As fate would have it, the Jeremy (Jessica's boyfriend) who is the high school team's pitcher, had a game in Gunnison, CO on the Saturday that we were to leave for Vegas. After some consideration, we decided that the girls should go ahead and leave early, and John (Jeremy's dad) and I would fly to Gunnison and watch the game. We would pickup Jeremy and go on to Las Vegas.
Since there was some weather between Grand Junction, and Gunnsion, we filed IFR.
On approach, there was enough weather to keep from seeing the runway, so we shot the ILS-06 approach. After we were established, there was a Learjet on its way into the airport. ATC told them to go to Blue Mesa VOR and hold. In about another minute, I could see the airport and could see that there was clear skies between me and the runway. I told ATC that I would cancel to keep the Lear from burning more kerosene.
We followed him in (since he was so much faster than me). After landing and tying down the plane, the co-pilot came out of the cockpit with 2 lunch plates for us. We had saved him some money, time, and having to make laps around the holding pattern.
I don't know who he was piloting for, but they were eating off of real china. The chicken they gave us was very good and still warm and well worth the extra 2 minutes it took us to give up our spot in line (and the 1/2 hr it saved them).
We borrowed the crew car and drove to the baseball field. There was still snow in the dugout, but the boys played a good game, even if they did lose.
After the game, we loaded Jeremy into the plane with a blanket and he took a nap. We filed IFR for Henderson airport in Las Vegas at 14,000'. It was a great flight over with quite a few clouds to look at...
The scenery was beautiful:
The lights are unbelievable.
The trip home was quite another story. The wind was blowing about 20 kts on the ground and 70 kts on the way home. I checked with weather briefer and he suggested an alternate route headed south of the direct one I had filed, due to expected freezing rain. I agreed and re-filed.
Problem was he didn't cancel the earlier flight plan, and when we left the last assigned waypoint to head south on the new route, the controller called me and asked what was up. I explained what I though the problem was, she was nice, and we agreed on a hybrid route.
70 knots tailwind can be a good thing, and a bad thing. It cuts a 4 hour trip by over an hour. But on the up-wind side of the mountain peaks, you find yourself staring at the ground as you try to keep from flying in to Class A airspace. On the downwind side of the peaks, you point the nose to the sky and do all you can to to maintain altitude. I had 15,000' assigned, but on the backside of the mountains, there was no way I could hold that altitude. ATC gave me 14,000. Try as I might, I couldn't keep even 14,000' that as we crossed a peak. She topped falling at 13,500'. Those of you who have read Sparky Imeson's 'Mountain Flying Bible' know that these downdrafts do extend all the way to the ground.
See the Tracklog for a look at how much trouble I had holding altitude.
We arrived safe and sound in Grand Junction, with a nice practice of x-wind landings in the trusty C-182.
A great trip and one I'm sure we will make again.
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