I know, I know - I left you hanging with my last post, not telling you about the mysterious engine "knock". Unfortunately, the waters continue to be muddy. (How's that for mixing metaphors?)
Our flight on Monday, June 19 was a short one: from Gila Bend, AZ (E63) to Sierra Vista, AZ( KFHU) via Bisbee, AZ (P04). The manager at the Palms Inn drove us to the airport at 8:00 a.m. and we were on our way. Our route involved navigating complex airspace: getting around Tucson's Charlie airspace, making sure we didn't get into Restricted airspace near Sierra Vista, avoiding the unmarked tethered balloon (the tether takes the balloon up to 15,000', avoiding the Tombstone MOA, and then getting into Sierra Vista itself. SV is primarily an army airport, is used by other branches of the military, and still has a small civilian fleet.
We decided to fly north around Tucson, which involved climbing to 9000' to get over the mountains. All was fine at 7000', but beginning at 8000' the engine "knocked" again! (Dennis refers to it as a "miss". The sound, to me, is like someone tapping on a door or window pane.) I gritted my teeth and started counting seconds between knocks.
It was desert and mountains.
We also flew past Davis-Monthan AFB outside of Tucson, the largest aircraft "boneyard" in the world. When they decommission military and commercial jets, it's often less expensive to keep them at an airport instead of destroying them. Arizona is perfect for this, since they don't deteriorate, due to the dry heat.
As we flew around the northeast curve of Tucson's airspace, Dennis tried calling the tower at Sierra Vista to find out the protocol for flying into what is essentially an Army airport. He tried three different frequencies and couldn't get an answer from any of them. This made him nervous, and he radio'd that he wanted us to land in Bisbee, and see if he could reach the tower by phone.
The idea of flying into Bisbee made ME nervous, since it's right on the border with Mexico, and I started to fret about what might happen if I inadvertently flew into Mexican airspace. Then I saw the WALL - a dark black serpent curving for miles and miles. I relaxed, knowing that I wouldn't inadvertently fly over that!!!
Due to the wind direction, we landed on a short dirt runway rather than the paved one.
Eric Swisher, the co-owner of Copper City Aviation, came over to greet us. He has FOUR Flight Design CTS airplanes, as well as a twin airplane and one other. He and his wife Cheryl run a full flight school for Light Sport, Private Pilot, and Instrument ratings. We were astonished that such a small, physically isolated, bedraggled-looking airport could support such a large flight school.
Eric was so very welcoming and he told us that the reason we couldn't reach the tower was because Juneteenth is a federal holiday, and so the tower is closed. Eric also told us that Bisbee (the town) is very famous as a tourist destination, due to the large copper pit mine. It has been closed for copper production since the mid-70's, but draws tourists from around the world for its mine tours.
Eric urged us to take the airport courtesy boat (whoops, sorry...car...) and see for ourselves. Bisbee is a tourist's delight, with charming homes, shops, and restaurants. If I sound like a marketing employee of Bisbee - obviously I'm not, but both Dennis and I were so taken with the town that we spent several hours wandering around.
When we were ready to go, we discovered that Dennis had a flat tire, so he used Eric's air compressor to inflate it. Then we were ready to take off - on a slightly longer, but still dirt, runway, due to a shifting wind.
We left Bisbee and flew to Sierra Vista without difficulty. When I landed I was happy with my landing, since it was gusty, and it wasn't a great landing but not any real problem. Dennis let me know that I'd landed in wind that was gusting to 32 mph!!!! I must have come in when it was at the lower end of the gust range.
We had a wonderful evening with Pierre Louis and Julia Ours and Julia's mother Betsy. I bought my Aeroprakt from Pierre Louis two years ago when he and Julia lived in Mt. Sterling, OH. It was great to see them again.
Both Dennis and I want to take the mine tour, so we're going to fly to Bisbee tomorrow, then come back to the Ours' for the night, and continue our journey on Wednesday.
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