OK - It's Tehachapi
The weekend began with a happy hour by the pool on Friday night. As usual, the gang brought lots of food and beverages. We had a beautiful a view of cows roaming in the pasture and of the Amador County hills. On Saturday, we toured four towns in the area starting out in Plymouth which had some nice eating establishments. We found the corn maze at the Amador Flower Farm and managed to wind our way through it. Next was Amador City where many of us bought our picnic lunch at Andrae's. Then we headed to Sutter Creek. Sutter Creek was having its 4th Annual Musical Organ Rally, so we were lucky enough to hear some of the music coming out of those beautiful instruments. Next was a picnic in at the Kennedy Tailing Wheels Park and then off to the city of Jackson. We completed our tour at Drytown Cellars where we were treated to a private wine tasting. Many of us went our separate ways for dinner on Saturday night but, we all found something delicious to eat. Sunday brought perfect weather (and a bit of a tailwind) for the trip home.
Thank you to everyone who came on the trip to Jackson! We hope you all had a good time!
...Liz & Peter.
September 11, 2011. Well, it was bound to happen sometime. While it was expected, it surely wasn't expected in September. I'm talking about weather!
As we all met at the general aviation building Saturday morning, the skies looked tempting but the forecast looked somewhat threatening with thunder storms and hail in the surrounding areas and moving north in the direction we wanted to go.
What to do? We discussed the options and took a vote (never take a vote :>). Because we had all of the food for the BBQ, we decided to divert to a local airport with less chance of being stranded. Surprisingly this turned out to be one of our better attended fly-ins. As we sett up at the east end of KTOA's Tee's in the grassy area, folks drove by and pitched in bringing chairs, sodas and something we seldom see at a lunch flyin, BEER! I understand that one of the pilots went out to fly the pattern just to make this an official fly-in.
Because there were 4 BBQ's, Mitch, Larry and Wayne shared the chores at the stove while many others pitched in setting up the serving tables and preparing the other dishes. At the end everyone pitched in to help clean up and some of us headed home to watch college football. As I tried to watch the USC game, Ii found it somewhat irritating that every 10 minutes they had an emergency announcement about thunderstorms, hail, and flash flooding throughout the Los Angeles basin, as well as a stationary thunderstorm over San Luis Obispo. Seems we made the right choice.
...Wayne
Editor's Note: A big thank you goes to Wayne for flawlessly executing his Plan B, "The First Annual Del Amo Flyers' Walk-In".
July 21-24, 2011. After watching the weather for weeks and seeing nothing but thunder storms day after day, 32 Del Amo Flyers launched into what turned out to be absolutely wonderful weather.
Not only did we have clear skies but also a nice tail wind. Some of us flew to the south of the Grand Canyon no fly zone and got a great view of Monument Valley. Others flew to the north.
Lisa and Stacey had cocktails in their room Thursday night and we all had dinner on our own that night. Friday we toured the town trying to get used to the 9100'+ elevation which turned out to be much easier after the lunch time beer. Friday night Lisa arranged a wonderful group dinner at Restorante Rustico.
Saturday morning we picked up our Jeeps and headed out for a full day of trail riding, a nice picnic in Silverton, a tour of the town, more jeep riding including a stop at a ghost town, a tour of Ouray followed by MORE jeep riding. We took these jeeps up to 12,500' in one area and up to 13,000'+ in another area, not to worry, the drop off was never more than a few thousand feet.
Sunday morning we awoke to beautiful skies as we all departed for home or other locations. A good time was had by all and once again Lisa planed a great trip and executed it to perfection.
A big hand to Lisa from all of us.
...Wayne
June 16-19, 2011. Jim Piper planned a great trip to see the Spruce Goose, the war birds, and the Space Museum in McMinnville, OR. He also arranged a great tour of some local Wineries in the DAF Wine Wagon. See our web site for Wine Wagon pictures. Six aircraft and fifteen DAFers attended. Jim also made dinner reservations for us at some of the local eateries. I especially enjoyed the "Rack of Lamb" at Nick's Italian Café. Wayne, in what can only be described as a gastric orgasm, wolfed down Nick's famous Lamb Sausage Tartare. Fortunately, he washed it down with a large snifter of Grappa. A great time was had by all. Many thanks, Jim and Diana.
