you. Bring the family members and any other biased judges and prepare to have some fun! "Judges," complete with scorecards, will sit in the gazebo by the runway for viewing. When you're not flying, you can be a judge, too! This low pressure contest has its origins in the post-9/11 era, when Enhanced Class Bravo restrictions required experienced pilots and newbies alike to pair up with a CFI just to fly around the pattern. That team approach turned out to be so much fun that we encourage you to assemble a cockpit team or bring your favorite CFI this year as well. Coffee and other refreshments will be on hand and prizes appropriate to the seriousness of our judges. Please contact Erin "Flyby" Seidemann at TestaDellaCorsa@cs.com to sign up.

**The BIG WVFC Castle Air Museum Trip**
July 10, meet at PAO at 10:00 a.m.
Ever wanted to land at a BIG airport ? When I say big, I mean PAO is 2400', Castle (KMER) is over TWO MILES long. When I say big, I mean I've seen 737s doing touch and goes in the pattern. You know how WVFC rules say not to "taxi through tiedowns"? When I say big, I mean you could TAKE OFF through the Castle tiedowns (just don't tell the chief pilot I said so!)

But it's not just the (big) airport that's attractive about this destination; there's also Castle Air Museum next door. It has 46 military aircraft on display outdoors - including the SR-71 Blackbird. For such a BIG trip, it's conveniently close: an easy jaunt of only 70NM. This should be a winner for pilots with kids. For post-solo students, here's an easy XC flight with the comfort of having other WV people on the same frequency the whole way. Talk about it with your instructor.

The museum has a decent grill for lunch, and people can head back when they get bored (or when the museum closes - which will probably come first). Book a plane yourself or email Craig.Eldershaw@parc.com, who'll help coordinate sharing of planes. Any queries, email Craig. Remember… it's big. How many touch and goes will YOU do in one length of Castle's two mile runway ?

**Falling in Love with Mooneys**
July 11, 10:00 a.m. to noon, PAO WVFC Classroom
Need to get to LA, Portland, or Las Vegas in a hurry? Why not do it in an aircraft with a rich and interesting history...a Mooney? Described by some as a Porsche with wings, Mooneys have set single reciprocating engine speed records for production aircraft between LA and Chicago or New York, beating out some larger and more expensive planes. This airplane has as much personality as its original designer, Al Mooney, who incorporated into the design such efficiency-enhancing features as perpendicular leading edges and laminar-flow wings. As a result, the airplane has one of the best fuel efficiencies of any in its class, and speed to burn. Further, handling is unusually stable, and the steel tube cage construction enhances accident survivability for pilots. Something's got to be right about a design that has changed little since the 60s and is still in production today...come and check it out!

Paul Brunemeier will be presenting, with a legendary member of the West Valley staff in attendance. Doughnuts will be provided to sweeten the deal. Following the presentation, we'll step outside and look under the hood of the Palo Alto club's turbo charged Mooney M20K, N231EE. Any questions, contact Paul at paul.brunemeier@humanety.org. See you there!

**Whitewater Rafting Fly-In**
July 31 through August 1
Come and join us for an exhilarating day of whitewater rafting on the beautiful South Fork American River! The "South Fork" is a class III river that winds through the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas. Its waters offer the perfect mix of beautiful scenery and exciting rapids. And the best part is, we're flying there. We will be landing at Placerville Airport, where a shuttle will be waiting to transport us to the river. After a day of rafting, we will camp out at the American River Resort and rest up for the morning flight home. No prior whitewater experience is required. A pre-trip meeting will be held at the San Carlos office on Monday, July 26th, at 7pm. Costs are still being worked out but are estimated at $120-$130/person plus airplane rentals and food. Please contact Jim Roach for more info and to sign up. kunafloat@yahoo.com.

Mountain Flying
Presented by Scott Stauter, CFI, CFII, MEI
Wednesday, June 9, 7:00pm - 8:30pm, PAO
If you ever plan to fly in the mountains or at high altitudes, this seminar is for you. Learn about the preparation and planning needed for mountain flying. Among other topics, we'll discuss weather, handling updrafts and downdrafts, emergency equipment, and the effects of high density altitude on aircraft performance.

Scott Stauter is a flight instructor at West Valley Flying Club. He holds CFI, CFII, MEI, and AGII certificates. He has done extensive mountain flying in both the Sierras and Rocky Mountains. Among many other achievements, Scott has successfully landed at "North America's Highest Airport," Leadville, CO, at an elevation of 9,927 feet.

Flying the Bay Tour
Presented by Jim Roach, CFI, CFII
Wednesday, June 16, 7:00pm - 8:30pm, SQL
Learn how to handle the airspace and communication required to circumnavigate the San Francisco Bay. This trip, commonly known as the "Bay Tour" will take you through Class B, C, D, and E airspaces and will require you to talk to numerous control towers (including SFO) and approach controllers. This seminar will discuss the normal procedures, the different options, and all of the communication required to fly the Bay Tour.

Jim Roach is a flight instructor at West Valley Flying Club. He holds CFI and CFII ratings. In addition to providing flight instruction, he also teaches whitewater rafting, swiftwater rescue, and snowboarding.

Technically Advanced Aircraft
Presented by David Schoebel, CFI, CFII, MEI
Wednesday, June 30, 7:00pm - 9:00pm, PAO
New display, navigation, and aircraft monitoring technologies are beginning to make a major impact on general aviation. The most well-known implementation of the new "glass cockpit" is the Avidyne system included in the new Cirrus aircraft. This seminar will take an in-depth look at this system and show how it is used in VFR and IFR flight.

David Schoebel holds CFI, CFII, and MEI ratings. He has extensive experience flying technically advanced aircraft and, as the local representative for Cirrus, is an expert on the Cirrus product line.

Ahhhh, to fly across the Sierras. There is nothing quite like it. I could not imagine anything more beautiful. You could imagine yourself crossing a great frontier, or like the pioneering pilots, delivering food or medicine to some remote post. On this particular flight, I was doing nothing more than flying to Markleeville/Alpine County to do a little fishing, backpacking, and a few refreshing libations. It is a simple two mile hike down a trail just on the other side of the parking area: you follow a trail down a winter creek and around a few bends and there you are at a beautiful meadow campground surrounded by snow caps and the eastern Sierra's red rock hills.

On the menu for that night was pesto pasta with a fine Chianti and a brisk camp fire, and your typical appreciation of hangar created flying stories; however, I digress. Roger Wilco is here to review restaurants, not backpacking stories, (that article comes later). On the way back, this flight of two ended up at the little mining town of Columbia. Our palates were treated to a wonderfully greasy affair at the hands of the Columbia House Restaurant. The Lick Skillet looked a little too fru fru, even for a guy who uses phrases like "tally ho" and all that, whereas the CHR offered a more typical greasy spoon affair, something that three gentleman who just came out of the woods unshowered or unshaven may not be thrown out of.

We all settled on omelets, plenty of coffee, O.J., and a side of bacon. Other than needing some defibrillators post haste, we were all set. The good thing is that the walk to the airport is a mile each way. Good food, good service, and great turn of the last century décor. Roger gives it a big two thumbs up. P.S. - don't forget you need a mountain checkout.

Roger Wilco Over and Out.