Saturday, May 28, th Cobra flight, 57th solo Cruise up Rio Puerco, PPC, Tetilla 2 landings

Transcription

1 Saturday, May 28, th Cobra flight, 57th solo Cruise up Rio Puerco, PPC, Tetilla 2 landings First Launch: 6:05am Final Landing: 10:25am Today s airtime 4:20 XC distance 213 miles Total logged time: 136:15 Total solo time: 120:40 Launch: calm, runway 21 Landing: cross 10, thermals runway 21 Lee, the pilot who flies the parachute club mothership, has beat in the race to launch first in the morning for the last 3 weeks. Today, I got up at 4am, but it still wasn t early enough. Lee beat me again, this time by 15 minutes. After lifting off at dawn into the calm cool air, did one touch and go before heading north. I noticed that the engine rpms peaked at 6540, 100 higher than usual on take off. I wondered why, cool thick air? I made a low altitude cruise along the Rio Puerco, heading towards Tetilla Peak, far to the north near Santa Fe. The cone from last weeks cone hunt was still in place by the railroad tracks.

2 I skimmed over this flat plain of red volcanic soil in the calm morning air. I captured some nice video of this low altitude cruise up the valley. Here is a link to the 10MB movie file: puerco_cruise_high.wmv I popped up higher over the river to make sure I could clear the trees.

3 More trees along the Rio Puerco. Further north along the Rio Puerco I flew by the PPC site. It was busy with one in the air and two setting up, so I made flyby and continued on.

4 The range lands NE of the Rio Puerco valley were very green. I cruised up to San Felipe Mesa. (click on mouse) Sandstone bluffs east of Prieta Mesa. The scenery in the valley is much preferable to the grid of dirt roads in far NW Albuquerque. But I had to cross over eventually. About here, I turned east to the Rio Grande.

5 I fought a 15mph headwind out of the north as I followed the Rio Grande, overflowing with this year s spring runoff. Tetilla Peak is on the horizon in the picture to the right. The north winds rolling off Tetilla Peak kept me from circling Cochiti Lake (lower left). But I did make my way over to the old Tetilla hang gliding site (lower right)

6 I tuned my radio to the frequency for Santa Fe airport, 10 miles north of my position. It sounded like they were totally socked in by fog and clouds. To the left you can see that Tetilla Peak was covered in clouds. I followed La Bajada Ridge to the east and flew by the small settlement of Pena Blanca. The Ortiz Mountains near Galisteo are in the background (right).

7 I followed Rio Grande south, this time with a 15 mph tail wind. The Sandia Mountains which overlook Albuquerque are on the horizon. I flew by the Santa Ana Resort (above). Then flew along the edge of Rio Rancho, and saw this moat encircled neighborhood.

8 PPC San Felipe Mesa Rio Grande Belen Cochiti Lake Santa Ana Resort Rio Grande Tetilla Peak I cut across the empty NW corner of Albuquerque and flew by the PPC site on the way back. I was tempted to land and chat with the PPC crowd and take a pit-stop. But I knew this would have delayed my return to Belen by at least 1/2 an hour. It was getting late and I wanted to get back to Belen before the thermals started. I took another short cut past the volcanoes and entered the pattern around 10:25 am. I thought back to January, when I would wait until 10am to take off so I wouldn t freeze to death during the flight. That wasn t a problem today. A big twin engine was in the pattern at Belen and it seemed crowded with other aircraft, so skipped my usual end of flight touch and goes and just landed and headed for the hanger. There was a fairly strong cross wind, blowing 10mph from the north. I was set up to land, about 10ft over the centerline, when two thermals popped me up and into the crosswind. It took me a while to get lined up after each thermal, but I took my time and waited till I was perfectly centered before committing to a landing. I ended up touching down near the windsock at mid-field. This was a nice long fun flight, and 4.5 hours without a pit-stop is a personal record that will stand for a while.