Boulder - Truckee/Tahoe - Vegas - Boulder

Sept. 2005

(Click on the thumbnails for full size pics.)

A "business" trip.  This is what you get when you combine great weather, a trade show in Las Vegas, not having seen my brother in Tahoe for a while and an itch for a long cross-country flight!  Unfortunately,  this was solo - the Mutts couldn't come along.

Boulder to Tahoe.

Leg 1.  Boulder to Vernal, UT.    A call to Flight Service for an outlook weather report the night before my planned flight showed clear conditions and no forcast turbulence along my route of flight.  My standard briefing the next morning confirmed this.  Except for a line of showers and virga that had formed west of Kremmling which might block my direct route of flight from Boulder to Grand Junction.  It was a perfect morning as lifted off from Boulder.   Crossing Rollins Pass west of Boulder,  Middle Park was beautiful!  Low fog had filled in the valley below me all the way to Kremmling.  That's Winter Park in the left of the picture.  A PIREP to Flight Watch got back the news that the shower line was still in front of me but they suggested that I could easily divert north to Hayden to get around.  I thought that I could also go around to the south so I kept on my original course to scout things out.  Should've listened to Flight Watch because it would have been a long way around to the south, way off my course so I turned around and then went north where I was able to duck under the virga and then turn West. Didn't see another cloud all the way to California.

My personal minimum is to never fly with much less than half-tanks which will usually carry me 2.5 -3 hours.  Besides,  that's about how long my bladder can hold out.  First fuel stop was Vernal, UT.  Dinaland Aviation is friendly and low key.  After getting out of the plane, I was greeted by the two FBO dogs.  Perfect.

Leg 2.  Vernal, UT to Elko, NV.  Beautiful flight over the desert.  Contacted Salt Lake Approach to take me over SLC for the hand-off to Clover Control so I could thread my way through the military restricted areas.  Had a flight of 3 F-16s cross my nose and another flight of 2 F-16s pass me on the right.  I really liked reporting that I had the F-16s in sight!   Elko is one of the more unfriendly places that I've visited.  Contacted the tower who cleared me for a straight in approach as expected.  After landing, he gave me the ground freq to contact, then copped a bitchy attitude when I contacted him again on the tower freq.  Well, excuse me!  I forgot to push the flip-flop button on the radio.  And, it's not like this was LaGuardia in terms of traffic.  One plane had taken off about 15 minutes before I landed and another was about 5 miles behind me.  The FBO wasn't much better.  They were efficient but colder than Minneapolis in December.

Leg 3.  Vernal to Truckee/Tahoe.  Truckee, CA was my destination 'cause it's the closest airport to where my brother lives - Incline Village.   More beautiful desert scenery and then Reno Approach took me over the city and dropped me off as I cleared the mountains to the west.  Having studied the Truckee web site, I was ready for the noise restrictions, special approaches/departures, glider area and tight maneuvering.  I strongly recommend researching any unfamiliar airport to which you're flying so that you don't act like a moron on arrival.  Truckee has self-serve fuel for the bargain price of $4.48 for 100LL.  My brother picked me up and the next day we did an 11 mile hike up into the Sierras.  It was absolutely spectacular.

Tahoe to Vegas (Henderson Executive.)

Woke up to a (not-unexpected) crystal clear day.  It was necessary to spiral up out of Truckee in order to gain the altitude necessary to clear the ridges on my way back east to Vegas.  Pretty uneventful flight over the desert.  It was fun picking out landmarks and scattered towns such as Beatty.  Even though I fly with a Garmin GPS 196,  I also keep careful track on the sectional.  And, I have an old Loran in the panel that also works.  Navigation triangulation - I love backup systems.  Contacted Vegas Approach before entering the basin with room to spare before hitting the Class B.  They were a hell of a lot more cordial than Elko and handed me off to the Henderson tower.  It was easy to land into the wind at Henderson where I tied down and picked up a rental car from Enterprise, who is on the field.  The Suzuki Aereo they gave was truly one of the worst rental cars I've experienced but the people at the desk were real nice and accommodating.  I arranged with the front desk in the terminal for fuel.

Vegas to Boulder

When I checked the weather the night before I was going to leave,  it looked pretty iffy about getting out of Vegas.  The weather there was fine,  but my route of flight, Vegas-Moab-Boulder, was forcasted for clouds and t-storms.   The morning call to flight service reported just that.  I inquired about an alternative southern route taking me due east with a left turn at LeVeta pass to take me up the front range.  This looked mostly possible but there were reports of a line of clouds/t-storms but they were moving north.  Since the next 2 days also looked pretty bad in Denver,  I decided to give the southern route a try, knowing that I could always turn around or stay the night somewhere along the way.

Leg 1.  Vegas to Farmington, NM.  Took off from Henderson and was able to stay below the Class B until well east of Vegas.  My flight took me over Lake Mead,  past the Grand Canyon, Ship Rock and into Farmington.  This is gorgeous country.  The storms had moved north as predicted and there were only high stratus clouds and some overcast.  Only once did I have to climb to get over a narrow scattered layer.  Listening to Flight Watch I was picking up reports of rain in Denver,  some turbulence and even standing lenticular clouds in the area.  While being fueled by the great folks at Bisti Aviation in Farmington,  I called FSS to get a weather update for the flight into Denver/Boulder.  They confirmed the reports I had heard but said that things were improving.  I decided to press on knowing that I had plenty of options to spend the night(s) in Alamosa, Taos or Pueblo.

Leg 2. Farmington to Boulder.

 When I called in a PIREP over LaVeta Pass (which was clear and smooth) I found out that the lenticulars were history and that ceilings and conditions in Denver should let me get through without a problem.   I always like to talk to Pueblo Approach for a transition and hand-off to Colorado Springs to transit their airspace and they will hand me off to Denver Approach to go through Denver.   Picked up my first real turbulence between Pueblo and the Springs but it settled down as I cleared Palmer Divide.  The sky was a low overcast in Denver but it was no problem staying legal and making it through the VFR corridor going north.  I was still talking to Denver Approach and when I asked for a freq change after passing Jeffco,  he "thanked me for the business."  Nice touch.  A few minutes later I was on the ground in Boulder.