A coast to coast excursion, part one

Saturday afternoon, April 14th, Graham and I launched on a weeklong excursion in our aircraft flying from the AgAir Update offices in Georgia to Texas, Arizona, California and back to Texas before returning home. The plan is to visit operators and suppliers to the ag-aviation industry. The “plan” also includes Graham taking Wayne Handley’s “Situational Awareness” agrobatic course (http://www.waynehandley.com/). I was one of Wayne’s charter students for this course that he designed to demonstrate to ag-pilots just how fast things can go really bad in an ag-plane. Wayne does it through hi-intensity aerobatics in an Extra 300L. 

This trip is reminiscent of the years when Graham was growing up and we’d take 7-10 days during the summer to travel the country to visit operators. It gave him quite an experience in traveling, as well as meeting people in our industry. 

This trip encompasses about 5,000 miles. With any luck, it’ll take about 25 flight hours and 700 gallons of fuel. However, flying from coast to coast, there will be much of America’s landscape that will be seen. 

Our first leg Saturday had us at Lane Aviation (http://www.laneav.com) in Rosenberg, Texas for dinner and an overnight stay. We departed Rosenberg about 9a heading west to Fort Stockton, Texas to have lunch with AgAir Update’s AirFire & Forestry editor, Marc Mullis. 

We met with Marc and a fellow SEAT pilot, Bill Rose (SD) and enjoyed a great traditional Mexican lunch, Taco OJ’s. Marc caught me up on the latest news in the SEAT world. He is not expecting the firefighting season in Texas to be of any magnitude in comparison to last year’s. 

After lunch, Graham and I departed Fort Stockton for Phoenix, AZ. Now, the scenery changes from the never ending plains of west Texas to the mountains that cross between El Paso and Phoenix. It was an easy flight at 12,000 MSL, except for the never ending headwind. 

Tonight, we go to dinner with Greg Guyette of Hemisphere GPS (http://www.hemispheregps.com/) Guess what, Mexican! Fortunately, Graham and I love Mexican food. Did I say we had Mexican for breakfast this morning at Bob’s Taco Stand in Rosenberg?