Damn Clouds
Clouds on departure, clouds enroute, clouds caused us to divert to Sante Fe. Safely landed though! Will continue tomorrow morning, Rusty will be pilot. :-)
Colorado Preflight
One thing I love about Fall is all the activity. It seems like there’s something exciting to do nearly every weekend. This coming weekend is the reason for my blog post:
Cameo's Wedding in Colorado!
The backdrop of the ceremony are the San Juan and Cimmaron mountain ranges in Ridgeway, CO. We had the choice of landing at Telluride or Montrose. While I was excited about the idea of putting KTEX in my logbook, there weren’t any car rentals available. So we’ll be landing in Montrose (KMTJ).
Keeping it equal, I’ll fly us to Las Vegas, New Mexico (KLVS), then he’ll fly us
Neither of us has flown this much into mountains.
To add to the adventure, there is a chance of rain in the middle of Texas the same morning we plan to depart. We’ll either leave after rains subside, or if the storms seem broken, fly around the mess.
What is it about us flying around rain?
We expect the total flight time to Montrose, Colorado to be approximately 6 hours (this doesn’t include our fuel and bathroom stop) requiring approximately 52 gallons of fuel. (Las Vegas is our mid-point for fuel if you’re wondering.) We'll be flying over 735 n. miles. If we were to drive, it would take 14 hours.
Thursday night is my night to plan out my portion and begin packing. If all goes as planned, we’ll get to leave Friday morning!
Galveston Trip
US Sport Aircraft in Addison organized a group trip to Galveston. Pilots of all experience levels (pre-solo students to instructors) both renters and owners participated. I'm estimating 10 airplanes flew in, with about 20 pilots plus our two kids.
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| Cheap fuel, rough landing surface (BYY) |
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There was a group dinner that I went to while the boys stayed behind at the hotel. (Josh swallowed some beach water that came back up to say Hi minutes before we were to leave for the group dinner.) The dinner was nice and the shenanigans were in full swing. My memory is hazy... let's see- something about an astronaut, Nathan was naked, someone drank a ketchup bottle, and the older pilots took tequila shots. (sorry, no photo evidence!)
The next day, we learned about rain over Dallas. At first we feared we would be delayed or challenged with leaving, but it turned out to be fine. I was pilot-in-command on the way home. There was a bit of rain before we departed Galveston, and shortly after, but by the time we got to Dallas, it was clear and calm.
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| Elliot | Leaving Galveston |
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| Happy Pilots |
Back in Business
The cylinder got repaired in time for me to fly it home Friday after work. It started fine despite I flooded it on my first attempt. If it's been started the same day, or ambient air over 105F, I've learned to consider it a warm engine. No fuel pump needed!
