by Sean Samuel
Our plan on the third day of our trip was to have some breakfast, get showered, check the weather, and then head to Las Vegas!
The skies over San Francisco were gloomy at first, but were forecast to clear by eight o’clock, which suited us just fine. The rest of our planned route along the west coast of California, past Santa Barbara and into Van Nuys Airport was covered in low lying cloud. Since it would be dangerous (not to mention illegal) for us to fly in such bad weather, we pulled our charts out and planned a new route to Las Vegas. We decided to head due east from San Francisco and fly directly to Las Vegas, stopping at a rural airport in the town of Tehachapi for fuel and lunch. With both of us happy with the plans, we called our instructor back home in B.C. to confirm our decisions with them and to keep the flying club informed of our changed route.
As we climbed over the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the clouds parted leaving clear blue skies and we were met with something you don’t see in B.C., completely flat desert land as far as the eye could see. The flight onwards was fairly uneventful over the vast eastern California plains; Adam kept his headings true and held his altitude at a perfect 9,500’. I (as co-pilot) handled the radio frequencies and checked the weather ahead to make sure we didn’t get any surprises.
When we were an hour out from Tehachapi the weather reports started indicating gusting winds at the airports. The danger of a gust is that when the aircraft is facing into the wind for landing and the gust is at its peak there is a lot of airflow over the wings creating lift. As soon as the gust dies down though, the airflow decreases and the aircraft may begin a steep descent. Looking at the charts I noticed how Tehachapi was situated in a long valley, which can cause wind to funnel and increase in speed, possibly creating dangerous turbulent conditions.
The weather station for Tehachapi though wasn’t indicating any gusts, indicating instead the wind was blowing at a steady 20kt! Nevertheless, we approached the airport, knowing that even if we were wrong we had planned reserve fuel to divert to a calmer airport.
On descent Adam made the necessary calls on the airport frequency (there was no tower here) and we lined ourselves up on final for runway 29. Once on the ground we taxied over to the fuel pumps, filled up the 40 gallon tanks and then moved the plane over to the itinerant parking slots… it was time we had some lunch!
After a stuffing meal at a nearby steak house we walked back to the airport and our waiting aircraft, we were about to takeoff, destination… Las Vegas!
Adam started the engine and soon we were off the runway once more. As we came to the end of the 4000’ plateau that Tehachapi was situated on, we were astonished at the sight. There were hundreds upon hundreds of wind turbines taking advantage of the winds funneled through the valley; creating enough electricity to (I would imagine) power half of Las Vegas! As the plateau descended into the Nevada dessert we observed Edwards Air Force Base (from a safe distance though), which is a military test facility and back-up landing site for the NASA Space Shuttles.
As we neared the mountains south of Las Vegas we were disturbed by turbulence associated from the convective desert air. We were tossed up and thrown down by the air, sometimes as much as 600’fpm. Luckily these bumps were only temporary and soon we were out of harm’s way and into our final descent for Henderson Executive Airport, Las Vegas!
After parking, I undid my seatbelt and harness, unlatched the door and stepped onto the apron. Never before had I felt such heat! The wind was blowing 15kt and with the wind ‘chill’ the temperature was a scorching 37 degrees Celsius. It felt as if someone was holding a hair dryer on my entire body! Thankfully an airport attendant arrived in his van (which was nicely air conditioned), helped us unpack the aircraft and then drove us over to the terminal (which I am grateful to say, was also air conditioned). A taxi was called for us, and after a quick drive we were dumping our bags at the hotel… in Las Vegas!
That night we walked the strip and enjoyed the $30 buffet at the Mirage, or was it the Bellagio, maybe the MGM Grand? Nevertheless it was a great dinner; and the next day was spent walking ‘The Strip’ in Las Vegas in the morning and lounging at the pools during the afternoon heat.
I think it’s safe to say, it’s a pilots life for me!
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| Las Vegas |
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