The Sky Around Here

#85 - I didn’t know his name was Jacek until just the other day. I’d seen him often over the years, a few days straight then maybe not for a few.

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     The Sky Around Here 

I live close to Buchanan Field. It has dozens of small planes, Cessnas and the like, corporate jets, and one small commercial jet airline. 

When the airfield began in the 1940s, it was initially for the county, but the Army Airforce took it over for a base to train pilots. They added land to it and built the airport facilities. 

In 1946, they returned the airfield to the county but continued to use it for troop transport, especially during the Korean War. 

The airfield was used for a scene in the movie American Graffiti in 1972. 

By 1977, Buchanan Field was the 16^th busiest airport in the country, ahead of San Francisco International, JFK International, and LaGuardia Airport. 

The economic boon to the county was also considered a nuisance and danger to those nearby. 

What was once rural agricultural countryside was now surrounded by businesses and residential property. 

The county imposed “noise restrictions” on the airfield restricting certain aircraft from flying. 

There have been “accidents”. One notable one in 1985 involved a small plane crashing onto the roof of Macy’s, at the Sun Valley Mall, killing several people and injuring dozens more from the burning aviation fuel that quickly spread throughout the store. 

Thus began the slowdown and then the cessation of commuter airlines operating from the airfield.

A few small airlines have tried to make a go of it since then but it didn’t work out for them. There is only one now. 

Many now want the airfield closed. I hope that doesn’t come to pass. 

I didn’t know his name was Jacek until just the other day. I’d seen him often over the years, a few days straight then maybe not for a few. 

He is a regular sight in the skies around my neighborhood. 

I saw him regularly from my backyard. Looking south through the trees, my view saw him flying down the backstretch of his loop when he was doing his touch and goes.  

I could hear him, too, when the wind was right. His engine had a distinctive sound.  

He did touch and goes for the better part of an hour. Each loop was just over a minute and a half long depending on the air traffic. That’s a lot of touch and goes. 

I thought it was an acrobat plane, being so small. It could turn on a dime.

I never saw him doing stunts, but his precipitous dive and 180° hairpin landing turn to line up with the runway qualified as a stunt by my reckoning. 

I was surprised to find out it was a kit plane. An RV-6. Perhaps he built it himself. It is a very popular kit plane, having sold thousands. 

I called it “the Schwinn” as its colors reminded me of that classic bicycle, the Flying Star. It has an off-white beige for the top half of the fuselage and a rich burgundy for the wings and lower half. It was a beauty. 

Though we saw each other often, Jacek and I never met. 

It depended on how often I was on the Iron Horse Trail and whether he was flying or not, and upon which runway he used due to the wind’s direction. 

It was mid-morning, with me on the trail and him in the sky, that we “knew” each other.

The asphalt trail runs alongside Walnut Creek paralleling the airfield.  

With him using the main runway and taking off into a south wind, we were set up for our encounters. 

It was on his return north for his landing that the sun was in the best position and flying to position himself between me and the sun, he could tag me with his shadow when his timing was right. It was his game.  

I caught on. It was now my game, too. I looked forward to it. 

There is a half mile sweet spot stretch of trail where he could best go for a shadow-tag. He could get in a few attempts at it depending on how fast I was going on the trail. 

And if near his landing approach, he would also be on his dive and turn making it that much more of a challenge. He’d cut the engine back to idle as he made the dive and then glide in. 

If he was approaching me from the rear, he often caught me by surprise.  

When I saw him coming and could see he was set up for an intercept, I would dodge his shadow by moving a few yards to the side at the last moment after he was committed to his line of flight.  

On occasion, he would wave his wings “Hello”. 

He was often low enough that I could see his smile and hand wave and the microphone on his headset. 

I could hear the wind rushing over his wings as they sliced through the air. 

Upon touching down he’d power up for another short run takeoff, make a steep climb for a few hundred feet and while making his left turn half circle, he would level off headed back toward the airfield. 

Last week, shortly after takeoff, the RV-6 plummeted to the ground.  

A witness said the engine quit.  

He lacked the altitude and speed to glide out of it. He landed in an intersection just off the airfield property. 

Jacek didn’t survive. He was 75. He will be missed. 

RIP Jacek. 

The sky around here has changed. 

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