Back in Warrenton!

Saturday was a rest day for us. We stayed with Allen's mom. In the morning we headed up to the airport, where we got fuel for the plane and gave rides to Allen's mom and friends as well as seeing the sights from the air.

Sunday, we had a relaxed morning and did some hiking. After lunch we headed out. Our first stop was in Hot Springs, VA at Ingalls Field (HSP). This is the highest airport east of the Mississippi River, with an elevation of  3793 ft. A Citation jet took off just after we landed and another arrived while we were getting ready to go. This is a small, but busy airport. From Ingalls, we headed straight for the Warrenton Airpark, to show off the new plane. Then we flew by the Flying Circus Aerodrome before heading over to the Warrenton County Airport (HWY) where the plane will be based for now. 

All in all, it was a fun trip and we accomplished almost everything we planned to (we missed out on Death Valley), but we had some other unplanned adventures. Both of us are happy about the way the trip turned out. And there's always next year for Death Valley and the other things we couldn't fit into this trip!

Burke's Garden near Tazewell, VA:

Ingalls Field:

Unpacking at the hangar in Warrenton:

Back in Virginia!

(Post from 10/15 - we didn't have internet Friday or Saturday, and I was too tired/lazy on Sunday)

We made it back into Tazewell, VA today! In the morning we made it out of Conway, and flew to Caruthersville, MO. The flight was mainly over farmers' fields with little excitement aside from a couple of fields being burned until we reached the Mississippi River. This was quite a sight with a lot of barge traffic up and down the river. We saw several huge barges being pushed around by tug boats. The Caruthersville Airport (M05) was a nice place. We asked about a place to eat and the man at the FBO gave us directions to several places and use of the airport courtesy car. We ended up going to a nice little barbecue joint about 2 miles from the airport. Then it was on to Kentucky! Heading northeast, we passed by the Kentucky Dam at the end of Kentucky Lake on our way to the Muhlenburg Airport (M21). We then proceeded east past Mammoth Cave National Park (not much to see from the air) and Lake Cumberland to Lake Cumberland Airport (SME) near Sommerset, KY. After refueling, we headed direct for Tazewell, VA (JFZ) for a beautiful evening flight over the mountains of eastern Kentucky and western Virginia. We made it into Tazewell just in time and were greeted by a welcoming committee (JP, the awesome guy who works at the FBO and Allen's mom). We had a good dinner and went to sleep.

The White River in Arkansas:

Barges on the Mississippi: 

 Kentucky Lake:

 The hills of eastern Kentucky:

Palo Duro Canyon (TX), Oklahoma and Arkansas

We made some good headway today. We grabbed a quick breakfast in the morning and caught the shuttle back to the airport. When we took off, we headed south and flew down through the Palo Duro Canyon. This is quite a beautiful canyon. Parts of it look like a miniature version of the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately, we didn't get many pictures since we ran out of batteries for the camera.

Start of the Palo Duro Canyon:

After flying through the canyon we turned northwest and headed to Hobart Regional Airport (HBR) in Oklahoma, and then on to Seminole, OK (SRE). This part of the trip was relatively boring. The terrain was mostly farmland, broken up by little interesting terrain. There were some rivers which cut some small canyons in the land, but for the most part we headed straight east, following the long straight roads. Our next flight was from SRE to Sallisaw, OK (JSV). This flight was more interesting. We crossed a beautiful lake and reservoir with impressive bridges over it and numerous small islands. From JSV, we continued on to Cantrell Airport (CWS) in Conway, Arkansas. Most of this flight was along the Arkansas River and past the Ozarks, so there was more beautiful scenery. We are spending the night in Conway, near the airport and are hoping to get an early start tomorrow, so if the weather holds we will make Tazewell, VA tomorrow night.

Finally Getting Somewhere

Today was our first real travel day. We woke up at the hotel in Aztec, got breakfast and walked back to the airport (less than a mile). We took off and headed southeast towards Albuquerque, NM to meet back up with I-40. Skirting mountains, we landed at Sandia East Airpark (1N1) on the east side of Albuquerque. From there we took off and headed due east along I-40 to Tucumcari (TCC). Coming in to land, we saw three Marine helicopters lined up on the ramp. As we were fueling up, the helicopters began spooling up their engines and taking off. The first two hovered in place just over the ramp until the third joined them in formation. Then all three lifted off and were gone. From Tucumcari, we went to Tradewind (TDW) just outside the inner ring of the class C airspace around Amarillo, TX. This seems to be a fairly busy training airport. A man met us on the ramp and called the Holiday Inn Shuttle to come pick us up. We had dinner in the hotel restaurant. The service was extraordinarily slow despite the place being almost empty and when the food came it was only so-so. O well. We have another ground covering day ahead of us tomorrow!

The Mountains Around Albuquerque: 

On the way to Tucumcari: 

Just West of Amarillo, TX: 

Lake Powell, Monument Valley and Four Corners

 It was a beautiful morning when we awoke in Page. The first thing we did was go to the restaurant next door for a good hearty breakfast. Classic Air at Page Airport came and picked us up. Then we took off for a beautiful flight over Lake Powell. Following Lake Powell past Navajo Mountain, we entered into the canyon lands of Utah.

