This was a true experience I had while visiting. I had driven down from the SF Bay area because one of my two father in laws was going to fly up in his Beechcraft Bonanza V tail (which is a low wing high performance aircraft he owned then. I had been interested in flying and he was the president then of his flying club in southern California. As I met him at the Monterey Airport he asked where I wanted to fly to. At the time Ventana Wilderness has just burned down a lot in a fire so I asked if we could fly down there and do a fly over. He thought it would be really great to fly a little out to sea and watch the cliffs on the way down especially from Point Lobos on down towards Big Sur and then fly inland up the Ventana Wilderness area. I had hiked the 13 miles into Sykes Camp Hot Springs in the 80s with my older kids to teach them survival skills. My 2nd wife and I were training our kids then to survive literally anything in the wilderness. So, we only took sandwiches in and jackets, that's all and then we hiked in 13 miles without sleeping bags or a tent to train them better for survival.
My wife had by then helped lead an expedition of teenagers into Idaho Wilderness without sleeping bags as well in order to train them to survive off the land with Larry Dean Olson by then as well. Our kids were about 10 to 14 years old then and I think we were beginning to train them for survival in the Himalayas where we went for 4 months within about a year from then.
So, we went in just with jackets and a sandwich and fire making tools. So, when it got dark we built a fire and heated up hot river rocks and put them an inch or so under the sand to keep our backs warm through the night. However, by 3 to 6 am it got pretty cold so we all got up and built another fire.
We knew the kids were going to break at some point as this is what happens during a survival excercise. My oldest stepson broke the last while hiking out the next morning and he was the hardest to "get back in his body" from this experience. But, understanding your breaking point is one of the main things you have to learn about survival in the wilderness and what to do then.
Later on, all our kids understood what we were trying to do to prepare them for "ANYTHING" in life in this "outward bound" kind of experience. They all became much more self sufficient through this and other survival exercises which has helped them all their lives ever since.
My oldest stepson really liked the out of doors and became a Fire Captain eventually here in California as a direct result for CDF.
Anyway, as my Step Father in law flew me down the coast it was an incredibly beautiful day watching all the cliffs while we flew by at around 2000 feet along the ocean until we got to Big Sur. We flew over the Lighthouse near there too. So, then we flew inland up through Ventana Wilderness and I pointed out Sykes Camp where my then ex-wife and kids had hiked into years before.
But, as we prepared to land at Monterey airport we seemed way to high for me as we were at least 5000 to 7000 feet in altitude. He had flown high to avoid the bumps lower down while flying over the coastal range (when you fly over mountains the winds are often rough). So, he had flown high to lessen the air pressure so we wouldn't bump so much. So now, we were 5000 to 7000 feet above the airport. So, I expected him to fly around losing altitude or something.
However, instead we slowed and dropped like a rock. This scared me a lot because I was used to flying high wing planes and doing this might have ripped the wings off a high wing plane so I was white knuckling it at this point wondering if this mid 80s pilot at that point was going to kill us both. However, I knew he was president of his flying club and had flown for 35 years at this point but I was still scared but didn't say anything because I knew he was an expert pilot.
Just before we hit the airport he lifted the nose and landed like a pro. But, I almost fainted because I had never seen flying like this ever done before with me in the plane.
He was obviously showing me what an incredibly high performance plane a Beechcraft Bonanza V Tail actually is.
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