First time with flight following

 Friday, June 23

What a day! We wanted to get an early start this morning and were in the air by 6:45 a.m. Our first stop was Culberson County (KVHN) in Van Horne, TX. A quick refuel and we were on our way again. I was pretty bleary, since I'd been up late last night, talking with Flight Services about flying through the Defense Areas east and west of El Paso. Defense areas are lumped in with ADIZ in the CFRs but are not well defined. (CFR = Code of Federal Regulations, which are the FAA regulatory requirements for aviators. ADIZ = Air Defense Identification Zone.) I found out just how busy the airspace around El Paso is.

We agreed to request flight following as a flight of two, so only one of us would be talking to Flight Following. My radio allows me to listen to two different frequencies at the same time, so I could be on the FF frequency and also on an air-to-air channel. Dennis flies higher and faster than I do, so he took the lead in talking with FF. He climbed to about 9500' and contacted FF; I was flying between 6500' and 7000'. Dennis was told that I had to fly at 8500' or FF couldn't follow me on radar. I decided to stay low and just follow Dennis, and that was o.k.

My engine ran just fine. We were following a GPS track,  and it was visually boring, so much so that if I'd had auto pilot I might have dozed off after we got past El Paso's Charlie airspace. I again found myself wondering about the type of folks who choose to live so isolated, in the midst of the desert. I also wondered what agency bulldozed the miles and miles of dirt roads, which formed a grid across the desert.

We flew north around El Paso's airspace and had to be very careful not to get into the Restricted airspace just a little ways north of our route. (I find it interesting that when you look at our track (below) that Juarez is listed instead of El Paso.)

We landed at Ozona (KOZA) TX in 104° heat. We used the courtesy car to go to lunch, and when we got back to the delightful air conditioning of the FBO, I wasn't sure if I wanted to fly another leg, even though it was only 1:30 p.m. There were three couches in the FBO, so we each claimed one and took a long nap. By 4 p.m. we were ready to head out again for Burnet, TX (KBMQ).

We were following I-10 and I was really glad, because my tablet turned itself off after warning me that it was shutting down due to heat. And this was at 5000'!!! If we had been following a GPS track I would have been in real trouble.

Lots of oil rigs.

This leg was more interesting. It was more hilly and there was more agriculture.

And finally - a river! I found out this is the Colorado River, but not the big Colorado through the Rockies.

And then the river flowed into Lake Buchanan. Now I knew we were really close to Burnet, because my friends' home, where we'll be staying, looks out over the lake.

We have been watching the weather closely, and have been followed by a dry line with threat of thunderstorms ahead, but it looked o.k. to fly this leg, and it was. It was bumpy at 5000' and I kept getting a lot of free lift. Then I'd point the nose down and get back to 5000'. That was about 2500' AGL and I didn't need it for safety but for coolness. It was still pretty warm in the cockpit though.

We landed at Burnet, tied down, and called Gerry and Anne. These are some of my oldest friends (old in terms of years known,) and it's been years since I've seen them. We're going to stay with them tonight and tomorrow, and fly out again on Sunday.

I had really been hoping to see my granddaughter Jessica, who joined the Navy in March, finished boot camp in early June, and now is stationed at Ft. Sam Houston in San Antonio. She had warned me that she might not be able to meet me off-base, since she hasn't yet been at Ft. Sam - or in the Navy - long enough to earn that privilege. And the Ft. Sam visitor center is considered off-base!

Sure enough, when I called her this evening, she said she wouldn't be able to see me in person. We turned on FaceTime and talked for over an hour. She LOVES being in the Navy and I so enjoyed her energy and enthusiasm.

Tomorrow (Saturday, June 24) will be a day of relaxing at Gerry and Anne's and on Sunday we'll be off to Brownsville, TX to see Tony Bolstad. Jim Young has also invited us to visit, and we'll be doing some flight planning to try and see him too. 

Here's our track for today.