almost made it
Byron CA to Pryor OK in two days in a 150
I depart at the crack of dawn decieved by the naive notion that I can make it to Albuquerque in a day
The early morning light casts an eerie hue on the fading greens of late spring as California slowly changes back into the
Golden State
The shadows hilight the terrain
The hills almost look like waves on an ocean
As I near the southern end of the valley I encounter my first snag
The Tehachipis are clouded over so I climb another 2000 feet to pick up the ATIS of my destination on the other side
They are reporting 3 mile visibility and at this point I'm looking at being in a questionable fuel situation by the time I reach
Lancaster. I also have no idea how far this cloud bank extends - probably just to the southern side of the mountains but
I decide to let down in Bakersfield to refuel and face this with a better safety margin
I even consider turning around and heading back home but let's have a look-see first
So with full tanks and 9500 feet of altitude I head a bit west and find a nice opening for a VFR pilot in a 150
The other side is wide open - I probably could have made it through but "probably" ain't good enough for me
Problem now is that my plan is all jacked up because I most likely don't have the fuel to make it to Kingman as originally planned
So I decide to try make it to Bullhead City instead
But after looking at the map and seeing that there aren't any other places to go to out there in the middle of the Mojave
I decide I'd better stop off in Barstow and top off the tanks again. This ain't like flying the Maule with those rediculously
long legs. I also don't have the JPI telling me nearly exactly how much fuel I have onboard.
The terrain is a lot more hostile looking in real life than it is on the sectional
And there really ain't nothin' out here
and I mean really nothin'
There's an eerie solitude to being out here if you get a grip on the reality of where you actually are
Finally some civilization as I approach Bullhead City
Arizona here I come
Kingman
Notice that ridge to the east - more about that later
Jeeze, I didn't know anyone still flew 27,s
But then I guess these guys are mothballed - sitting out here in the desert like someone is gonna use them again someday
So I depart Kingman in mid afternoon heat with full tanks and density altitude around 9,000 feet
I'm headed towards that rising terrain and ridge to the east trying to coax the little 150 up to 9500 to get over the high terrain
around Flagstaff. When I got to that ridge I hit an updraft that pegged the VSI and lifted me like a leaf. As I soared through 10,000 ft
at somewhere over 2000 fpm I freaked out, cut the throttle and put the nose down in an attempt to prevent myself from going into orbit.
Well, that was a mistake because all that rising air has to suck it out of someplace and soon I found myself at 60 kts, full throttle and
sinking at 1000 fpm - should have taken all the free altitude I could get but let me tell you, it was pretty freaky going up like that
I hit a few more ups and downs but eventually it settled out and I was able to get on with it
The desert is weird, the high grounds are like oasii with lush green vegitation and lots of water
North of Flagstaff is the Gand Canyon but to the south are some pretty spectacular canyons I never knew existed
until now
Humphrey's Peak is over 12000 feet
Flagstaff Airport
Descending terrain to the east lets down back into desert
Meteor Crater looks pretty small on the sectional - I was afraid I might miss it
Not a chance
I did a few turns around it before heading into Winslow - it's actually kind of square shaped
There were a few tourists out there
Not a whole bunch though - I guess it's still early in the season
Believe it or not, there is a "Blonde" joke about this
On a commercial flight the captain announced that if the passengers would look out the left side of the airplane
they could see the meteor crater. A Blonde passenger looked out her window and exclaimed
"Whoa!! It just barely missed that parking lot!"
I planned to fuel up at Winslow but when I approached I noticed a pretty good crosswind, well I mean a real good crosswind
the kind you couldn't even land a 150 in so I did a go around for the other runway and noticed she didn't have a whole lot of
poop in her. The density altitude was reported as 9800 ft and Iwas pretty worn out so I decided to call it a day
I don't know if that little 150 could have made it out of there with full tanks and didn't want to find out
So here I am, early next morning. Density altitude still surprisingly high and I'm climbing out along I-40
like a fully laden B-17 at 150 fpm
Nice smooth air though and a pleasant ride with a steady climb over some spectacular morning scenery
Beautiful colors and patterns as I pass overhead - so much nicer in early morning as opposed to mid afternoon
Bizarre patterns of erosion
Mesas, escarpments, canyons?
or a hybrid mixture?
I've got some good altitude now to get over the high stuff near Albuquerque
More cool looking erosion
Colorful canyons
This is the last of the high ground, after Albuquerque it's all down hill
I fueled up at Double Eagle outside Albuquerque and ate a late breakfast at the restaurant above Bodies
There's a big Class C area around the main airport and a complicated procedure to get through it to the canyon to go east
I asked one of the instructors at the FBO the easiest way and he said just go around the North side of the mountain
So that's what I did. The "mountain" is a huge esparpment about 9800 feet high
I was smooth goiong by but further east as IO passed south of the Sante Fe mountains I hit some wicked turbulence
that put a stop to my photo taking for about an hour
The terrain didn't look so threatening, I think the turbulence was coming from the mountains to the north
Eventually it settled down and I raced the cloud shadows over level ground with a good tailwind
Up ahead was Tradewinds Airport near Amarillo
This would be my final stop. After fueling up and preparing to depart on my final leg into Oklahoma the engine started running
really, really crappy. I had noticed a bit of a vibration or roughness on the way in to Amarillo but it was subtle and I
wasn't convinced that it wasn't just my imagination. Turned out I had a stuck exhaust valve on #3 cylinder
There's a great maintenance shop right there at Tradewinds called Amarillo Aero and Dave, the manager gave me a ride to
the airport where I eventually caught a Soutwest flight back to SFO. They took care of the stuck valve and got the plane up
to the owner in Oklahoma so it all turned out okay in the end
But that's why I call this page Noklahoma - cause I didn't quite make it (ha, ha)