Phoenix - Escalante, UT / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N2751W) / VFR

Inspired by a Facebook wall post, I decided to try flying up to Escalante, a tiny town in Utah that happens to have a small municipal airport.

I filed VFR via a couple of waypoints that would take me up over Prescott and through the Dragon Corridor over the Grand Canyon in the Grand Canyon SFRA before taking me to Escalante. The distance was about the same as a flight from Phoenix to San Diego, but I do PHX-SAN all the time and I was looking for variety.

All went well. Cleared into the Bravo and departing from runway 26, I immediately turned north, climbing to 4500 initially and then more gradually up to 8500 as I left the Bravo, for terrain. Unfortunately I found myself heading right into a cloud layer, so for a while I bounced between altitudes looking for clear skies, going from 8500 to 12500 and back down again at various intermediate altitudes. Finally I just made a wide swing around the clouds, ultimately rejoining my filed route at KACEE. As I approached BISOP I climbed again to 11500 to pass through the Dragon Corridor of the Grand Canyon SFRA. (The name of the corridor sounds a bit ominous, but it's just named after a specific landmark in the corridor.) I went direct CABER, descending after I was clear of the Paria Plateau, and then down to Escalante at 5744 feet, swinging slightly east to stay clear of Canaan Peak.

The landing was very smooth, weather was good, and it was a nice change of pace.

San Diego - Phoenix / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N2751W) / VFR

This evening I decided to fly back to Phoenix in the Baron I had parked at Jimsair in San Diego. I filed BARET IPL BZA MOHAK GBN ALLIS at 7500 VFR. I was given no restrictions in my clearance into the Bravo on departure, only a squawk, which was odd but I had no problem with it.

I flew almost entirely on autopilot (my Barons are chock full of cool avionics), and I nearly dozed off during the uneventful night flight. Flying the Baron is such a breeze after having to do everything by hand in a 152! For landing I was given a left downwind to 25L, which conveniently put me right next to Cutter, where I parked. The landing was a bit harder than I would have preferred, but still acceptable, and no harm done.

Wickenburg - Phoenix / Cessna 152 (N706YL) / VFR

It dawned on me while looking at a chart that Grand Avenue, a diagonal street that runs northwest from central Phoenix, turns into a highway that leads all the way up to Wickenburg—so I decided to fly from Wickenburg to Phoenix just by following this highway/street. It worked pretty well. It took a while—everything seems to take a while in a 152—but it worked out okay. I eventually came in over Sun City West and Sun City, and had a bit of trouble spotting the transition from highway to Grand Avenue, but I eventually had to turn east, anyway, in order to make my downwind for runway 26. Landing was without incident, and I parked at Cutter, my favorite FBO (even though I've never been there in real life!).

Gila Bend - Wickenburg / Cessna 152 (N706YL) / VFR

I don't know what it is about Gila Bend, but I seem to find myself going to or from its little airport an awful lot. The city is a hellhole, like most tiny towns in the deserts of the Great American Southwest. It's often the hottest spot in the State of Arizona (just as Hawley Lake is often the coldest). It's a place you pass through without stopping while driving between Phoenix and San Diego.

I guess the airport is convenient for me, and it's in a geographic area that I know only too well. Plus, I can fly to and from the city in a sim without suffering the extreme discomfort of 115° F temperatures. In real life, this might well be too much of an ordeal to endure.

The town is named after a bend in the nearby Gila River (which usually has only about a quart of water flowing through it), and the first word in the name is pronounced “heelah,” although many out-of-towners in aviation don't know this. There's a waypoint and an arrival named GEELA into Phoenix, which makes me think that the person naming it didn't know about the customary local pronunciation of Gila Bend (and the Gila River), or perhaps didn't want to risk confusing people unfamiliar with the local pronunciation (pilots flying in from other cities most likely wouldn't know about the peculiarity of pronunciation).

Anyway … where was I? … oh, yes, I left Gila Bend in one of my clunky little 152s and headed for Wickenburg. The distance between them was 62 nautical miles, and at the lame speeds of the 152, that meant about 40 minutes in the air. I headed for the Buckeye VOR, then headed back out on the 349 radial and found the airport easily enough. There wasn't much wind and the weather was very clear. I did encounter some turbulence near Wickenburg, though.

It was 110° F in Wickenburg when I landed, with gusting winds, and the landing was a bit rough because of the gusts.

Wickenburg is a dump, too. Sorry, but it is. I'm glad I'm only landing there, not visiting there. However, Wickenburg does have one redeeming quality: the Hassayampa River flows through it. Unlike the Gila River, this river has water in it, but it flows mostly underground (!). It comes above ground in Wickenburg and flows gently through the town. That still doesn't compensate for high temperatures, though, and the airport is several miles from the river.

