Crowley Road - road trip!

Spring is on hold while some of the strongest winds that we have had in at least a week, are in a real hurry to get as far East as they can. The squalls are marching through one right after another. Tuesday morning it was 67 degrees at 0300. I know the time very well as that was when the wind pried up one of the sheets of roofing on my hawk house. Yesterday evening the temps dropped 30 degrees in three hours.

Today it is a bit better, so it was time for a road trip. I darn sure didn't want to fly, so the Dodge would have to do. My intention was to drive up to the access point to the river that I found with the plane last week or so.

The roads are pretty bad in spots, so it quickly became apparent that it was going to take a while. The area was burned over in 2006, so the sage is sparse. The land was replanted by the BLM with Crested Wheat and Sage. The only growing things that we saw was Cheat Grass and weeds. Actually there was some grass growing as well. Just not a lot.

For the most part there isn't very much noticeable wildlife in the area. We did see
Antelope, Redtail Hawks, Prairie Falcons, Golden Eagles, Ravens, Mule Deer, assorted small birds, primarily Horned Larks, and a Badger.

The Antelope were in small bunches, and pretty jumpy.

I was taking a picture of all the tumbleweeds that had bunched up in a draw when a bunch of Antelope came running along the ridge.

A large male Badger checks us out from a pile of Lava.

The storms began again and the area that we wanted to go to was still 29 miles ahead of us,  the squalls were intensifying, so we elected to turn around and finish some other day. It had taken about three hours to get the 32 miles that we had traveled.

We drove down to check out one of the line shacks down by the river. It is tucked up against a bluff to cut some of the wind.

On our return I chose a different path through one of the wet spots and  got stuck. Luckily after putting it in four wheel granny gear, I was able to get it rocking and pulled out of it. It would have been a very long walk !                                                                                                                                 

The Mule Deer ran along a ridge and into our sight.

Jessie's New Perch

I suppose that many of you have wondered what happens to the Hawks when they are not being hunted. There are three ways that this is handled. Depending on the bird, some are released to continue on with their lives as nature and their destinies allow. Others, mostly captive bred birds as Jessie and Peggy are, molt their old feathers to prepare for the hunting seasons in the fall. Of course wild birds are not restrained to follow "man made seasons", but of course that is not possible for falconers, so we must find some way to maintain our birds health and preserve their minds while we wait for the crisp days of autumn to finally arrive. Most are released free into chambers built for them and basically relegated to pass the days in solitary confinement. They are able to fly free in the chamber and are fed generally through slots that allow food into the chamber without allowing escape. Of course there are windows that they can sit and watch out of, but it is still boring, I would think. Depending on the bird and how it was taken from the wild, or from the parents in a breeding chamber, this can be one of the best choices of a bad situation. The other way is to molt them on the block in a weathering area as is pictured above. They spend their days in the weathering area, and at night they are brought inside. This is Jessie and Peg's night time perch.

 This is an area in my shop where they spend the night. The trays are filled with "Floor Dri", to absorb their mutes. Easy to clean and eliminates the smell. (Peregrines are stinky!)

Peg is very flexible at this stage of her life and pretty well adjusted by the way she was raised and handled, and by her species generally social nature. Jessie however is anything other than flexible. She was taken from her mother at 28 days old, and raised in the house by me and handled daily. This particular timing is designed to have a bird that still thinks it is a Falcon, but is socialized to people as well. Most of the time it works very well. With Jessie it is a bit of a mixed blessing. She ascribes to me, her own motives and ideas. In other words she treats me like an equal, which sometimes would be an adversary. She does like me, and likes me better with daily association.

For the last couple of years, due to yearly spring trips away from the house, I have had to find some way for the (sweet) neighbor lady to feed Jessie in a way that wasn't traumatic for either of them. The easiest was to put her in the mews where bath water and food could be supplied without personal interaction.

There are three chambers in this building. Each room is 8x8x8, and is built as per the specifications required on my falconry permit.