Over Lake Powell:

A side canyon:

We landed at Cal Black Memorial Airport (U96) for gas. It is a nice quiet airport in the middle of nowhere. The guy working there was very friendly. We were the only airplane at the airport. The guy there recommended the restaurant in Monument Valley, and since we were getting hungry, we decided to go. We called for permission to land and were told to come on over.

On the way to Monument Valley:

Monument Valley Airport is privately owned by a company which runs a lodge, campground and restaurant. It looks like they do aerial tours as well, since when we pulled up there was a large fleet of Caravans and Twin Otters there. It is a very neat airport - one end of the runway ends just short of a large cliff face. As we pulled up in the tie down area in Monument Valley, a van pulled up to take us to the restaurant just up the hill from the airport. We had a good lunch there with amazing views of Monument Valley. As we ate, we saw the entire fleet of airplanes taking off. One Twin Otter returned to pick up a bus load of tourists as we were finishing up lunch. We walked back to the airport and took off for a tour of Monument Valley.

The plane at Monument Valley Airport:

Monument Valley: 

After Monument Valley, we headed off towards Four Corners, and flew through Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Utah in about a minute! We then headed off towards Aztec, New Mexico (N19). The airport is located on top of a mesa. The man working there drove us down to a motel in town, less than a mile from the airport at the bottom of the mesa. We'll spend the night here and hopefully start seriously covering some ground in the morning.

Four Corners:

Grand Canyon Caverns and the Grand Canyon

Today was a big day as far as sightseeing goes. We started off the day with a good hot breakfast at the motel, then we went on a tour of the Grand Canyon Caverns. Though the entrance to the caverns is miles (~30) away from the Grand Canyon, the system of caverns extends all the way to the wall of the Grand Canyon. It is a dry cavern, so the formations are no longer forming and everything in there is very well preserved. There were some beautiful formations!

Inside Grand Canyon Caverns:

After the tour, we packed up, checked out and headed off towards Valle airport (40G), which was to be the staging point for our touring of the Grand Canyon. We headed up onto the Colorado Plateau, which offered some beautiful views of cliffs and a sudden change in the elevation of the surrounding terrain. Valle is a quiet little airport with a lot of neat stuff. Inside the FBO building are a lot of old cars and motorcycles (from the 20's and 30's), all beautifully restored and in working condition. The guy at the FBO was very friendly and brought us to one of the hangars in which there were several antique airplanes, all beautifully restored and airworthy. Valle is also home to a flying Ford Tri-motor, though right now the plane is at Page airport (our next destination) for engine work.

Once we had fueled up at Valle, we were off to begin our tour of the Grand Canyon. Climbing up to 10,000 ft we headed off along the southern rim of the canyon. The views were absolutely stunning.

The Grand Canyon (we have lots more pictures):

We then headed back to Valle for some more fuel before leaving for Page (PGA). This initially involved climbing up to 11,500 ft to fly through the Zuni corridor over the Grand Canyon. This corridor gave us fantastic views of the Bright Angel area of the canyon as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. After crossing through the corridor, we began a slow descent into Page, on the shore of Lake Powell. We arrived just as the sun was starting to set. All of the rocks were a stunning red color. We were met at the edge of the runway by a man from the FBO who showed us where to park and brought us into town for dinner and a place to stay.

Lake Powell:

On to Arizona!

We met a great group of pilots last night at Apple Valley's Midfield Aviation. The FBO/Flight School there held a barbecue for the night flying gathering. We booked a hotel in town, and were offered a ride to it by one of the pilots there. We ended up staying at the Econolodge in Hesperia. It was nothing fancy, but it was a place to stay for the night. In the morning we took a cab back to the airport. An RV-8 was stuck in the ditch at the airport. Apparently he had a break lock up upon landing after 4 hours of it being flown since completed! After chatting with the people at the FBO and filling up on fuel we were on our way. We got a fairly late start. We turned and headed east over the mountains direct to Laughlin/Bullhead airport (IFP) on the recommendation of a man at the FBO. The flight was beautiful over some very desolate stretches of desert with no people in sight. After about two hours, we crossed over a final ridge and descended into the Colorado River valley where Laughlin/Bullhead is located. The valley is right at the southern point of Nevada, where it meets Arizona and Colorado. We landed at the airport (in Arizona) and the woman at Landmark Aviation called Riverside Casino and they sent us a shuttle to take us to the casino for lunch.

Laughlin seems to be a strip of Casinos along the river (on the Nevada side). The river there is beautiful, clear and lined with trees. Riverside was the closest casino to the bridge over the river. We ate at a restaurant with a great view of the river. The food was...edible. We caught a shuttle back, fueled up and took off into a strong headwind, climbing like we were in an elevator. We easily made it over the ~4500 foot mountain pass on the east side of the valley and were on our way towards Grand Canyon Caverns. Once there, we found ourselves at a gravel strip a little over one mile above sea level. The strip itself is in relatively good condition, but the tiedown area is rather sparse and the brush on the sides of the taxiway would hit the wings of a low wing plane. We were the only airplane there, although a man at the motel said there were two on friday. The staff is very friendly and willing to help. We walked out to the back of the motel at night, and since the motel really is out in the middle of nowhere, on the longest remaining stretch of historic Route 66, the stars were absolutely stunning. The milky way was bright and there were a few shooting stars. Tomorrow, we'll tour the Grand Canyon!

