November 2021 – My first trip to US for 19 months, due to the Corona Pandemic. And therefore also my first time with my Cessna 185 for 19 months. So it was really really nice to come back and see that my plane was still in good shape. Thanks to SkyView Aviation in Tracy for taking care of the plane in its hangar in Byron (C83).
I visited US for ten days with my son Søren. And due to the season we mainly planned to fly south to find nice and sunny weather. And we were lucky, stunning weather all days.
Day 1, 2 and 3 – Flying over LAX in Los Angeles. With two pilots on board, we had to fly over LAX through the chaos of air spaces around Los Angeles. First day we flew to Santa Barbara where we stayed for the night and re-reading all the special flight rules for Los Angeles Area. It is actually quite simple to fly over LAX once the rules has been understood, basically one has to fly at 4,500 feet and squarking 1201. After flying over LAX we flew into Torrance for a stop and some coffee. After Torrance our plan was to fly into Las Vegas, but due to a minor problem with the airplane, we flew back to Tracy to get it fixed.
Day 4 – From Tracy (KTCY) to Las Vegas (KVGT) with lunch at Bishop (KBIH). Over Yosemite and Mono Lake, through Death Valley and finally to North Las Vegas (KVGT) where we landed during sunset. Walked the strip in the night and had dinner outside.
Day 5 – From Las Vegas (KVGT) to Grand Canyon West (1G4), crossing Grand Canyon northbound via the Fossil Canyon Corridor to Marble Canyon (L41) and Page Municipal (KPGA) and finally crossing Grand Canyon southbound via the Dragon Corridor to Grand Canyon Nation Park (KGCN).
Day 6 – Grand Canyon, South Rim to Colorado River via the Bright Angel Trail. And back. 1350 meters down and up, 27 kilometers roundtrip, 8 hours of extraordinary hiking
Day 7 and 8 – Another three days of flying and hiking… Flew from Grand Canyon (KGCN) over several volcanic craters and the famous meteor crater near Flagstaff to Payson (KPAN) for lunch at the Crosswind Restaurant, and then further south right over Phenix Sky Harbor Intl (KPHX), over Organ Pipe National Park along the border to Mexico and finally into Tucson Intl (KTUS) where we parked for two nights.The day in Tucson was spent on a long hike among the tall cacti in Saguaro National Park and a visit to Pima Air & Space Museum.
Day 9 – When taking off early morning from Tucson (KTUS) we asked for a north east departure directly over nearby Davis Monthan Air Force Base (KDMA). And to our surprise, this was granted and we got to see the biggest aircraft boneyard for excess military and government aircraft in US from the air. From Tucson we flew for almost four hours to Big Bear City (L35) where we had lunch at The Barnstorm Restaurant, took the free trolley into town, checked in at our motel and hiked another 17 km. in the nearby Big Bear Mountains.
Day 9 – We got my airplane back to its hanger at Byron (C83) after a beautiful flight from Big Bear City (L35) to Mojave Air and Space Port (KMHV) for lunch and finally crossing Sierra Nevada into Byron (C83).
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