| Chicago winter
is good for a few things: getting stuff done inside, catching up on
reading, and leaving! I'm fortunate to live on a residential airport
which means that, along with about 100 other homesteaders, I load up my
airplane and leave from my backyard. Very handy. Given how little I like
the cold, and how little I fly during winter, I figured this would be the
year of wintering my 1956 Beechcraft Bonanza out west. It can keep the
enterprise company. First destination: Albuquerque.
  
Neither my bladders, nor Bubba's (the
Bonanza's name) tanks are big enough to go non-stop to Albuquerque from
Chicago. Flying under Instrument Flight Rules is nice and they even let me
fly right over Kansas City International. Cool. The liquid exchange site
was Salina, Kansas. At over 2 miles long, even I could land on that
runway. Note the taxpayer-funded T-38 awaiting my arrival.
  
Bubba is equipped well-enough with a GPS
and autopilot that will hold altitude and go where the GPS tells it. I
really didn't want to land after dark but only needed 15 minutes or so of
it. I parked next to a twin that looked well worn. The thought of landing
in the dark after a motor-out is most unappealing. Of Figure the
arrival will be no less than 70 mph--I'd really like to see where I'm
going!
      
After an evening of PPG flying at
Paramotor city, the next morning, Michelle, Kirk and I went out for
a local flight around Albuquerque in Bubba. What a treat. I've been flying
this area for years in a 737 and powered paraglider, but the airplane
afords a completely different experience. We covered what would have been
hours and hours of driving in 50 minutes. The whole flight lasted an hour.
Of course the most fun way to experience this terrain is still the powered
paraglider.
After returning, we taxied by Eclipse
Aviation's hangar. They're the ones making a name for the so-called
"Very Light Jet" with their (relatively) affordable Eclipse 500.
|
Above:
As I got further west, the landscape took on a distinctly more vertical
tone. Below:
The New Mexico landscape has a little of everything. These volcanoes
stretched for what seemed like an eternity. This was taken while flying
southbound down the Rio Puerco which runs right by Paramotor City. 
|
