Vital Aviation Arizona Desert Camp

This forum has been developed to discuss aviation related videos and photos.

Moderators: sky's the limit, sepia, Sulako, North Shore

Post Reply
doan_1
Rank 1
Rank 1
Posts: 46
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:08 pm

Vital Aviation Arizona Desert Camp

Post by doan_1 »

These are the raw, unfiltered photos I took this time last year with the Nokia 1020 smartphone (mostly, some from my nexus 5). One would think I would have more but I was there to learn more than take pictures. I had a hell of a good time buzzing around the south in old 172s that did not even have GPS. The camp was in Parker, AZ (P20) and most of the flying was around there in the 3 Cessnas and a Cherokee as we had an open desert for a practice area, and a VOR right there to work with. But we did fly the coast down, cutting inland near Santa Rosa, Down to Harris Ranch and then finally over the Mojave and Colorado River to home base. We spent 8 weeks at the airport, complete with scorpions and geckos doing our CPL ground work in the trailers, the ratty old table and no internet except the Safeway down the road. We flew to places like Tuscan, Yuma, Sedona, Bagdad, Lake Havasu, 29 Palms, Vegas, Wickenburg (my Night XC destination), Winslow, and Blythe. My 300 NM was Havasu to Douglas near the Mexico/New Mexico Border with Arizona. We visited missile silos and air museums. Found hieroglyphs in the middle of desert that were made to be seen by the gods. Had military aircraft "buzz" and play with us "snow birds" as they called us.

My personal favorite story in the air was when I was actually practicing a forced approach enroute to base. A C17 decided to scoot underneath me while I was doing the engine failure check practice! It was like watching a shark come and look at you from 3 feet under water when your not expecting it. I had never had to do an overshoot while still at 3500' AGL until that time! All of a sudden it was just there and very big! There was no danger of collision, but it was enough to go "what the hell?"

I wrote the exam at Henderson Executive in Vegas and passed! Not the best score but good for where and how I did it. 2 weeks later we started out on the return trip along the eastern side of the mountains. Stopping in Jean (fuel), Falon (2 days), Klamath Falls (fuel), Yakima (fuel) and then out the coast through a mountain pass west of Ellensburg that was stunning in the late winter! We started to run out of daylight near Belingham, so had to stay there for 2 days before sneaking our way back to the island in low ceilings and rain. I wasn't able to actually finish my CPL, and there are definitely cheaper ways to go (that's why I didn't finish). But it was a hell of a way to do it! My favorite photo is the last. Seattle at sunset. If you zoom in you can see the city. Sunny and clear to the south and the cloudy mess of the Canadian west coast. I was glad I had my Seinheiser headset with the music jack and active noise cancellation. There was a lot of empty miles at 100KTs in a noisy cockpit!

Anyway, was poking around on here today and figured I would share. It's a link to my google drive as there are too many to post and the files are too big (but great for zooming!). Happy Easter fellow aviators!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_I06 ... authuser=0
---------- ADS -----------
 
doan_1
Rank 1
Rank 1
Posts: 46
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:08 pm

Re: Vital Aviation Arizona Desert Camp

Post by doan_1 »

Sorry, it's not posting all of them. Weird. Here is the rest.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_I06 ... authuser=0
---------- ADS -----------
 
CpnCrunch
Rank 11
Rank 11
Posts: 4011
Joined: Mon Feb 08, 2010 9:38 am

Re: Vital Aviation Arizona Desert Camp

Post by CpnCrunch »

Great pics, thanks for posting -- looks like a fun way to get your CPL!
---------- ADS -----------
 
Hozer
Rank 2
Rank 2
Posts: 55
Joined: Tue Feb 08, 2011 11:01 am
Location: The Dog House!

Re: Vital Aviation Arizona Desert Camp

Post by Hozer »

Awesome Pics!

How are Don and Lynda? Their program has served me extremely well in my career. Congrats!
---------- ADS -----------
 
doan_1
Rank 1
Rank 1
Posts: 46
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 10:08 pm

Re: Vital Aviation Arizona Desert Camp

Post by doan_1 »

As well as can be expected. Lynda is great. I had not seen Don in my last couple visits, until a few weeks ago. I had made a comment to Lynda that I wanted to say hello and thank you to him when I picked up my PTR. So I think he made the effort. When did you finish the course? I fought to get the funding to do their course as it was likely the last year. But a comment was made as to seeing how they might continue commercial training. I hope they do. It's unfortunate I have to actually finish here in Victoria, but commuting to Nanaimo doesn't make much sense.
---------- ADS -----------
 
Post Reply

Return to “Aviation Videos & Photos”