Pug’s Place

This morning I took to the sky and headed west to a state I had formerly not visited. I flew a bit over 350 miles from Phoenix to Blythe, California as my “long” cross country flight: One of the requirements for my pilot’s certificate is to take a solo flight and make three landings to a full stop at three different airports, two of which must be at least 50 miles apart with a total distance of at least 150 miles. Since I hadn’t been to California, I decided (with my flight instructor’s approval) to fly there for this long trip. I took off from Stellar, circumnavigated the Sierra Estrella mountains westbound to Buckeye Airport and then flew west over 70 miles of semi-empty desert to California. The flight out was totally uneventful - exactly as I like it. The air was smooth and the air temperature - at 6,500 feet - was a cool 73 degrees. At the end of my flight the desert turned verdant green and I knew I found the Colorado River.

I began descending into Blythe when I flew over the I-10 bridge across the Colorado River. I then skirted the south side of the city of Blythe and landed at its airport. Blythe Airport has freshly-painted runway markings but the lone hanger has seen better days. I did a lousy job of parking the plane (though the parking area was almost empty), shut it off and walked into the little building. The Fixed Base Operator (FBO) was quite polite and didn’t look at me odd when I walked in wearing my Gators hat and said, “So, this is California.” He just looked tired and said, “Yeah” and looked back to his TV. I bought a bottle of fruit juice and walked out to call home. I talked to Mom and Dad to say I was in California for the first time, they were surprised, suddenly worried and not a little upset. Standing in the shade of the plane’s wing with the air temperature a moderate 109 degrees I tried to reassure them that the flight was fine, I wasn’t tired, the plane was fine, I had my plan to get back and the weather was beautiful (if hot). After I got off the phone with Mom and Dad I called Chris to assure him as well that I was fine. After I took a couple pictures posing with the plane I taxied back to the wind-favored runway and took to the air again, this time climbing to 7,500 feet and heading back to Phoenix via Gila Bend.

I backtracked into Arizona until I had passed around the restricted / military airspace in the western part of the state and then headed southeast to Gila Bend. Remember, to count as my “long” cross country flight I had to land (and stop) at three airports. After suffering through some increasing turbulence (due to increasing air temperature), I overflew the town of Gila Bend and landed at its deserted airport. The landing was sweet, I taxied clear and returned to the departure area to take off again one last time for the day, this time headed for my home airport of Stellar. (I had to come to a full stop for this to count, so this is what’s called a “full stop with a taxi-back”).

The flight back to Stellar was just full of turbulence; it was noon in the desert with an air temperature of 97 degrees at 3,500 feet: nasty. This is why I started the flight early in the morning, and why I keep waking up early on the weekends to fly! Anyway, I had no trouble keeping the plane under control, on course and at my desired altitude, it was just uncomfortable. The turbulence made my landing at Stellar none too pretty, but it was both safe and acceptable.

So, anyway, now I’ve visited California and I can report that it appears to exist. You can see more pictures here at Flickr.

In other news: In honor of the Fourth, one of Chris’ friends is having a Transformers-and-pool-party; we’re seeing Transformers in the morning and then going to hang out by his pool. Otherwise, no other plans. Work continues to keep me challenged and busy and I’ve booked a flight to come home for a couple days in August (unfortunately work deadlines kept me from making it more than a few days long).

Finally, the few pictures Stephen and I took on our trip to Vegas (mostly of his old house) are online, too.