Las Vegas, Sierras, then Home
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I had to photograph this happy little raincloud. It was merrily producing a small shower all by itself in the middle of the dessert. Nobody had told it that it was too hot and too dry for rain! |
Hoover dam is dead center of the frame. Doesn't look like much from up here, does it? |
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A much over-processed inset of the dam from the same image. I really need that longer lens and more pixels to take these photographs. Truthfully, the dam was very hard to see even with the naked eye. |
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On final to North Las Vegas Executive Terminal. The strip is dead ahead and some distance away. Note the runway on the left. It isn't marked as such on the approach plates and looks wider than this one. Turns out it is a new runway scheduled to open in a couple months. We did ask the tower whether we were about to set down on a taxiway just to make sure! |
Check the temp! It was actually 115 degrees by the time we shut down. Locals told us it had hit 125 the day before. My trusty E6B gave us a density altitude of 8,000 feet, while you can see the pressure altitude is only about 2,200 feet. Whoa! |
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This airfield is run by the City as sort of a little commuter airport. Mostly they fly Grand Canyon scenic flights out of here. McCarren is really much nicer for private planes because the FBO's there are nicer. Here, there aren't really any FBO's and the City employees are not used to doing the kind of sucking up that one expects from their FBO. However, Steve put the charm on the lady behind the counter and managed to get us a ride to a nearby hamburger joint. After consuming the requisite amount of red meat, we were ready to take to the skies for the final leg of our journey. |
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The Sierras are just as spectacular as the Grand Canyon. I really like Mountain Flying from a scenery standpoint! |
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Here we are, home at last, or at least back in Watsonville. It has been a fantastic trip, and I have a set of memories to enjoy for the rest of my life. We had good company, a good airplane, and a great itinerary. For the most part, everything went very smoothly. I hope I get the chance to do something similar again someday. This is definitely the way to enjoy being a pilot and travelling! |
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