I enjoy reading the travel stories you guys post here. They helped keep me motivated during our ?7? build and I thought that if I ever got the chance, I?d like to visit places that some of you have told about. One place I?d never been to was Sun & Fun. It seemed that I was always at a conference or that work otherwise interfered during that time of year. The agenda looked different this year so when vacation scheduling time came around, I marked down S&F week as my first choice. The wife and I discussed the trip and I blurted out that we could do something wild? like fly to the Bahamas after S&F. I half expected her to recoil in horror at the thought of flying over the ocean. Instead, her answer was: ?Well we ain?t getting no younger; we better go for it while we can?! So I started doing some flight planning and searching VAF for info on a Bahamas trip. I checked out the E-APIS tutorial and to be honest, I got a bit discouraged thinking of all the hassle. I decided it would be much more fun to do that trip with another airplane or two. Perhaps someday, go with those who had already been through all this, and could lead the way through the haze. The weather also was looking ?iffy? down towards Florida anyway, so a week before S&F I switched gears? Thank the good Lord! The pictures of the storm damage at the fly-in tore at my heart.
Some of you had told of flying to Monument Valley, UT. and the videos posted were awe inspiring. This video by ?low pass? is my all-time favorite?.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPAM10V8rkE&NR=1
I watched it many times for inspiration and even downloaded ?Ameno? to my I-pod.
Henceforth, I made reservations for two nights at Goulding?s Lodge, asked them for permission to land at the private airstrip and faxed in the insurance and liability waiver.
Well, the same weather system that was keeping many of you from S&F settled over our home airfield and our departure was delayed by a stationary front with 300? ceilings and cold blustery winds. In hindsight it was a blessing because it allowed, (forced) me to spend a few days dealing with much needed spring cleaning, sprucing up the yard and tearing down an old shed to make way for a new one.
A tight cluster of two low pressure areas and one high pressure system parked themselves in the northern Arizona, southern Utah, and eastern Nevada area and I had a hard time deciding what to do. Heck, that weather system had a hard time deciding what to do. I start watching the weather several days out and this stuff just didn?t want to move. One county west of our home field, things looked good to go. But the home field itself and our destination did not. We?d have to cross the Rockies and I had no intention of scud running in the mountains if the tightly grouped weather systems moved east. So we waited with my vacations days ticking by. Finally, the night before a decision had to be made and our reservations canceled, the weather started breaking. One low magically dissolved, and the other started moving as the high pressure took control. I decided to forgo the Page, AZ. portion of the trip, and make a bee line for Monument Valley. It wouldn?t be VFR until late on launch morning, but it did look like we?d have a two or three day window to enjoy. Around 10 am we headed for the airport and then climbed out into an ?overcast at 1800 feet? sky. Just as we crossed over the Oklahoma / Texas border the skies turned ?CAVU? and we could climb at will. Two hours from launch we landed uneventfully at Las Vegas, NM where we refueled and ate a quick lunch that Carey had packed.
A half hour later we were climbing over the Rockies towards Santa Fe. It?s at times like this that you realize that the RV?s performance truly is spectacular.
Flying that pile of rivets and aluminum fastened together in my garage over the Rockies for the first time was a down right near religious experience!
We over-flew the SAF VOR, turned North at CABZO intersection and headed toward Farmington, NM into a fierce 32 kt. head wind and toward RSK ?rattlesnake? VOR. With the Mattituck IO-360 purring, the foreboding terrain below didn?t seem quite so treacherous and we crossed many dry arroyos and countless washes, sand dunes, and rock outcroppings. It was interesting terrain to be sure. I envisioned the people that traversed this country a hundred and fifty years before and wondered what they would have thought about an RV screaming above them at 160 kts. I kept busy looking for roads and landing places should we need it. There weren?t many to choose from. We banked left at Farmington and headed into ever changing country, generally following the San Juan River until it turned further north. About the same time we came upon the Carrizo Mountains which we would pass just to the right of. I was very aware that high winds at altitude and rough terrain could spell turbulence and so I stayed a few miles from the mountain ridge. It wasn?t far enough. Up until now the ride had been a bit bumpy but nowhere near uncomfortable. Suddenly, the bottom dropped out and it felt as if a trap door had opened beneath us. The fall lasted less than 2 seconds and abruptly reversed. At the bottom, even with the 5 point Hooker harness fastened snug, my headset hit the canopy. That was the only time on the whole trip we hit bad turbulence. As we flew westward, the scenery became even more desolate and intriguing. Eventually, it took on an ?other-worldly? appearance. Mesas, spires, and ?monuments? began to thrust out of the ground. We had entered ?John Wayne Country?.
To be continued...
Monument Valley Flight
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