July 9, 2019 - Flight West - Day Fourteen
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| Bro drove me to the airport in the morning, where we had a good breakfast at The Landings airport restaurant. Then I took off from McClellan-Palomar and headed east. I had to climb to get over the coastal range. |
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Looking down at a little private dirt strip.
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| The desert awaits on the opposite side. |
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Passing by a little scrub town at the foot of the mountains.
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| Passing by Agua Caliente Springs Airport (L54) on the east side of the Laguna Mountains. If I had more time, I might have stopped as it is in the Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. But not today. |
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| You can see how remote Agua Caliente Springs is. |
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| To avoid a big restricted area, I was heading southeast towards the Mexican border and El Centro. |
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Pretty rough country here.
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| Approaching the El Centro area which clearly is a big agricultural area. It was around here, cruising at 9,500 ft, that I noticed on my iPad via ADS-B In that a contact was coming directly at me, same altitude. Then it turned red on the iPad meaning it was close. I looked up and sure enough, there was a big single-engine Cessna Caravan or something similiar coming right at me. I dove out of the way to the left. I wonder if he ever saw me. I'm now much more a believer in ADS-B than I was! |
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Looking south. I believe that is "the Wall" down there. I'm too high up to be able to tell how substantial it is.
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| Looking into Mexico. |
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| A good look at Naval Air Facility El Centro. NAF El Centro is the winter home of the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, The Blue Angels. NAF El Centro historically kicks off the Blue Angels' season with their first air show, traditionally held in March. |
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| The U.S. - Mexico border is easily discernable in this picture. |
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The Mexican town of Mexicali.
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| An abandoned airfield. |
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Sand dunes!
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| The border zigs due south here and so that is the U.S. town of Yuma. Yuma Marine Corps Air Station and International Airport is in the center of the picture. From Yuma I have to fly east to stay out of restricted airspace to the south. |
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| Another abandoned airfield just north of Interstate 8. The triangular shape probably means it was built by the military during WWII. |
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Gila Bend Air Force Auxiliary Airport. At Gila Bend I can turn southeast directly towards Tucson.
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Following I-8 to Tucson.
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| Flying over the El Tiro Gliderport on the northwest outskirts of Tucson. |
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| Passing by Marana Regional Airport where I stayed overnight on my 2014 cross-country out here. It was a very nice airport, but my daughter, who I will be staying with, lives on the other side of Tucson. So I'm going to stay overnight at Benson Airport (E95) which is on the eastern outskirts of Tucson. |
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| And there is Tucson. My third time here. |
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The heart of the city.
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| Of course, any flight over Tucson must involve looking at the famous "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. |
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A close-up of the ramp at Davis-Monthan. Notice the jetports on the ramp. I guess they need them with the brutal sun and heat they get here.
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| A look down my right side at Tucson International Airport. |
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| A closer look at one section of the Boneyard. |
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| And the other section. |
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Looking down at the Pima Air Museum. I checked it out in 2014; it's on the short list of great aviation museums.
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Zooming in. Yes, they have a P-3 Orion. Can you find it?
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Another look at the Boneyard. Look at those big C-5s.
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| There must be 100 P-3 Orions down there. |
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| The eastern outskirts of Tucson. |
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| Descending with some scenic mountains on my left. |
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Passing by a old western town; I wonder if they film movies here? Looks like something out of High Plains Drifter.
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| On downwind at Benson Airport. |
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Safe on deck at Benson. It was hot! The airport was deserted; I'm sure they do their flying here in the early morning.
It had been an easy and pleasant two and a half hour flight.
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| My RV faces an old DC-3. |
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| The FBO building is a converted trailer. But it was air-conditioned. Those two cars on the left are the courtesy cars. One of the reasons I choose this airport was because it had 66 comments on AirNav.com. All of them great. That's very unusual. It's rare to see more than 10. There was no one inside the FBO building but there was a name and phone number on the wall to call Roy. So I did and talked to Roy. He told me where the car keys were and said he could fuel me up in the morning when I left. Perfect. |
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| They do have some pretty sunsets here in Tucson -- from my daughter's back yard. |
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