The proper way to procure and transport aircraft parts
While moving some stuff around in the hangar a support strap for the right wing of the Luscombe had a catastrophic release failure
causing the wing to drop and punching a big honkin' hole in the leading edge - later to be chronicled in The Five Franklin Boo Boo
But something was in the cards - the replacement part was in Phoenix, the Maule was in Tucson and a client had an airplane at
Lake Havasu that he wanted moved to Byron. Finally the weather Gods capitulated and I was on my way.
I got into Phoenix around 9am, we hit Chandler and picked up the new leading edge and had a whole day to mess around
On the way down to Marana
Can't really tell from this degraded copy but there are people standing up there on top
Marana has, what I believe is, the entire fleet of the only remaining Beech Starships - all six of them
Later in the day we did a sunset flight around the local area. I guess you could call this 'Desert Sprawl'
If you like golf
There's still some spots available
Join the crowd
Here's the imfamous Eco something or other
I guess it was supposed to be some sort of sealed, self contained and self reliant eco-system but they got busted sneaking Big Macs
in through the back door. Now it's just a tourist attraction with an empty parking lot and no tourists
Build it and there's a fair chance they may not come
Neat thing about flying, you're just cruising along and you never know what's gonna pop up under you that will make you go -wow!
Sunset time makes for some pretty neat colors and shadows
So we're cruising along enjoying this awesome scenery and for some reason after all these years
I suddenly notice that Maule doesn't allow their owners to smoke in their airplanes
There's that mountain again but no people on top this time
Just up the road from Marana is Pinal where there are an awful lot of parked jetliners and some interesting guvment stuff
Marana has an assortment of old Constellations, DC6's and a P2
This has got to be the 'Artsiest' open pit mine I've ever seen
Next morning - headed up to Havasu now
Just joking - it actually fit in there perfect with the passenger seat folded down
Headed across the Mojave in a venerable Cessna 150 again. The desert is pretty green this time of year
Not sure what this is just north of Lancaster on the southern slopes of the Tahachipi's
Weather was great except for some haze and fog in the central valley
Not much snow for January
As usual most of the fog was concentrated at the southern end near Bakersfield
I didn't have a gps so I used I5
Harris Rance has a runway that I swear must be about 15 feet wide
Just north of there is a big feed lot where some say they get the cows to make those steaks
To top the day off - a late afternoon drive home on the back roads in the Alfa
I'll never sell this car