Part 1
"To 'Rosie'mond we go"
Today's objective was to get from Georgetown to Paul and Victoria's house in Rosamond CA with as little excitement as possible. The previous few mornings at home had all begun with the standard summertime low crud. The forecast was pretty much the same for our departure morning. All the plans and contingencies had been hatched, and we rolled out of bed at 5am to get an early start. I had expected to look out the window at low IFR conditions this early and just go file my IFR flight plan that I had prepared. But, no, it was a beautiful VFR morning. This can be a little bit of a trick as we've found. Just as the sun gets high enough, you can be pulling the airplane out of the hangar and the weather goes from beautifully clear to what we call "flash IFR". So I dutifully filed my IFR flight plan just in case we got to the end of the runway and needed it. It was nice watching the sun rise during our 30 minute drive to the airport. I'm not a morning person, so it is pretty rare that I see the sun come up in all its glory over the eastern horizon. A beautiful sight indeed. Tanya had the airplane packed in short order, and I made one last check of our cockpit resources. Another oddity that I'm not used to is that our control tower wasn't open yet, so we were in uncontrolled airspace until 7am. As we started our climb into the beautifully clear morning sky, I noticed a controller in the tower cab setting up for the morning shift. We all waved as we passed his window at 90 knots.
First stop was Andrews (E11) airport in far west Texas about 15 miles NW of Midland. This is a standard location we visit for cheap fuel. Also, we like to do a pretty short leg as the first one in the morning. I only climbed to 8500' since it was smooth and I was looking for more speed than fuel efficiency on this leg. There just isn't much out in west Texas to write home about, and it was no different this time. We did a quick turn on the ground at Andrews to top off fuel and a pit stop. Back in the air, the next stop was St. Johns. This is another standard stop where we have gotten to know the airport manager a little. Passing Roswell to the northwest there is a bunch of restricted airspace that we have to go around. We ate our usual travel packed lunch at 10,500'. When Tanya dug the sandwiches out, she noticed a bag of chips that was really stressing at the seams. We cleared White Sands and turned west toward St. Johns to be greeted by what seems to be perma-turbulence over New Mexico, even at 12,500 feet. Tanya delivered some cookies to the airport manager, and another quick turn found us headed to Rosie'mond. We waved as we passed Sedona, we'll be back there sometime soon. We listened on the Center frequency as a King Air pilot said they were diverting to Flagstaff from Sedona. The controller asked why since they had other aircraft headed there. The pilot replied "For passenger comfort". He went on to explain that his passengers were not comfortable with the approach. We chuckled a little. I didn't see much activity on Lake Havasu from 14.5k'. When we saw Edwards AFB closing ahead, we knew it was time to start down. Seat backs and tray tables in the upright position, tighten the safety belts, double check guidance, and wiggle the toes. We threaded the needle between the Edwards restricted and class D of Fox airfield as we turned the corner to Rosamond. Just in case you didn't notice, there is an official nav fix on the IFR charts barely a mile south of the field named ROSIE. I haven't been able to determine its use or how it came to be there. Ok, we see a bunch of houses and roads, but where the heck is the airport! "We're only 2.5 miles from the field, do you see it?" "No, do you?" "It is right here somewhere, we're going to fly right over it in a few more seconds." I started looking down as much as around for the runway. "Well, I'm just going to keep heading toward it until it is right under us if we don't find it." "Got it!" I immediately rolled into a left downwind. Whew, that was exciting. By now, we're at a thousand feet and riding the desert bumps. Base, Final, ... Yep, a nice healthy cross wind just like Rosie had warned. I held a boot full of right rudder to keep the nose pointed in the correct direction. Ahh, we were down, but not done flying yet in these winds. Tanya reconfigured for ground ops, flaps up, pump off, wig-wags off, mixture lean, taxi instructions prepared. As we pulled up to the house, Paul was standing out there to point the way to parking. We were two very happy campers.