 Each fall when I have taken her out to get ready for the upcoming falconry season, she has spent the days without me in her life other than daily feedings, so she is a bit cranky and wild. I noticed last year when I left her in the mews, that she really did not want to be left alone. It took her about two weeks to resign herself to being out there. It took me most of the fall season to get her attitude leveled out, and as the days passed she became more tractable and even a little tiny bit sweet. As least for her anyway.


So this year I decided that I didn't want to lose that, and determined to molt her on the block in the weathering area.

This is one of the types of blocks that I make for that purpose. They can be anything from turned blocks to molded concrete perches.

The problem that I have with Jessie is that she has a tendency to walk around and around on the block and by the end of the day she has her leash wound up to the point that she can barely move. Its not more than an aggravation for me, but Sharon ( the aforementioned sweet lady) would have a serious problem trying to straighten her out. If she had been the type that bates  ( flies wildly ) all the time the problem would not have occurred.

A friend of mine had a perch system that allowed the bird to fly to two differing perches on a sliding wire. The bird could choose to be either in the sun or in the shade. This seemed to be an ideal situation for Jessie as she could walk around as much as she would like but still not be able to wind her leash around anything at all.

Due to the fact that there are no public landfills in so sparse an area as this, each habitation has its own little dump. The one that came with this place is a veritable treasure trove. There is every thing from broken glass to wagon wheels and seats. So Karen and I went on a scavenger hunt yesterday that resulted in a front wheel of a John Deere tractor that would fill the bill for one of the alternate perches. There was also some very tough wire that had been used in a failed attempt to keep cattle off the runway. A left over board from some project that some other tenant had left over, and some Stainless Steel rod from my perches, and I was in business.

  Today is her first day on this system, but I think that it will do nicely to keep her from tangling and allow her a bit more access to her bath and sunshine as well.

Her attitude is much improved so far. She likes being inside at night, and she is as sweet and tractable as she will ever be. I intend to do every thing that I can do to keep her that way.

ION Trail to Rome

I tried really hard to keep my nose to the grind stone and get some stuff done around the house. Yesterday was gorgeous and today is even better. The temp started climbing at an unprecedented rate, (79 now ) so I turned off the news, got my rake and went to where I left off on the runway. Its sure funny but ground that won't grow anything but tumble weeds and Goats heads (nasty caltrops type of plant) can sure grow rocks. They just pop up every where you don't want them, but I digress- There I was raking up a sweat and the wind just wouldn't blow. Finally I couldn't stand it any longer so back I go, Tell the wife where I intend to go, turn on the Spot tracking and roll out the Firestar.

I decided to follow the old ION Hwy to Rome and then see what interested me. That is the Idaho,Oregon and Nevada Hwy. It was in use in the early days of settlement here in the West. It lead into the mining camps of Silver City and the like. (Yes there is one in Idaho, and probably most every other state in the union.) The road goes down into Rome where one of the early families built a Toll Bridge to cross the Owyhee River. I then flew downriver dodging Ducks and Geese and then turned along the Pillars Of Rome. ( settlement of a cafe with some gas pumps named Rome because the early settlers thought that was what Roman Pillars should look like.) I then took a better look at Scotts Butte, since some who saw yesterdays post and pictures were curious.

As I mentioned it was the orifice where most of the Lava in this area probably spewed out of.

Here is the URL for the Spot tracking if you are interested-  http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0siAoTNYTZD6KPbiDncNLfKZruRqx5nUO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RCwu2jGmi0 

I also took a video that is about 8 minutes long that I uploaded to You Tube.Unfortunately there is no sound with this one.

Flight was 45 minutes, burned less that 2.2 gallons. Did not use the Hac-man system.

Another nice day with promise, so after waiting for the temps to warm up to tolerable, I decided to check the area South East of the house. The terrain climbs quite a bit, so instead of my usual tendency to hug the ground, I took the plane up to 7500 feet. The only problem of course to waiting for the temps to climb is that it generally only occurs around noon and the thermals start to kick in.

I am still working on developing parameters of my HKS and the Hacman fuel system, so this time I planned to dial the EGT's up to near 1400 degrees or lean of peak which ever  came first. I had a headwind so my ground speed was about 56 MPH.                   