...Joe
Sadly, Jim & Diana returned to Torrance on Friday to attend DAFer Jake Clark's memorial service.
Then at noon we all meet at the Pianetta Winery where John Pianetta and his daughter Kaitlin treated us to some wonderful wines and allowed the use of their property for a great BBQ. We couldn't have had better hosts. At the end of the day most of us filled our trunks and headed back to our hotel to redo our W&B for the flight home.
The flight home was pretty uneventful for most because they chose to go VFR under the cloud deck I filed to go over the top at 11K. The only problem was the 50 minutes it took to get a clearance. Live and learn :>(
Jim and Diana, once again you've outdone yourselves, thank you again for a great trip.
...Wayne
April 16, 2011. DAF President Mitch has done it again. DAFers came by plane and car to Agua Dulce to taste his famous "Flaming Brisket". Thirty hungry aviators showed up in 10 aircraft and one car. The weather was perfect, the flights were smooth, the food was great, and the camaraderie was unsurpassed. Thanks you Mitch. Also thanks go to all the DAFers who attended and brought all the great food to complement the brisket. Good Job!...Wayne
March 12, 2011. Mary Falstrom selected the Skidmark Restaurant at Apple Valley for our March fly-in. It seemed we may have used up our "good luck flying weather" when we meet at the General Aviation building on Saturday morning. As we sat and considered our options, the weather improved to an 1800' ceiling with 3000' reported tops and forecast to clear in the afternoon. 24 folks from TOA in 8 planes decided to go. We were meet by Sid and Joan who flew up from San Diego. Unfortunately Larry and Jodie found they had a dead battery, so the two of them along with Mitch and Jan didn't make it. In the end 22 Del Amo Flyers in 8 planes put the Skidmark Restaurant to the test. The food was good but their little 2' by 2' grill was clearly overwhelmed. After lunch we packed back into our trusty steeds and headed for home. Peter and Liz left first and I was surprised to find him doing the overhead approach just in front of me at Torrance, I thought WOW, this old Bonanza still has it! Later on I found out they'd stopped for fuel on the way home. Oh well! ...Wayne
Thank you Mary for a great fly-in!
February 12, 2011. 14 airplanes and 28 happy souls met at the General Aviation Center for a quick briefing and we were off for Borrego Springs. We were greeted that morning with wonderful weather. Everyone enjoyed a smooth flight and great scenery.
I had been asked by a number of folks if the restaurant was still open. Well, we are all here to tell you "yes it is" Not only is it open, they have some really good food as well as a menu that goes way beyond what you'd expect for an airport restaurant, let alone one out in the middle of the desert.
After lunch we all headed back to TOA in time to stop by and say hello to Rodger who was celebrating his 100th Birthday. Way to go Rodger.
Thank you Wyn for putting on such a great event and especially for the nice weather.
Look forward to seeing everyone March 12th for the Apple Valley fly-in.
...Wayne
January 15, 2011. After many years of bus tours in fine VFR weather the Del Amo Flyers tested fate and planned a fly-in in January. Considering the never ending rains that we had in December, as the date neared at least one of us was beginning to worry.
Ah, but worry not, Saturday morning we were meet with 200 mile visibility. You could nearly see the runway at Chiriaco Summit from the GAC building.
There was a great turnout with 13 planes, 1 car and 30 SOB's turning up at Chiriaco Summit for a visit to General Patton's museum. For those that have been there before, they knew what to expect, for those that hadn't, this was a wonderfully new experience. The museum has an array of exhibits from WWI through the Afghanistan war as well as the temporary exhibits.
After our tour of the museum and the outdoor tank exhibit we wandered over to the restaurant for lunch and then back to the airport (100yards) for our departure to TOA. ATC had a number of comments wondering what could have brought this many planes from Torrance to Chiriaco, wish I'd have thought to tell them it was a scavenger hunt.
...Wayne