Last night was a fun and new experience. I rode up to CDC with a couple of folks from the school location up there, and then flew back solo to RYN (one of my favorite regular night flights.) I'm crazy about night flight, it is always a favorite. Nothing but me and the instruments - oh and flight following and my ipod!
I didn't leave CDC for the trip home until about 10PM. The moon was practically full and the sky was clearing almost completely, but the winds were nutz! From SFC-12000 (and worse above) the wind was 190@40-50, and I was heading about 150deg most of the way for about 380 miles. It was fun listening to all the big guys above me talking to LA center, and jockeying for better altitudes because of the bumps. I kept thinking - try it down here in my 172 with a headwind that's half my cruise! But I'm sure they had their hands full, too.
The normal 3:45 hour trip took over 6 hours
. I ended up stopping at DVT North of Phoenix for a splash to make sure I was safe with fuel. Luckily there was a cool guy still on duty, since their 24hr pump wasn't working. It was so quiet by then that PHX cleared me through Bravo at 7500. That never happens!
The most interesting flight moment of the trip was on the West edge of the GCN corridor right over the middle of the canyon, at 11500, getting into a downdraft that pushed me down about 1000 feet. Its a pretty surreal feeling trying to keep altitude in the 172, and being pushed down so hard that maintaining altitude is impossible unless you want to stall completely - oh - and you are over top of the freakin' Grand Canyon in the middle of the night.
Okay - enough rambling. Thanks for reading!
