Further West - Arizona

First of all sorry for the delay but I've experienced some problems with the internet connections in the hotels I've been to and was not able to upload new posts, which I had already written, so here it goes!

View from the left back window enroute to

Laurel Field, Mississipi.

The Crew after sunset, inbound Stephenville.

After a well rested night in Stephenville,TX, we woke up early the next day to get the most out of our flying day and to reach our destination, Tucson before sunset. Tucson is located in Arizona and it would take us 7 hours of flight to get there. This place was chosen because the other day when we went to Spruce Creek a former American Airlines pilot recommended us to go there and check out the Pima Air and Space Museum, one of the biggest aircraft museum in the USA.

As we got to the airport on our courtesy car, an old Police Interceptor which was once a real police car and after being stripped out was now doing the job of a courtesy car for the local airport, we quickly loaded and refueled the aeroplanes but as soon as we started the exterior inspection on one of the Cessnas we noticed that the right main tire was flat. Not a big deal as we contacted the local maintenance hangar and the guys promptly inflated the tire without any charge. That event delayed our departure slightly but once we were on the air to our destination Sierra Blanca, located in New Mexico, everything was going smooth and easy and our expectations were high since this would be our first "mountain flying" experience.

View from the left wing, as we cross the peak at 11000 feet (3300 meters).

Refueling at Sierra Blanca.

Sierra Blanca is a neat airport located at 6800ft (2000 meters) above mean sea level enclosed within a wide valley, just outside of Roswell, NM (By the way, I did not see any ETs!). This would be just a refueling stop to continue our flight down to Tucson. After stretching our legs and looking around we set sail to Tucson but instead of doing a dull flight and since it was such a nice sunny day we decided to fly slightly North to check out the mountains and scenery together with the other aircraft. When I mean together I mean flying in formation! Check it out...

Getting Close!

Zooming the guys!

Coordinated right turn.

Breaking off Formation - 1.

Breaking off Formation - 2.

Breaking off Formation - 3.

The flight ended in the best possible way, for the first time we were able to land in formation and we did so at the invite of the controller in the Tucson International Airport. It was quite an eventful day with lots of flying and new experiences which naturally drained our energies out and so it was only wise to go to bed and rest, since the next day would be even more exciting!