The first picture is looking South West into Nevada, and the next is South East also in Nevada. The water course is the South Fork of the Owyhee River and flows into the main stream of the Owyhee at 3 Forks, of which I had written and shown video last year. At about this point (33 miles from home and still in radio contact - Mike W) I decided that the day was just going to get rougher and I would rather be typing than flying.

The Steen's is in the background, about 80 statue miles away.

As I approached the lower terrain on the final leg home I decided to get closer to the ground to get out of some of the thermals and I began to dial back on the Hacman to keep my EGT's within the proper range.

( As I mentioned it is still pretty cool outside and I was of course wearing gloves. My Mag switches are just above the Hacman dial. As one gets closer to the ground the effect of the Hacman system is such that the EGT's climb. As you throttle back they also rise. )

Well, my EGT's kept raising no matter that I was dialing it back and eventually off. I put the choke full on to keep the fuel as rich as I could get it, and had to throttle up to keep it below 1400. ( If the EGT's get high enough the engine eventually leans out to the point that it stops from fuel starvation.) I happened to be over the road that you can see in the last picture and you can be sure that I stayed there while I was trying to get a handle on what was happening. First I called the wife and informed her of my location and the possibility that I might have to set down, but that I had a good spot to do it. About that time I looked down at the Hacman dial and discovered that with the gloves on, I had switched off one mag switch. :-/  Interestingly enough I had not heard the difference in engine noise. I flicked it back on and the engine began cooling immediately. I must say that I felt quite a bit cooler as well. I informed the wife of the improved condition and again cut back across country to go home. From that point the rest of the trip was uneventful.

Flight was 1 hour 18 minutes, fuel burn was 3 gallons, covered 72 miles, average speed was 60 MPH.

Conclusion one: 
The Hacman system works and helps conserve fuel, but you need to constantly monitor it, and be aware of what it can do to you if you do not. The EIS alarm is very helpful, and saved me from an engine out. The flashing light alerted me to the problem before it became critical. ( I had it set to 1400 degrees. ) As in most things concerning aircraft, and our ability to survive flying them, is influenced by ones actions or omissions. If you snooze you are going to have trouble. On most flights, if fuel is not a problem, and I am flying close to the ground, I will not use the Hacman system. It will save you fuel at altitude. So on a trip, you bet!  Otherwise no.

conclusion two:

The HKS isn't going to run for very long on one mag.

conclusion three:

I could use more panel space.

 http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0siAoTNYTZD6KPbiDncNLfKZruRqx5nUO

Here again is the track that I flew today.

Here is a link to You Tube that has a video of today's flight.  
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DHcx3hxfzk

Raptor Run

Karen and I have done a Raptor count for the East Cascades Audubon Society for the last 6 years. We enjoy a reason to get out and do a little Raptor watching. We normally start in Nov and do them each month ending in March. I finally got a Digital SLR, so this trip was a bit of an introduction to the camera. The run is 158 miles and takes us about 5 hours to do it.

Don 't forget, to see the pictures full screen, click on it to see, back button to resume reading.

Of course a picture of the Steen's is necessary for the beginning. Then we have the wild horse that has been hanging around the Hwy. on the way to Burns Jct. I am not sure where he gets his water. There is none anywhere visible. Sam, next door, keeps various tanks full of water, scattered around the area here.

The Great Horned Owls are setting on eggs that should be hatching soon, The females on the nest are easily sighted, but the males require some effort to find.

Redtails are the most numerous Raptors on the route, but some of them do not exhibit the normal color phases.

 I am sorry that I did not take any pictures of the "normal" color phases, so you will have to look it up if you want to know what they normally look like.

 There are quite a few Pheasants in Arock. (a small community, on our route ) The plentiful game that can be found here is one of the main reasons that we decided to retire here.

There was another Great Horned Owl nest by this pond. The Cinnamon Teal and the Mallards don't seem to be bothered by them. The Ground Squirrels (Beldings Ground Squirrel ) are around but not in the numbers that they are sometimes found.

We even saw a Rock Chuck, but there was no chance to even get a fuzzy photo of it. I believe that sighting is the second that I have seen here in the four years that I have been running around this part of the country.

