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Arty Trost
Joined: 25 May 2006
Posts: 205
Location: Sandy, Oregon
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 Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 7:16 am Post subject: #3 Update 2007 Ultralight Flight to MV via Texas |
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Hi all,
It's Friday morning, and we just called for a weather briefing. Just a few minutes ago I optimistically sent Dave Rains (El Paso) an e-mail saying we might make it tonight. I should have talked to WX-BRIEF first! Winds aloft not a problem - tailwinds of 15-30 all the way to El Paso. We just wouldn't have been able to land anywhere! All across New Mexico and into El Paso there are surface winds of 15/20 gusting to 30, 40 and even 50!!! There's a slow cold front moving east and that's likely to remain for a couple of days. Happily, we've staying with some Kolber friends of mine here in Casa Grande, AZ (south of Phoenix).
Let me recap yesterday's flight.
When we got to our planes yesterday morning and were doing a radio check, we found that my radio had been damaged in the turbulence on Tuesday. I could hear, but couldn't transmit. (For anyone who knows me, you'll be laughing. My preference is talking over listening!) So all day our method of communication was to fly in close visual contact. If Larry wanted to tell me or ask me anything, he would ask a questionthat could be answered with "yes" or "no" and I'd waggle my wings for a "yes" response and keep them level for a "no" response, Happily, we had calm air all day, so I could keep them level as necessary.
We took off and promptly lost sight of each other - circled for 20 minutes before making visual contact. From then on, we were "wing-to-wing" buddies. :>) The first leg was 2.5 hours to Needles, CA. Calm air and flying over beautiful, yet desolate country. Wide valleys of sagebrush, rocks, and dirt roads between jagged mountains (5800-7500') of dark rock. Beautiful to fly over, but I didn't envy Karen who was driving it.
After refueling in Needles we flew on over more of the same for a 1.5 hr. leg to Blythe, CA. Blythe is a beautiful valley which is green, green, green - thanks to the Colorado River, which has been channeled into canals for agriculture irrigation. A brief refueling stop and then on for another 2 hours to Buckeye. Again, calm air and beautifully desolate scenery. From Buckeye we flew for an hour to Casa Grande, our destination for the day. As we came near Casa Grande, we saw "forests" of saguero cactus. We were following a dry river bed at about 1000'AGL, and Larry with a shout of glee (yes, he keyed the radio so I heard it) dove down and followed the windy riverbed. I hope my pics of him turn out.
We landed at Casa Grande about 7:15 p.m. - we had left Calvada Meadows at 8:00 a.m.! Ed Dobson, who has owned two Kolb Firestars, was there to meet us. I had called Dobsie from Blythe to let him know we were on our way - he thought I had said Buckeye and had gone to the airport to wait! A long, long wait.
So we'll be bunking with Dobsie while we wait out this cold front. We'll be keeping you updated -
Arty
www.LessonsFromTheEdge.com
"Life's a daring adventure or nothing"
Helen Keller
"I refuse to tip toe through life just to arrive safely at death." [quote][b]
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Roger Lee
Joined: 10 Jan 2006
Posts: 1464
Location: Tucson, Az.
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| Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 7:40 am Post subject: Re: #3 Update 2007 Ultralight Flight to MV via Texas |
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Hi Arty,
Roger Lee in Tucson, just south of you.
Winds are supposed to be bad here Friday and Saturday. Some wind Sunday up to 12-13mph, but in the afternoon. If you want call me and I'll fly up to Casa Grande Sunday morning or if you are leaving tell me a time and route and I'll fly up and along with you for bit.
Tell me what frequncy you will be on and I can get a location in the air.
Roger Lee
Tucson, Az
520-574-1080 home number for Saturday
520-791-5286 work number for Friday
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_________________
Roger Lee
Tucson, Az.
Rotax Instructor & Rotax IRC
Light Sport Repairman
Home 520-574-1080 TRY HOME FIRST
Cell 520-349-7056 |
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biglar
Joined: 14 Jan 2006
Posts: 457
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| Posted: Fri May 04, 2007 3:24 pm Post subject: #3 Update 2007 Ultralight Flight to MV via Texas |
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A "shout of glee" as he followed the riverbed ?? Yah, he was prob'ly hollering, "eat your heart out, Big Lar."  Sure sounds like a fun flight. Lar. Do not Archive.
On 5/4/07, TheWanderingWench <thewanderingwench(at)yahoo.com (thewanderingwench(at)yahoo.com)> wrote: [quote] Hi all,
It's Friday morning, and we just called for a weather briefing. Just a few minutes ago I optimistically sent Dave Rains (El Paso) an e-mail saying we might make it tonight. I should have talked to WX-BRIEF first! Winds aloft not a problem - tailwinds of 15-30 all the way to El Paso. We just wouldn't have been able to land anywhere! All across New Mexico and into El Paso there are surface winds of 15/20 gusting to 30, 40 and even 50!!! There's a slow cold front moving east and that's likely to remain for a couple of days. Happily, we've staying with some Kolber friends of mine here in Casa Grande, AZ (south of Phoenix).
