Flying Out West

[GAHorn]

...At 5,192 ft asl, I recommend that you depart with minimum fuel, saw off the handles of your tooth brushes, and fly in your underwear to keep weight to a minimum.....

I was just thinkin' of when he and I rolled off the end of the runway trying to fly away from the mid-year meeting.... and the image of sittin' next to Ol'gar in his underwear made me feel sick-er than the takeoff roll did.

[doug8082a]

Wow, Pete! I'd sure like to see that in the calendar next year! Is the original high enough resolution for Doug to use?

John

Thanks John!

Pete - that photo looks like it has been cropped. do you have the original in a hi-res format? I'd love to get that one in the calendar!

email or PM me if necessary.

[pdb]

Doug and John:

The original photo was scanned from film and I do not have the negative. The photo was taken by one of my flying buddies from the UK when we flew from Anchorage to Monument Valley a few years ago. It is one of my favorite pictures. My friend took it while I was preflighting for an early morning departure. The plane was freshly polished and was reflecting the desert colors and the predawn sky was providing perfect light.


I have it posted in Flickr and will send you an invite this evening to view the original. I am afraid that it won't be high enough quality for publication purposes.


Pete

[GAHorn]

I'll bet the original print can suffice, tho'.

[doug8082a]

Thanks Pete. I'll see what I can do with the image from Flickr. Otherwise, as George points out, if I could get a hi-res scan of the print, that might work out as well.

[hilltop170]

Was finally able to depart Fredericksburg, TX yesterday but had to fly under low clouds until NW of Midland. The best winds were down low anyway so it made for a quick flight to Lovington, NM for cheap gas.

Then another quick but turbulent flight to Santa Fe where the winds were 230 at 22G35. Landing on runway 20 wasn't bad at all. A quick tour of the plaza and a great mexican food meal with blue corn enchiladas at Maria's. Oh yeah, the margaritas weren't bad either. They have a list of specialty margaritas and the most expensive is $45.00!!! I had the $5 ones.

It's off to Payson today trying to outrun a storm system that is in Utah headed this way. It's time to fly south. Hopefully I'll be able to run into Dave Clark.

[cessna170bdriver]

http://silvairehair3.home.comcast.net/032007/

Some good photos of a "Trip out West" a couple of weeks ago.

I'm fortunate enough to have visited most of the places shown.

Miles

[170C]

Spectacular photography! Thanks for sharing.

[hilltop170]

After my departure from Texas was delayed four days, I finally made the trip out west to New Mexico and Arizona just in time to get back home for low clouds, rain, and an April ice storm here in the Texas hill country. Weather never gets boring around here. Thankfully the weather on the trip was almost perfect the entire time.

After leaving Santa Fe and a CAVU flight over beautiful scenery resembling Bryce Canyon and the Painted Desert and then the beautiful Mogollon Rim (pronounced "muggyun" by the locals) I landed at Payson, AZ for the first time ever. That has to be one of the most beautiful airports around. Come to think of it, a lot of Arizona airports meet that classification.



The 170 is still in Alaska


I was pleased to catch Dave Clark at the airport and had lunch with Dave (in the middle) and a couple of his friends at the airport cafe. Thanks Dave.


Then a low-level afternoon flight down to Tucson via Roosevelt Lake.

Globe, AZ with it's huge open pit copper mine.


At Tucson's Ryan Field I was fortunate to be able to have a look at one of only ten Lionhearts. What a beautiful machine. And I thought the C-195 was hard to see out of out the front, the windshield is almost horizontal!


The next day my nephew flew his C-180 and we both took a load of his fellow A-10 pilot buddies/wives down to the Bisbee Breakfast Club cafe. They have excellent food, at breakfast anyway. What a cool town to explore. The abandoned mine facilities, open pit, and old town could take a couple of days to explore but we were only there a couple hours for breakfast and the quick tour of town which included a goofy car and the dog/cat/rat stack of animals as well as the open pit with that nasty pond at the bottom. Anybody want to go swimming? The airport has courtesy cars and welcomes visiting pilots.






Next I flew down to Sierra Vista, AZ to visit more friends. Their house faces east and has a great "sierra vista", day and night. It's amazing this is southern Arizona, it's not desert, but it is about 5000'msl and cool.

The moon rising over Naco, Mexico


Finally it was time to head home, east along the U.S./Mexican border,

past Guadalupe Peak (the highest point in Texas at 8751'msl),

thru the west Texas oil fields,


and back to the hill country at sunset where it all started.


It was a great trip, even if four days shorter than originally planned. The weather was excellent and I met quite a few new friends. I'm ready to go again.

P.S. Miles, I didn't have time to get that far west, I'll take a rain check and see you next time.