The Chukar is another of the upland game birds that can be found here. This one was in a gal's yard on our route.

The Swans are on their way back to their breeding grounds in the Artic.

Antelope abound in the area. There are Deer in certain secluded areas, but the Antelope can bee any where.

Sandhill Cranes are starting to come in to rest and feed in the fields before continuing on their way back.

We also saw the first Turkey Vulture of the year just outside of Jordan Valley.

Finally here is a picture of the "Pillars of Rome" and the final area that we survey on our trip.

We counted  36 Redtails, 4 American Kestrals, 1 Northern Harrier, 3 Bald Eagles, 9 Golden Eagles, 8 American Rough Legs, 1 Prairie Falcon, 1 Sharpshin Hawk and 5 Great Horned Owls.

The Raptors are moving back into their breeding areas, and cleaning out nests, establishing breeding territories.

Second Childhood

The weather has been almost good enough to do things and I have gotten in a little tumbleweed burning and herbicide spraying on the runway trying to prepare for spring, it is still not enough. So while we were in town yesterday I picked up a little toy to keep me amused while in the house. An E-flite MCX micro helicopter. If you are interested do a Google search for it. It only has 7 inch wide blades total and is totally maneuverable. A real kick in the pants and what I have always wanted. Since I am entering my second childhood, it just the thing.

Spot tracking

Things have been pretty quiet, the weather has been a bit too unsettled to do much more than catch up on my reading. Now my eye strain is bad enough to make an effort to get out and do something, anything!

I have always been very aware of the worry that Karen goes through every time that I go flying by myself. The country here is the least populated in all of Oregon, I am sure that it ranks up there with some other parts of the US as well. I installed a base aircraft radio to help and while the range is as much as 60 miles it requires one to be pretty high to accomplish that kind of range. I prefer to be within a hundred feet of the ground, so it means that if I decided to do something other than what I told her before leaving, I need to climb up high enough to talk to her. Wastes gas something awful.

I bought a Spot Messenger last year, but I did not get the tracking feature. Too cheap! It seemed to work somewhat, but the lack of a permanent placement in the plane caused it to be of limited use. I decided to purchase the tracking feature this year. I could say that it was for Karen, but some of the places that I go are really hard to get there from here, and I don't like walking all that much. We will just say that it seems like a good deal for both of us.

There is a "Gap Seal" between the wings of "Dart" that is made of Lexan, so I made a holder that would keep its antenna pointed to the sky. It worked sitting in front of the hanger, but it needed a flight to really give it a good test.

Today the weather seemed to invite flying so I rolled her out, dressed warm and took off for Arock. It was apparent that the wind was blowing at about 10 MPH from the West when I got up out of the wind shadow that shades the airstrip. The temps at 5000 feet was 40 degrees, so I wasn't sorry that I had put on my warm clothes. The plane and engine preformed flawlessly although I will put some tape on the oil cooler the next time I fly. The temps never got over 130 degrees, a bit cool for proper operation. I stayed at 1000 feet agl and checked some of the ponds and rabbit spots that we hunted Jessie and Peg on this fall.

In all the trip took 74 minutes and I burned 3.5 gallons of gas. I covered a bit more than 60 miles and even though I was down to 50 MPH coming back, I still averaged 60 MPH.

The wind was right for the short cross wind strip and I had drug it and rolled it, so I was interested in how it would feel. My landings are sometimes a thing of wonder. (wonder how anyone who has the hours that I have, can land so crappy. ) Except the first ones after a long lay off. My Golf games are like that too, the longer I play or fly the worse my landing get. I can't explain it, unless I just get careless. Any way I started letting down about a mile from the strip, did just like my instructor had told me so many times and depending on my position either gave it gas, or allowed it to bleed off altitude, and made one of those landings that no one ever sees, a perfect three point landing with so little roll out that I had to give it gas to get to the turn off to the hanger. It is only 320 feet from the fence to the hanger. Oh well, someday I will be able to do that every time. Yeah, right!

I was pleased with the results of the test, I had nine tracking points, that should make life or life flight easier.
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0siAoTNYTZD6KPbiDncNLfKZruRqx5nUO