Arty's Ultimate Ultralight Adventure

Monday, April 6
During the night the wind picked up, and I work up briefly and thought "I wonder if all my stuff will blow away?" before falling back to sleep. At 6:00 a.m. the wind was really howling and I wasn't sure that we'd be able to fly at all. The FBO manager said that strong winds were forecast for the next three days. But there are strong winds and there is turbulence, and the two are very different.

In my post earlier today I wrote about Randy repairing his brakes and having a great Texas barbeque lunch with Vince Vairo. Vince is building a Challenger; he has been a military pilot and a commerical pilot, but has never flown small (maybe I should say tiny) aircraft. So while I am awed and impressed by all his flying experience, he is interested in learning all he can about flying the small stuff like Randy and I do.

I realize that Randy and I are probably not the best examples for new Light Sport pilots. Both of us have over 2000 hours in our aircraft and we feel not only comfortable but also safe in the way we fly. (Obviously, there are exceptions at times!) Today was a good example. As Vince wrote in his comment to my earlier post, the sock was straight out when we took off. However, I had gotten a flight briefing and knew that winds at 5500' (the altitude we'd be flying, were strong but only mildly turbulent. And the sock was straight down the runway, with very little gusting. Sooooo...we decided to take off.

Vince wing-walked me out, but it was a precaution rather than a necessity. I got off quickly and without difficulty, with Randy following. The entire flight was fairly steady and calm -m some bumps, but not much. STRONG headwind, so that I was making only 33-35 mph over the ground. Once or twice I dropped down to 25 mph! And I felt like cheering when once (but only once) I got up to 40 mph.
The way I see it, it just gave me that much more time to enjoy the scenery. It took us 2.5 hours to cover 70 miles. (Actually, Randy could have done it much more quickly, but he hung out waiting for me.)

We were 19 miles out from Lordsburg, NM when I saw another huge dry lakebed - Playa Katherine. Again, I couldn't resist and we immediately headed down for a landing and pictures. This Playa was much dryer than the one yesterday. I messed up the landing a bit, misjudging wind direction, and bounced on one wheel coming in. But no damage done.

We landed at Lordsburg at 6:00 p.m. our time - and now have to change our watches as we're now in Central Daylight Time.

I'm ready for bed and will try to find time tomorrow to download our pics. We're both charged up and planning on getting out early tomorrow - but who knows?