What a day!!
My good friend Ed drove us back to the SkyRanch / Carefree airport just
outside Scottsdale (Arizona), from where we take off northbound towards more
mountains and desert.
At the airfield, there are homes built just besides the taxi way, you drive your airplane from the runway to your home, and the car from the other side!
At the airfield, there are homes built just besides the taxi way, you drive your airplane from the runway to your home, and the car from the other side!
Houses are built on the most incredible places...
Long freight trains run almost parallel to us, and soon, once more, we cross the river Colorado.
On the Arizona side of the river, the airport of Bullhead City, and on the Nevada side, the casino...
To cross the river, there is a small ferry boat, not visible from up here.
We land at the airport of Kidwell/Searchlight
(Nevada) to add one more State to our list. The field is quite busy today since
Mr. Obama is in Las Vegas (which is a few miles north of here), working on his
re-election, and all the airports of the area are subject to a TFR = closed to
most private traffic during almost 3 days.
This situation has obliged the helicopter operators ferrying
tourists into the Grand Canyon area to move out of Las Vegas and use small
peripherical landing strips such as Kidwell.
For refueling, we land in Kingman (Arizona), where
numerous airplanes seem to end their lives (DHL, Spanair, Delta, Star Alliance, and many others)
The dry climate permits storing these planes in adequate conditions.
Engines are covered to protect them from the winds and sand.
After a short lunch at the local Cafe, we continue
Eastbound towards Lake Powell and the Monument Valley area, but need to stop
(and refuel) in Kanab (Utah), so that we can add again another State to our list.
The Grand Canyon is approaching...
The Colorado river deep at the bottom of the valley
The mountains turn red from the sun starting to go down on the west.
The views are spectacular, and after circling for a
while the different peaks, we head to our destination of the day, Window Rock
(Arizona).
The 3 videos below give a short impression of the spectacular views we enjoyed today.
Our destination today, Window Rock (Arizona) is the highest elevation airport we will land at during our trip, 6742 ft MSL, after a total of 5.8 hours of flight. Arriving shortly before sunset, the temperature at this altitude is still reported on the ATIS at 24C (about 76F), and the density altitude as 9500ft… Remember to keep the right speed on approach, and to set the right level on the mixture!!
The FBO and the terminal are closed, the mobile
phone has no signal, but luckily a pilot of a Twin air ambulance finishing his day
gives us a ride to our hotel close by.
The place we stay at is not a 5 Star hotel, we are in the indian land.
The restaurant is Navajo style, as are the customers and the waitresses.
We seem to be the
attraction of the evening.
Time for sleeping, but leave your boots outside the door….
No comments:
Post a Comment