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Vegas or Bust!

crabandy

Well Known Member
I had a work thing in Vegas and it happened to work out that my wife was invited to join me, had the time off work AND a babysitter. This never happens! I really wanted to take the RV instead of the airlines, but my wife is still pretty timid about flying in the RV. I left the decision in her hands, but did mention if we took the RV we could bounce around and visit a few extra places.....

While discussing the trip with my oldest daughter I was astounded when my wife started bringing up the benefits of the RV, she was starting to sound like me!
Daughter: The airlines would be faster than the RV.
Wife: Not when you count the drive to the airport and getting there early.
Daughter: It's more work and worry for dad.
Wife: He likes doing this sort of thing.
Daughter: What about the hassle of weather?
Wife: What about the hassle of the TSA, set departure times, airport delays, crammed next to strangers for hours?
Me: Sounds like I need to make sure the RV is ready to Go!

Long story short 16.8 hours, 113ish gallons of gas and 2 tanks of O2 gives me a rough average of 6.73 gph at 155KTAS.

We couldn't depart till Sunday evening until after my wife got off of work, Vegas or Bust Baby!

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Pretty sure she was out before we leveled off at 14,000, more so the previous 12 hour shift and not a lack of O2. It was her first time on the cannulas and the Mountain High Pulse demand, it takes a little bit of practice to sync your inhalations with the box. I'm pretty sure I can relate with Pete Howell.


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She did wake up about the halfway point to catch the sunset from the air.

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April's aunt/uncle just so happen to live almost directly underneath the OWI..VGT flight path, it also worked with my "Don't wanna fly in the mountains at night." I bounced it in at KTAD 3.1 after takeoff, April's aunt/uncle whisked us off to dinner and an overnight at their house. We dropped off a green chili burrito and a hug to April's uncle on the way to the airport since he left early for work.

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Looking pretty on the ramp at KTAD, hoping to outclimb those mountains in the background shortly.

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Departing KTAD we had Fischer's Peak off the left wing which is soon to be a new Colorado State Park.

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The Spanish Peaks off our right wing as I attempted to outclimb the mountains and overcast.

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I chose to marginally fly over the top and between layers of the overcast instead of underneath, the overcast sloped lower to the north giving me an "out." There was also an area of MVFR around PSO and DRO. I picked up my IFR clearance leaving 16,000 and went wrong way at 17,000.

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Shortly after PSO the cloud tops dropped significantly and cleared to Broken.

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We went right over Mesa Verde Visitor's Center.

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The clouds cleared out as we flew high over Monument Valley, I would've liked to be a tad lower weaving between but April not so much.

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The Goulding's airstrip.

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Navajo Mountain

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Lake Powell

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Page, AZ after 2.8 hours.

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The Glen Canyon Dam after refueling at PGA, here's where it started to get bumpy and I was glad April took some Dramamine.

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It was hardly a detour but we flew the Fossil Canyon Corridor over the Grand Canyon. There were a couple small fires on the northern rim.

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Lake Mead

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I had input all of fixes for the VFR transition route but the controller opted to just vector me, it was cool watching the fighters scream off Nellis AFB underneath and then pitch up over the mountains.

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We were cleared to land RWY 12R at KVGT and winds were gusting from the southwest, on short final the winds felt stronger than what was reported on the ATIS and the windsock on the northwest side of the airport looked like it was favoring RWY25. I didn't feel comfortable with the cross wind and went around and requested RWY 25, it was a stiff but doable crosswind and I had to use some right brake to make the taxi in on 25. At the self serve circle fuel pumps at VGT, 1.9 hours later.

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I won't bore you with the work portion, but did manage to take April to Gordon Ramsay Burger. Her and the kiddos like watching the TV shows...

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Just a walk by ****'s Kitchen

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We didn't bother with any gambling, but mostly wandered around in the time off and trying new restaurants.
Ramen-Ya

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April was more than a little excited at the Bellagio Buffet.

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Good Bye Vegas and hello California!

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The Spring Mountains west of Vegas.

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The solar farm south of Vegas.

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Dry desert in-between.

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I had planned on stopping at Big Bear (L35) for brunch, but the wind was gusting 25-29 knts and variable from 160-230. With that wind, that elevation and that terrain No Thanks. Big Bear off the right wing.

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We skirted the highest terrain and went through the Morongo valley

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After a 1.7 we were on the ground at Oceanside KOKB.

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Oceanside was our favorite airport, friendly down to earth people and low key. They did have a very active skydive business. $7 overnight fee if I remember correctly.

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I was worried they'd clocked my speed in the descent coming down the backside of the mountains, but apparently the California Highway Patrol use the taxiway/ramp for drag racing.....ehhhh I mean training.

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A little authentic Filipino food for lunch with April's Step Mom.