Picasa web albums pictures for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. (part 1,2,3)
"To 'Rosie'mond we go"
Today's objective was to get from Georgetown to Paul and Victoria's house in Rosamond CA with as little excitement as possible. The previous few mornings at home had all begun with the standard summertime low crud. The forecast was pretty much the same for our departure morning. All the plans and contingencies had been hatched, and we rolled out of bed at 5am to get an early start. I had expected to look out the window at low IFR conditions this early and just go file my IFR flight plan that I had prepared. But, no, it was a beautiful VFR morning. This can be a little bit of a trick as we've found. Just as the sun gets high enough, you can be pulling the airplane out of the hangar and the weather goes from beautifully clear to what we call "flash IFR". So I dutifully filed my IFR flight plan just in case we got to the end of the runway and needed it. It was nice watching the sun rise during our 30 minute drive to the airport. I'm not a morning person, so it is pretty rare that I see the sun come up in all its glory over the eastern horizon. A beautiful sight indeed. Tanya had the airplane packed in short order, and I made one last check of our cockpit resources. Another oddity that I'm not used to is that our control tower wasn't open yet, so we were in uncontrolled airspace until 7am. As we started our climb into the beautifully clear morning sky, I noticed a controller in the tower cab setting up for the morning shift. We all waved as we passed his window at 90 knots.
First stop was Andrews (E11) airport in far west Texas about 15 miles NW of Midland. This is a standard location we visit for cheap fuel. Also, we like to do a pretty short leg as the first one in the morning. I only climbed to 8500' since it was smooth and I was looking for more speed than fuel efficiency on this leg. There just isn't much out in west Texas to write home about, and it was no different this time. We did a quick turn on the ground at Andrews to top off fuel and a pit stop. Back in the air, the next stop was St. Johns. This is another standard stop where we have gotten to know the airport manager a little. Passing Roswell to the northwest there is a bunch of restricted airspace that we have to go around. We ate our usual travel packed lunch at 10,500'. When Tanya dug the sandwiches out, she noticed a bag of chips that was really stressing at the seams. We cleared White Sands and turned west toward St. Johns to be greeted by what seems to be perma-turbulence over New Mexico, even at 12,500 feet. Tanya delivered some cookies to the airport manager, and another quick turn found us headed to Rosie'mond. We waved as we passed Sedona, we'll be back there sometime soon. We listened on the Center frequency as a King Air pilot said they were diverting to Flagstaff from Sedona. The controller asked why since they had other aircraft headed there. The pilot replied "For passenger comfort". He went on to explain that his passengers were not comfortable with the approach. We chuckled a little. I didn't see much activity on Lake Havasu from 14.5k'. When we saw Edwards AFB closing ahead, we knew it was time to start down. Seat backs and tray tables in the upright position, tighten the safety belts, double check guidance, and wiggle the toes. We threaded the needle between the Edwards restricted and class D of Fox airfield as we turned the corner to Rosamond. Just in case you didn't notice, there is an official nav fix on the IFR charts barely a mile south of the field named ROSIE. I haven't been able to determine its use or how it came to be there. Ok, we see a bunch of houses and roads, but where the heck is the airport! "We're only 2.5 miles from the field, do you see it?" "No, do you?" "It is right here somewhere, we're going to fly right over it in a few more seconds." I started looking down as much as around for the runway. "Well, I'm just going to keep heading toward it until it is right under us if we don't find it." "Got it!" I immediately rolled into a left downwind. Whew, that was exciting. By now, we're at a thousand feet and riding the desert bumps. Base, Final, ... Yep, a nice healthy cross wind just like Rosie had warned. I held a boot full of right rudder to keep the nose pointed in the correct direction. Ahh, we were down, but not done flying yet in these winds. Tanya reconfigured for ground ops, flaps up, pump off, wig-wags off, mixture lean, taxi instructions prepared. As we pulled up to the house, Paul was standing out there to point the way to parking. We were two very happy campers.
Picasa web albums pictures for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. (part 1,2,3)
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