Sunday events

Traveling on Easter evening from SBD, in southern California, to CCR, with this sequence of Cirrus-ana:

  • Refueling at WJF, in the Mojave desert. Guy drove up in a truck as I gassed the plane at the pumps, said that he’d never seen a Cirrus up close and wanted to. Turns out that he was the Continental engines rep being dispatched to Arizona the next day to work on the tragic Doug Kohler crash investigation.

  • Virtually every controller up and down the Central Valley back to the “say again aircraft type” which I hadn’t heard for a while. Maybe it’s a less-senior crew working Easter night.

  • Heard 415WM on the same frequency, heading toward Monterey, and had a brief talk on a side frequency with Cirrus Man #1, Walt C.

  • As I was beginning a descent toward Concord, controller at Oakland Center said – “One Delta Zulu, are you a twin”? In descent, ground speed was 185+ kts.

  • Landing (with a bunch of other planes in the pattern at CCR), I heard from one of the other arrivals: “A Cirrus! I’ve always wanted to see one.” After we both landed he taxied over to check the plane out.

None of this to diminish collective sadness about the recent crash, but just passing along info.
JF, 711DZ