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And an afternoon at the beach.

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Thankfully they dropped me off at a BrewPub while they hit the outlet malls.

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King's Fish House on the patio for dinner, the San Diego area weather is fantastic!

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It was a fun short visit but time to be moving on, taxiing out at Oceanside.

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Some jumpers landing as we were prepping to takeoff, they land somewhere in-between the right downwind and right base so as not to interfere with the traffic pattern. In theory....from what I saw they did a good job but not sure I'm comfortable landing at the same time.

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Departing westbound up the valley for noise abatement.

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In moments you're over the beach.

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On our way up to 17,500 over Palm Springs.

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Lake Havasu

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We were above the 14,500 restricted zone over the Grand Canyon so no need to fly the corridor. The fire on the north rim has grown over the last several days.

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We picked up our IFR and went up to FL190 for slightly stronger tailwinds and more clearance from the mountains.

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It was a scattered to broken lay we weaved our way between, the clouds were pretty bumpy. We also hit some short burst of strong moderate bordering on severe turbulence but the airplane was always in control and was able to maintain altitude. We also rode a few mountain waves up and down. This portion of the flight was the most uncomfortable for April, she did grab the roll bar and say some things but mostly I felt her trusting in my calm demeanor.

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Taylor Reservoir, I've covered a fair portion of this terrain on a dirtbike over several years.

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Pikes Peak

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No pics descending down over the front range, it was pretty bumpy and I was busy flying. Wind was 60 degrees off the runway gusting to 32 at KAPA, I had been watching the weather for a couple hours on ADSB and it didn't look like it was going to improve. I continued in and was cleared for landing on 17R behind a Cirrus that just went around. April had removed her headset and was prepping just in case the Dramamine wasn't enough......I let the crosswind slide us onto final and attempted to set up a stabilized approach. I went around at 100', there was no way I was going to be able to keep it on the runway and the windshear was rocking the airplane pretty good. The same Cirrus went around again and was asking for another, I hope he was training.
By this point in the trip April is pretty in tune with what's going on, but she's been dozing most of the flight. With our limited flight time together she's never done a go around, this makes #2 in a couple days. I kinda smiled inside a little when she cautiously put her headset back on and said "Sooooo, what's the plan? Because of the forecast winds I already had plan B, I said we can't land at KAPA with the wind and we're going to go to KBJC where they have RWY21 that is mostly into the wind.
I was a bit surprised to find the winds at KBJC were 170 gusting to 24, it was less than a 10 minute flight and the winds were quite a bit different. I had assumed the winds were going to be the same at both airports. It kinda hit me here that I really didn't have a Plan C. I still had 15 gallons on board but if KBJC wouldn't work I was going to be wasting precious time coming up with plan C. Winds don't generally decline venturing into eastern Colorado and Western Kansas. The wind was as described, only being 40* off the runway and 24 knots made the landing safely doable. It made for some contemplating thought of possible Plan C's for me that evening. On the ramp at KBJC.

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Sheltair's temporary facility (in the process of building) was great, water/coffee, cell phone chargers, flight planning room and several lineman waiting to help tie down the airplane. It was the best service of our trip. I was able to introduce April's cousin's little boy to small airplanes.

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April's cousin introduced us to Wild Blue Yonder BrewPub in Castle Rock! My selfie has Castle Rock's namesake in the background.

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Everyone was out the next morning, I taxied next to 4 aircraft running up and doing checklists with 2 more behind me and several in the pattern. ATC was too busy to allow a transition through class B so I stayed below, we had a nice view of a flight of balloons.

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April was napping as I donned the O2, a couple minutes later she asked "where's mine?" Since it was just 13,500 I was just going to let her get sleepy (er) but she actually preferred using the O2. April has REALLY surprised me on this trip! She also started asking for "her" screen on the 400W, page 2 of the NAV chapter with the GS and ETA.

We started to find the clouds around mid-western Kansas, I've been watching the Tstorms that were skirting KOWI.

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Layers getting thicker.

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We had to deviate slightly around this angry looking cloud that I'd been watching for about an hour on ADSB, it was showing as dark red. A request for 40 degree course deviations and PD descent helped to keep it visual.

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I had also been watching the ADSB at our destination, it showed the green/yellow on our flight path and some scattered orange several miles east. I like to watch the trend of the weather to make sure it is following or not following the forecast. We had some light turbulence/rain in the clouds on the approach and when we broke out about 1000' AGL (400' lower than forecast) we could see the "orange" echos of rain to our east. These airplanes and this technology are Awesome!

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Tucked back in the hangar without a single squawk on this trip, the cold soaked fuel tank was condensing in the moist air.

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April has told me twice each day since we landed, that was fun and I want to do it again.......Hmmmm me too!
 
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