Last year, I took my son out to Death Valley for a day – and night – he loves to be in hotels! We stopped in Stovepipe Wells for the night and continued to Furnace Creek the next day. This trip was done on the ground, but it still reminded me immensely of a research mission the custodian of the Logs of JD Flora and I conducted many years ago. I reported on that mission on the web in something that today would be called a blog. The pages are still there but hidden in the deep crevices of the internet, so I thought I would dig this all out and present it here again – on a real blog.
Here we go…
What!? Don’t you know who J.D. Flora is? I would say that you’d better find out. Otherwise, this story will not make very much sense. I will wait here until you are back …….
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So, now you know our hero. You also know or will find out that Dr. Joachim Steingrubner, the lucky person who found the logs of J.D. Flora, and I went on a mission to follow the tracks of our hero.
From the logs, we learned about J.D.’s one flight to Tehachapi, Mountain Valley. There, on a heading of 10 degrees at a distance of 12 miles, he encountered the unexplainable – at least for us. Will we ever find out what happened?
On another flight, J.D. Flora, or Jetty, as he is now sometimes called by his fans, made a flight to Stovepipe Wells and Furnace Creek, again with unexplainable but steamy events happening.
Dr. Steingrubner, as the historian and chronist as well as the researcher of the J.D. Flora logs, decided that a mission was in order to follow the trails of the subject of his research. I was to participate in this project as the pilot in command. The interested reader can follow the trail on a World Aeronautical Chart.
On a fine sunny morning, we met at the Pilot’s Co-Op at Burbank airport, ready to follow the trails of J.D. Flora.
Dr. Steingrubner had the appropriate excerpts from The Logs so that we could review them for our first leg. From the IRC communication between SFYNX Remate Agent 3 and J.D. we learned:
SFYNX-RA3> From your recent e-mail I conclude that you want to
SFYNX-RA3> go flying today or tomorrow morning. How about going to
SFYNX-RA3> Tehachapi for a snack ?
JDF> It's quite a humble, but healthy cuisine they got there, but I'll
JDF> consider this. Any reason for this ?
SFYNX-RA3> Of course.
SFYNX-RA3> From Tehachapi, if you fly heading zero-one-zero
SFYNX-RA3> degrees for 12.5 nautical miles, you'll see a small
SFYNX-RA3> landing strip in the desert between two small hills.
SFYNX-RA3> Cross the runway East to West abeam and fly
SFYNX-RA3> an approach of one-seven-zero degrees, land and
SFYNX-RA3> taste the space over there for some time....
JDF> Will see... so, but what's the purpose ??
That should not be a big problem. The only unusual aspect is that the charts really do not show any landing strip in the area in question. We know that J.D., in fact, found and landed on the indicated airstrip, but unfortunately, no progress has been made in decoding the time lock, so we still don’t know what really happened and how J.D. returned. We only know that he survived, so we were in good spirits.
Preflight, engine start, clearance (Golden State Departure like usual), and off we were into the blue yonder. Climbing up to 4000 feet to get over the mountains just East of the Newhall Pass. Getting the nose up some more, lining up for Agua Dulce, giving a mental wave to one of my very first ‘other’ airports during primary training.
Climbing out more towards the north east to clear those peaks and catch a nice glance at the San Gabriel Mountains to our right. After we clear those mountains, we see the huge Palmdale Airport off to our right.
Big, but mostly useless for me because it’s an Air Force installation. But only ‘mostly’ useless because during my instrument training, it was a good place to practice approaches.
I guess these guys in the tower and on approach were pretty bored and probably glad for any Angelino pilot who came by and needed their help. My instructor at this time, Wyn Selwyn – wonder what he is doing now – answered my question of what would happen if I actually touched down there with: They would nicely invite you in, offer you a cup of coffee, and then give you this half-foot stack of forms to fill out. He should know – he was a pilot in the army.
Then turning north, getting into the real desert that can be really green if it gets some water, such as for example from the California Aqueduct. After that, a straight Loran course to Tehachapi, Mountain Valley.
Our plan was to leave out the landing in Mountain Valley, to cross it and head straight to the mystery target 12.5 miles zero-one-zero. But it was late enough to justify an early lunch, so we dropped down and had some chili and banana bread, watching some gliders being helped up into the sky by these sky tractors – boy, do they really look like tough tractors.
Then, looking north into the area where there should be this mysterious air strip.
Taxi down to the end of the runway, full power, and a good practice for soft field takeoff. It’s not really soft, but more oiled gravel – still, you don’t really like to keep the wheels on the ground for an extended time if you are the one who has to pay for the maintenance. Liftoff, and a quick rocking of the wings abeam the glider flight school to say thanks.
We set the distance on the Loran to all zero on leaving the airport and head zero-one-zero. When the readout showed 12.5 miles, the view confirmed what the maps had told us. Still, we circled in bigger and bigger circles but could not make out anything that was or might have been an airstrip.
Somebody really has to decode this googledigoog in the logs one of these days.
So it was off then to our second target. Stovepipe Wells. We passed California City and did not have to maneuver too hard through this narrow corridor because we got a clearance to enter the MOA and could fly straight towards our goal. Closing in on Death Valley, we passed something that surely looked like salt lakes, but we were not sure if they really were, and we also did not want to stop there to taste.
Soon, we enter Death Valley, fly up the western valley northbound, and then around the bend, crossing Stovepipe Wells to take a look at the place of JD’s steamy adventure. Nothing really to see down there except a few parked planes. And as it’s better to get some fuel for the flight back, we turn south heading for Furnace Creek.
Soon we make out the Death Valley airport and soon are on base turning final.
Shortly after that, we turn final and ten minutes later, trusty 08L is tied down in the strong wind, and we are picked up by a courtesy van and taken to the resort where we hope to find a trace of JD Flora.
In the lobby, we talk to an old woman who remembers this nice man who gave her such a generous tip, and she also recalls the cabin where he stayed, which she kept particularly neat for him. She wants to know what happened to this real gentleman, but we have to tell her that we are actually the ones looking for information.
She asks us to say hi to him when we find him, and keep his promise to stay longer the next day. She then wonders if the nice lady, who had missed him by just one hour, ever managed to meet him. There! Now we know something that JD did not – hmm…
It was time for us to head back, pre-flight and ready to take on the desert once more.
08L has the biggest trouble climbing in this hot weather, even though – and this was a first – her altimeter was well below zero before takeoff. But we manage to get over these ranges south of Death Valley, and as soon as we can reach what’s now Joshua Approach, we ask for and get a clearance through the MOA and head straight back towards Burbank. We cross Rosamont Airport and shortly thereafter admire the big runways and markings at Edwards Air Force Base – the alternate for the space shuttles to land when the weather is not good enough for them in Florida.
Things start to look very familiar again now, and soon we start to let down and are in our close home territory.
“Burbank Approach, Cherokee 08L, over Agua Dulce, eight thousand five hundred, landing Burbank with Information Zulu.”