After careful consideration, I decided that I would bring Jessica along and give her the ticket. I would find a pub to watch the game. As luck would have it, another ticket came available and we were all 3 set to go.
The day before the game, I was as sick as I have ever been. I had a fever and got out of bed at 9:00. I took a shower and decided to head home (200 miles over the mountains). I had no idea whether I could fly to Pasadena. My head was completely plugged and I felt rotten. It was looking like our tickets would become some very expensive wall ornaments. I got Allison to get me a Dr. appointment at 3 PM.
I told the Dr. that I had to fly the next morning if at all possible, and I felt terrible. She gave me an antibiotic because I had some infection in my ears, a nasal spray and and antihistimine. I told her this all had to be out of my system in the morning so I could fly with a clear head. She seemed reasonably sure this could happen. I went straight to bed and woke up early on Thursday, the day of the game.
Just off the ground in Junction.....
At 4:30AM I got up and felt much, much better. Not great, but certainly ready to fly. I checked weather. Clear with the exception of some light icing potential just on the Colorado side of the border. I filed KGJT JNC V8 MMM V394 BASL V12 V201 BERRI KBUR at 14,000' This should have taken us directly over Las Vegas with a view of the Grand Canyon, then across the California mountains and into Burbank, CA.
Jessica got up at about 5:30 and we left Parachute, CO for the Grand Junction airport. She helped me drag the Mooney that I am parked behind out into 6" of snow. We did a thourough pre-departure check while still in the warm hangar and rigged up the O2 bottle. 'Houston' came out next and we parked the truck in the hangar and put the Mooney back in it's place.
14,000' and cruising to Pasadena!
Just at sun-up we fired her up. Next, we tested the O2 connections, got our clearance, and entered the route into the GPS. Ground gave us a modified departure as the wind changed just at sun-up, but no worries. We joined V8 and headed toward Vegas. The snow and light clouds were beautiful just after takeoff. We open up the oxygen bottle after reaching 12,000' and continued to climb 14,000'.
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To see the radar track, click here
Oututside of Las Vegas
At Mormon Mesa VOR, ATC amended our route to go south of Vegas. We should have been high enough, but I guess they didn't want any slow blips on the screen over Vegas. No worries. We made the change without problems. We rejoined our original planned route at Palmdale, CA and headed on to KBUR.
Near Burbank, ATC gave us the Lynxx Eight standard arrival. The GPS had the arrival, so it was straight forward. Before hitting the mountains, though, we got vectored away from the airport as a 737 made it's approach. From there, it was vectors to the airport.
Several of the pilots had southern accents on the way in. I heard a pilot complete his transmission with a 'Hook 'em'. Not being one to let it lie, I ended one of mine with a 'Lets Roll 'em'
7 miles out ATC told me to stay above 4000' till established on the base for RW 15, since it was near the mountains. Getting close, they asked if I could 'get down from there'. Of course I could and did, hitting the mark just right.
The air was a little thicker than I was used to, so she floated down the runway a little longer than I was used to, but no factor.
We parked our little 182 right next to the Texican's Lears and Citations. We took a bit of ribbing from all of the burnt-orange clad rich boys, but we grinned. They had no idea what was about to happen on the football field in about 4 hours.
Outside of the Rose Bowl
What happened next was the game.... and Colt McCoy missed it. I would go into details, but that would take up a whole blog of its own and this is about flying. Which gives me and idea.....
Josh, Jessica and I meet up outside the gate. First time we had seen Josh in months.
The game was over (of course Bama won) and we headed to Josh's hotel near LAX. We got about 4 hours sleep and headed back to Burbank airport.
Before gametime...
EVERYTHING is slow in Los Angeles. It was slow to check out, Josh was 1 mile from his airport (LAX), took us 1/2 hour to get him dropped off. The 20 mile drive to Burbank airport took about 45 minutes, then at the airport those pissed off Texicans were awake and hung over and wanted to take their dear sweet time paying for their fuel and rental cars. Almost an hour in the airport before we could leave.
Yep... the Tide prevailed.
I amended the return trip flight plan to avoid Las Vegas. No sense in being re-routed again. We sat idling for 20 minutes on the gorund in Burbank as 6 Lears took off from both Burbank and Van Nuys airports (in the same flight path). We were given the Van Nuys Seven Departure Procedure, but vectors were given and we climbed over the mountains and headed back to Palmdale where we resumed our own navigation. ... and Jessica slept.
You can just see Corso and gang in the lower right part of the picture.
The only hiccup came near Las Vegas. The GPS stopped working. The integrated radios worked, but it couldn't see any satellites. The hand-held was still working like a charm. I started navigating with the VORs and amended my aircraft suffix to /U instead of /G so they wouldn't give me a routing I couldn't accept.
The trip back was uneventful. 4:30 minutes.
Back in Grand Junction, I contacted Steve Bottom, my trusty avionics guy. The heater had shorted the coaxial cable to the antenna. He had it operational in about an hour.
Great trip to LA. Vegas is now on my list, too.
Come see us...
KB
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