Avalon - Santa Monica / Cessna 152 (N705YL) / VFR

After verifying that the weather was VFR (it was marginal VFR), I teleported one of my Cessna 152s to Avalon Airport, on Catalina Island, and flew to Santa Monica. The trip is about 43 nautical miles, half of that over water. I don't know that I'd feel comfortable flying a 152 over the ocean in real life, but in simulation, where failures occur only when you allow them to, there was no risk.

Take-off was to the west, as usual, and I made a downwind departure towards the mainland. On my single VOR I tuned Seal Beach, and flew towards that for a while, trying to avoid clouds. The weather cleared as I neared the mainland, and I turned roughly towards FERMY after reaching the breakwater before the Queen's Gate reporting point. I had been as low as 2000 feet (not good, I know, but there's no way I'd get high enough quickly enough to glide to the mainland while over the water, anyway), and climbed to 3500 as I came in over the mainland, in part to avoid the Class D airspaces at Torrance and Long Beach, and in part to prepare for my transition through the LAX SFRA, which requires 3500 feet northbound. EDIT: No, that's not right, I should have been at 4500 northbound! Aarrgh, huge mistake! I have a telephone number to call. — AA

I happened to land almost exactly on the SMO312 radial, which is the required radial for the SFRA, so I just followed it in. No need to worry about being below 140 KIAS for the SFRA in this aircraft, since I can barely get to 100 KIAS. I switched the transponder to 1201 as I silently sailed over LAX, then switched it back for my dramatic descent into KSMO. Santa Monica is just north of LAX and I was at 3500 feet, so I descended with a slight slip in order to get down to pattern altitude as quickly as I could, after being approved for a left downwind entry (the pattern was empty, anyway).

The landing was very smooth. I was surprised at how well it went. I guess it's hard to make too many mistakes at only 50 knots. The weather was nice and clear in Santa Monica (although it's now low IFR as I write this, several hours later). Getting lost wasn't much of a risk here as I know the SoCal airspace and geography quite well.

Black Diamond - Harvey / Cessna 152 (N707YL) / VFR

I flubbed up another exercise in pilotage with this flight.

The plan was simple: fly from Black Diamond airport (95WA) to Harvey (S43), below the Seattle Class B. It's practically a straight line north, but I still messed it up. All I had to do was stick to a course of 337 until I got to the Snoqualmie River, then turn slightly to around 321 and proceed to Harvey. The whole trip was only a measly 36 nautical miles, over land that is only a few feet above sea level. The weather was very clear and I could see for dozens of miles, it seemed. I was never at more than 2500 feet, so I had a good view of the ground.

Nevertheless, I lost my way. Take a look at the track of my flight here. Not exactly ruler-straight, is it? I did well enough up along Lake Sammamish, in part because I had that big lake as a reference point. But then, as I continued north, I got confused. At first I thought I was too far south, then too far north, then too far west, and so on. I saw rivers and highways and other features that I thought I recognized, but I still got confused.

I tried working with VORs. The 152 has only a single VOR receiver. I used SEA initially then switched to PAE. I knew that Harvey was on the 080 radial from the chart, but I couldn't seem to get to the radial. It felt like it was taking too long to get there, so I turned around, and then turned around again.

All in all, this was a pretty sorry performance. And this was under good conditions. I'm not sure how I finally managed to locate the airport. Thank goodness the weather was good and I departed with full tanks, and I was in an area with lots of airports and flat terrain.

Spokane - Seattle / Beechcraft Baron 58 (N3861S) / IFR

Sitting in the cockpit of one of my Barons feels like riding in a limousine after flying tiny Cessnas for the past few days. Today I filed IFR from Spokane to Seattle. The weather was excellent, but it can change unpredictably around Seattle, so I thought IFR would be more prudent.

All went quite smoothly. I navigated with instruments, so I didn't have to worry too much about terrain below. The only glitch came on the arrival (EPH.EPH6). I was at 8000, knowing that I'd have to climb before I reached the mountains to at least 12000. On several occasions, I requested 12000 from ATC, but I never got a reply. I ended up flying over a few mountains at only 600 feet AGL, counting the squirrels in the trees. The weather was clear and the air was smooth, so I could afford to cut it closer. Nevertheless, in real life, I would have climbed on my own and advised ATC (“leaving 8000 climbing 12000 for terrain”), but I let it ride here, and fortunately I survived.

ATC finally did remember that I was there, in time to hand me off to Seattle Approach. Thereafter ATC was more attentive. In fairness to controllers, though, this was in the middle of a VATSIM “Friday Night Ops” event, and the skies were very crowded.

In fact, Seattle was extremely crowded when I arrived, with aircraft everywhere. I had to wait quite a while just to taxi from my holding position just off 16L to the ramp (I like to park on the cargo ramp north of the tower). There was even a helicopter idling on the ground near my preferred parking place.