On the way to Laughlin/Bullhead:

Laughlin/Bullhead along the Colorado River:

The Grand Canyon off in the distance on the way to Grand Canyon Caverns:

At Grand Canyon Caverns:

Pictures from Day 1

The museum where the plane was based:

Flying around in the desert Southwest:

The Adventure Begins

Things are already not going as planned, but there is plenty of adventure to be had and we're having fun!

We stayed at the Oxford Inn last night, which was pleasant enough and served a good hot breakfast. In the morning, the weather was absolutely perfect over southern California. The skies were clear, winds were light and visibility was fantastic over the high desert. Scott and his wife picked us up at the hotel and took us to William J. Fox Field (WJF) in Lancaster, CA. They treated us to Lancaster's musical road, which was very fun! The asphalt is grooved along a section of road so that if you drive over it at the right speed it sounds like music. When we arrived at the airport we checked out the plane. Allen's first impression was that she's pretty. Lucy went up with Scott for a couple bounces and we were told by tower that they had no transponder signal from us. After troubleshooting the problem in the runup area and trying again, we decided to go back to the museum to figure out what the problem was. After taking off the bottom engine cowling we discovered that the antenna had become disconnected. It was an easy fix and then Lucy and Allen went up for their first flight in the plane together. Allen got to fly to get used to the plane before we set off. He made a beautiful wheel landing. After that we fueled up and went back to the museum to pack up our stuff and head out of town. Upon calling Furnace Creek Airport (L06) in Death Valley, we learned that the airport would be unattended as of 3pm and there would be no fuel if we landed after that. Deciding not to chance it since it was getting rather late, we decided to head due east and stop at Barstow-Daggett Airport (DAG) before heading off to Boulder City, NV (BVU).

We headed east past Edwards Air Force Base, passing just south of Rosamund dry lake bed, with views of Rogers dry lake off in the distance. As we left the valley, we went into some interesting terrain, with ridges and mountains. We picked up the Mojave "River" and followed it to Barstow. The river had about as much water in it as the lakes at Edwards, but it still served as a great landmark. We landed in Barstow without incident, and were greeted by someone from the FBO who fueled the plane for us. After making a quick rest stop, we went back to the plane to fly on to Boulder City. This didn't happen. When we started taxiing we noticed that the plane was not as responsive as it had been. We stopped to check it out and discovered that the tailwheel was flat. We chocked the plane in the runup area and walked back to the FBO to get some help. The guy got a compressed air container, put in the back of his truck and drove us back out to the plane. We pumped the tire up and taxied it back to the FBO. We saw that it was leaking pretty badly. They didn't have any replacements on the field but they called nearby Apple Valley Airport (APV) for us. He pumped the tire back up for us and we were able to land at Apple Valley without incident. We got a replacement tire and tube at the FBO and were able to fix it. Since it was getting late, we decided to stay in Apple Valley for the night, but we took the plane up to fly around a bit in the last remaining light. Right now, we're sitting around a fire with some people from Apple Valley. There is a barbecue since tonight is a special night flying event!

Lancaster

We finally made it to Lancaster. The flight to LA was nice with beautiful views of the country. We had a nice flight over the canyonlands, culminating in a view of the Grand Canyon from around 30,000 ft. Allen is finally convinced that 10,500 ft msl over the Grand Canyon won't be too high to see anything! Descending into LA, we saw the Hollywood sign. Now I can cross LA off of the list of places I should go see.

The drive from LAX to Lancaster was less than pleasant. The shuttle driver said the traffic was the worst he had seen. It took almost three hours to get to Lancaster. There were two incidents on the highway, each of which closed one of the lanes. I guess we got the full LA experience. I wouldn't want to do that drive even once more, but there were two girls on the shuttle who commute from LA to Mojave five days a week! Anyway, the shuttle left us off less than half a mile from the hotel, and we went to Marie Callender's next door for a quick dinner. We're all set for the morning!

The Route

Our preliminary route is up! This route takes us approximately 2800 miles into thirteen different states (though we barely make it into Colorado). We fly out for Lancaster, CA tomorrow where we will stay the night before heading off to Death Valley, the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. Our exciting first day on the road will conclude with a stop for the night at Grand Canyon Caverns, barring any problems. Other notable stops on our trip include Lake Powell, Monument Valley, Four Corners (hence the bit of Colorado), Palo Duro Canyon, the Ozarks and of course, the Mississippi River. As currently planned, our route will take us from altitudes of approximately 210 feet below sea level in Death Valley to 11,500 feet in a VFR corridor over the Grand Canyon. We realize that things often happen which cause trips to not be completed as planned, but no matter what happens this promises to be a great adventure!

Planned Route:

View Planned Route in a larger map

Actual Route:

View Current Location in a larger map