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Bodi
Bodi is a small town in the eastern Sierra mountains near Bridgeport. I
have been to Bodi many times in the past as I have taken and sold pictures of
this old ghost town. To see more information about Bodi, click
here.
I expected this to be quite the challenging trip, so I made sure that
everything looked OK. The weather was reported to be calm, temperature was
good, everything seemed to be perfect for a VFR flight. I planned the trip
at 11,500 feet and took my supplemental oxygen system with me. I filed the
flight plan and asked for both weather and the FSS frequency/phone number to
call to cancel my VFR plan once I reached my destination. I felt ready for
this trip.
The Trip
- Departure
- Since I had never flown to Bodi before, I thought it right to file
some sort of flight plan. The sky was clear, so I thought it might
be over doing it to file an IFR flight plan. So, I filed a VFR
flight plan. I was given the departure frequency needed to open my
flight plan once I took off from Livermore municipal airport.
- After departure, I contact Oakland to open my VFR flight plan.
Once open, I contacted Nor-Cal approach to get a flight following.
I decided to go around the really high mountains in the Sierra and stay
at around 11,500 feet MSL. Here was my route:
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The Flight
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After contacting Nor-Cal Approach, they asked me to go
no higher than 9,500 feet MSL. There was large traffic around
11,000 feet and they wanted me to stay low.
-
After about 20 minutes I was given permission to climb
to 11,500 feet. The trip through the valley was relatively
uneventful. Nice low clouds - very pleasant.
Near Sacramento over the Central Valley
Cooling towers from an old nuclear plant. Pilots use this as a
navigation point when flying VFR.
Approaching the Sierra Mountain Foot Hills
The Sierra Mountains
Approaching lake Tahoe
The North shore of lake Tahoe
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Once past Lake Tahoe I was presented with quite the
assortment of mountains. At this point I wasn't high enough where
Nor-Cal Approach could see me on their radar. They told me to
squawk VFR which made me a little nervous. The air was beginning
to get quite turbulent, light to moderate, but something I haven't had a
lot of experience with.
After passing Tahoe, the mountains got quite a bit higher and more
formidable looking
Quite the selection of mountains
-
Continuing south towards Bridgeport (the airport near
Bodi), the mountains began to get quite dense and close together.
I remembered in my flight training that getting inside narrow mountain
passes can get quite turbulent and dangerous, so I looked for an easier
way.
Turning east I entered Nevada where the mountains are not so close together
and things were much less turbulent
-
After turning east for a while, I turned south again to
get to Bridgeport. However, to get there I had to go through one
of the three mountain passes that lead to the Bridgeport airport (O57).
I decided to take the middle pass towards the lake.
The lake north of Bridgeport
-
I had to put the camera down at this point.
Turbulence got so bad that I was hitting my head on the ceiling of the
plane about once a minute or so. I had to concentrate on the
controls and my altitude. A couple of times I even thought about
turning around but didn't want to put extra stress on the plane trying
to turn in such rough air.
-
I continued on toward Bodi where the terrain was lower
and away from most of the mountains. I must have taken 15 pictures
of the ghost town but only one came out clear.
I was hoping to get lower (at this point I was at 11,500 feet and the town
is at 6,500 feet) but the turbulence was so bad I was concerned about a
lower altitude.
Dark clouds forming over the Sierra mountains. A lot of turbulence and
concern about wind shear.
-
The wind was so strong that my instrument were reading
120 knots air speed and 160 knots ground speed. I had a 40 knot
tail wind pushing me back to Tahoe. I figure I was pretty lucky
cause the rain clouds just whizzed by.
-
Back near Tahoe the turbulence really lighted up.
I was able to enjoy the ride again. I notified South Lake Tahoe
tower that I was going to be passing over their airspace at 12,500 feet.
They approved and notified me of the weather conditions in the area.
They also asked me what the Sierras were like east of Tahoe. My
answer; Weeeeeeeeeeeee!
Beautiful Lake Tahoe
Storm clouds forming over the Sierra South of Lake Tahoe
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Ooops! I forgot to close my VFR flight plan!
Bad news! I was about 15 minutes late in closing in and very
worried that someone might be looking for me. I immediately
contacted Nor-Cal approach and asked for a following, then contacted the
nearest Flight Service Station. I had to go to two different
frequencies before I could find someone to close my VFR flight plan.
The Flight Service Station (FSS) notified me that they had already
called my home to find out where I was and thanked me for closing the
flight plan. Whewww.
People wonder why I like to fly....
What could I have done differently?
- Made sure that I closed my flight plan on time!
- I should have navigated further east of the Sierra to avoid the
mountains more
- I should have left earlier than 12:00 noon. The earlier in the
day you fly over mountains the less turbulence they create.
- I could have flown at 13,500 instead of 11,500 to avoid some of the
mountain turbulence. The problem was that at 13,500 it looked like
I would have been in the clouds. I really didn't want to ask for
an IFR clearance, but if the turbulence had gotten any worse, I would
have been forced to do just that.
Lesson(s) Learned?
- Again, don't underestimate the weather. It changed so fast
over the mountains it was unbelievable.
- When flying in the mountains, make sure you know everything there is
to know about mountain weather and navigation. I bought a book
right after this flight on
mountain flying -
I have already started to read it.
This page was last modified on
12/03/2006
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