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Oh
yeah, Dave!
Other than dealing with the "guard", sounds like you had a
great trip. I deal with snow as a matter of coarse but I always find it fun when
in an area that isn't accustomed to it then watching the chaos. Sometimes you
have to drive but sounds like this time you just had to fly.
Thanks for the flight report!
Todd
I had a very interesting trip to Las Vegas this
week!
I went there on Monday to meet a bunch of Navy buddies
from my old squadron but the weather was not so hot for flying. I spent
most of the day waiting for the storm to pass but when it was still here at 3
pm I decided to just drive there instead. Alas, after 30min of stop and
go traffic and knowing that I was still facing the LA rush hour and a snowy
mountain pass, I was very disgruntled.
Just as I was driving past my
airplane hangared in Oceanside I noted that I could see sun hitting the ocean
several miles out, though it was still raining and 1500 OVC at my
location. I couldnt take the drive anymore so I loaded the plane and
decided to take a look from the air. I flew several miles west over the
ocean in light rain and low ceilings until the sky finally opened up enough
for me to climb above the LA class B, head north to clearer skys, then catch
the very frisky tail wind NE to Vegas. I didnt bother talking to anyone
because 1- if you don't know how far up/down/left/right you are going to need
to go to avoid the next cloud it is a real pain to try to communicate with
those guys who really prefer to know exactly what you plan next, 2- I was the
only guy at the altitudes I was flying at (13500) - the FBO said I was their
only arrival all day. 3- those guys are always interrupting the
music - and it was way too beautiful of a flight to have the music constantly
interrupted.... Sunset, fresh snow on the mountains, crystal clear and clean
air, scattered loafing cumulus clouds, and a tailwind giving me 235 KTS ground
speed.
After arrival, I gulped down a beer while waiting for the
shuttle to take me into town from Henderson Airport (highly recommended). As I
left the lounge, I was approached by no less than 8 of Henderson's
finest. At first they would not say what it was all about, but they
proceeded to search me, my luggage, and airplane while they detained me for
over an hour. Turns out that US Customs/Border patrol felt that my
flight profile was suspicious for drug running across the border. Fair
enough. I guess I did just pop up on radar out of nowhere several miles out to
sea, then head to VEGAS. It probably also didn't help that there was no
one else flying. Those guys had no one to watch but me. (if you
are a hammer, everything kinda looks like a nail).
Anyway, upon return
to Oceanside today, I was surprised to hear that Harold (the airport manager)
already knew all about it. In fact if it were not for him vouching for
my departure from OKB, I may very well have spent the night in the slammer or,
even worse, on the wet cold dark tarmac removing and replacing all my
inspection covers. It turns out that one of the triggers associated with
my flight profile was the 235 KT GS. After all, who does that
except turbo props and drug runners? :-)
BTW, it was unbelievable
to see all the palm trees at Mandalay Bay covered in snow like they were fir
trees. Snow was building up on the Luxor then sliding down in big sheets
- that is called a desert avalanche. McClellan closed most of yesterday,
not because the weather was too bad but because they don't stock the right
kind of de-ice fluid and because not enough of the mechanics are checked out
on the de-ice machines. I was delayed leaving HND today because they
don't have a snowplow to plow the runway. Instead they just drove a
bunch of vehicles up and down the runway until they had splashed most of the
snow off.
Still, it would have been much worse if I had driven.
I-15 southbound was closed for more than 24 hours and I was still able to
leave town before my buddy who drove and had to fight nasty roads all the way
home while I was treated to snowy vistas and clear skies.
Gotta love
these dream machines!
--
David Leonard
Turbo
Rotary RV-6 N4VY
http://N4VY.RotaryRoster.net
http://RotaryRoster.net
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