It is time for this great adventure to unfold! Mountains and desert will be a new flying experience for both of us. I had a bit of an introduction to mountains in 2008 for my first Air Race Classic in 2008, flying solo off from Iowa City in the midst of its historic 500-year flood to Bozeman MT. But the Southwest will be a whole other universe for me in the left seat of my Cardinal.
Tue Jun 12th - Kata literally returned in the wee hours before from her week of rafting the Grand Canyon - a 20-hr van trip. She had her race bag packed 2 weeks ago, ready to throw in her car for the drive to Iowa City. We finally got coordinated, packed the plane, and flew off from IOW about 5:30 pm to complete one leg of our trip to HII (Lake Havasu AZ). Destination - Great Bend KS, a nice race stop from last year's route. It was nice weather and smooth flying at about 6000 feet.
Folks say Iowa is flat, but Nebraska and Kansas set the standard for FLAT!!! The rolling hills of Iowa are great! But the mountains will be here soon enough...As we approached Great Bend the sun was getting ready to set. The FBO was also closed, and we're not sure how long it will take to get a cab to get into town for a hotel. Maybe we'll be sleeping in the plane...
After taxiing to the terminal, I found the tie down spots WITH ropes for us. Just as we poured ourselves out of the plane, a line guy appeared from nowhere. He happened to be working in a hangar and heard us coming in. He tied down the plane, brought the crew car around for us, put our stuff in the car, recommended a hotel and a restaurant. THAT is General Aviation for you!!!
We headed off for the night as the sun dropped below the horizon.
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