Let me recap yesterday's flight.
When we got to our planes yesterday morning and were doing a radio check, we found that my radio had been damaged in the turbulence on Tuesday. I could hear, but couldn't transmit. (For anyone who knows me, you'll be laughing. My preference is talking over listening!) So all day our method of communication was to fly in close visual contact. If Larry wanted to tell me or ask me anything, he would ask a questionthat could be answered with "yes" or "no" and I'd waggle my wings for a "yes" response and keep them level for a "no" response, Happily, we had calm air all day, so I could keep them level as necessary.
We took off and promptly lost sight of each other - circled for 20 minutes before making visual contact. From then on, we were "wing-to-wing" buddies. :>) The first leg was 2.5 hours to Needles, CA. Calm air and flying over beautiful, yet desolate country. Wide valleys of sagebrush, rocks, and dirt roads between jagged mountains (5800-7500') of dark rock. Beautiful to fly over, but I didn't envy Karen who was driving it.
After refueling in Needles we flew on over more of the same for a 1.5 hr. leg to Blythe, CA. Blythe is a beautiful valley which is green, green, green - thanks to the Colorado River, which has been channeled into canals for agriculture irrigation. A brief refueling stop and then on for another 2 hours to Buckeye. Again, calm air and beautifully desolate scenery. From Buckeye we flew for an hour to Casa Grande, our destination for the day. As we came near Casa Grande, we saw "forests" of saguero cactus. We were following a dry river bed at about 1000'AGL, and Larry with a shout of glee (yes, he keyed the radio so I heard it) dove down and followed the windy riverbed. I hope my pics of him turn out.
We landed at Casa Grande about 7:15 p.m. - we had left Calvada Meadows at 8:00 a.m.! Ed Dobson, who has owned two Kolb Firestars, was there to meet us. I had called Dobsie from Blythe to let him know we were on our way - he thought I had said Buckeye and had gone to the airport to wait! A long, long wait.
So we'll be bunking with Dobsie while we wait out this cold front. We'll be keeping you updated -
Arty
www.LessonsFromTheEdge.com
"Life's a daring adventure or nothing"
Helen Keller
"I refuse to tip toe through life just to arrive safely at death." [b]
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_________________
Larry Bourne
Palm Springs, CA
Building Kolb Mk IIIC
"Vamoose" |
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lcottrell
Joined: 29 May 2006
Posts: 1494
Location: Jordan Valley, Or
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| Posted: Sat May 05, 2007 10:52 am Post subject: #3 Update 2007 Ultralight Flight to MV via Texas |
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Hi all,
I am sure that Arty will up date you more on our trip, but I thought
that I would comment at least. The weather here in the west has been a
bit unsettled to say the least. Flying hasn't been a problem, landing
has been pretty interesting some times however.  When we did the
weather breifing for our intended flight to El Paso, it quickly became
apparent that we should actually wait for a couple of days for the
weather to stabilize. The primary problem was the reduced ground speed,
as well as the amount of fuel used, and the possible problems of
getting out of San Antonio to make MV. Arty's primary goal was the
flight to Texas, mine was to visit a brother that had moved to the San
Antonio area. I asked her to give up the Texas portion of the flight so
that I could spend some time with my brother. She graciously agreed if
we could fly on to Las Cruces and then on to MV. If we had waited for
the weather to clear, my visit would have been a couple of days at the
best. So we tied our birds down at Casa Grande, and departed for San
Antonio at about 1230 driving straight through to arrive at my
brother's house at 0625 this morning. 17 hours and somewhere around 900
miles.
The planes have been just fantastic, No problems at all, other that
Arty's radio cord problems. (solved)For some reason my EIS values
changed on my fuel tanks. This caused me to run out of gas on the first
leg of our trip. It was a bit tense until I could decide that it had to
be a fuel problem as all my egt's and cht's were within range. The
restart was no problem, just need to return the throttle to idle and
pull the enrichner circuit. I was quite relieved to confirm that there
was nothing wrong with the motor. I had a good place to land, but who
needs to do that more than necessary.
My EIS has been a bit weird of late. I get a warning light and the
screen that shows up is the one for the screen contrast. Doesn't make
sense at all. All the other values are within range. I haven't been able
to contact the gal at EIS to see what she can tell me.
I did want to spend some time flying the dry river beds in Arizona, I
found afterward (Arty's radio out) that she was coming down to join me.
I was feeling guilty about screwing off like that and found that she was
disappointed that I pulled out of it.
Larry, Oregon
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