Harv's Air - Providence College 2004 Cross Country

Aviation Tour 2004

What?
The third year Providence College/Harv's Air students 2004 California cross country

The story:

For the third year running the second year aviation students from Providence College, in association with Harv’s Air Service, embarked on the cross country of a lifetime. All of the Providence students are Private Pilots who are building time towards their Commercial licences. A very long cross country (over 3000 miles or 10 times the required Commercial requirement) is a fantastic way to experience different terrain, busy airspace, high altitude airports, and the decision making that can only come from planning flights out in the “real world”. Along the way they flew over the Grand Canyon, into some of the busiest airspace in the world, and underwent a transition of seasons from winter, to spring, and back to winter in the span of a week.

Experience was one reason for the trip.  A second reason for the trip was the stops the group made at Tribal Air (New Tribes Mission) and United Indian Mission (UIM) in Arizona, and Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) in California. All twelve of the flyers have some level of interest in mission aviation, and this was a good chance for them to meet the agencies and get an inside look at how they operate.

Pilots:  Adam Taylor, Richard Wiebe, Ian Torrie, David Reader, Chris Carter, Christine Cerrilli, Lance Penner, Lee Giesbrecht, Ryan Unger, Ryan Bert, Daniel Loewen-Rudgers, Jon Epp

Aircraft:  Cessna 172’s C-FIIK, C-GHXS, C-GDJO and Piper Cherokee 140 C-GOMI

Day 1 February 26

Departure was planned for 8:30 local on February 26 from Steinbach South airport.  Low ceilings and chance of freezing precipitation changed our plans for us, and by the time we actually departed we had flight planned to three different possible destinations.  The final decision was to clear customs in Piney, with the thought that once border crossing was taken care of we could at least land at the nearest airport if we ran into worse weather.

Out of Piney the low ceilings lasted for only an hour before the sun began to show itself.  Just past Thief River Falls we left the clouds behind and climbed up to 6500 where the headwind component was much less.  There was still a headwind though, and both the blue skies and the headwinds were to stay with us for the majority of our southward journey. 

Fergus Falls, Minnesota, was our first US stopover.  Already at this point we had left most of the snow behind.  While this was exciting for all of us the flat brown landscape didn’t leave much to look at.  We were, however, treated to a beautiful sunset on the next leg.  The red, pink, and orange added some colour to the otherwise dull view.  But who could complain?  We were on our way to California!  We fueled up in Mitchell, North Dakota, and were up again to 8500.  20 knots headwind at that altitude, the best we could do, but the air was smooth and the frequency was ours, which allowed for some inflight discussion.  Only IIK (with a laptop on board) offered an inflight movie.  Despite our best efforts the FBO in North Platte, Nebraska wouldn’t let us stay on the airport for night, so we resorted to the Quality Inn..

Day 2 February 27

The many shades of brown and the round fields of Kansas and Nebraska were our companions on this leg.  We stopped in Hugoton, Kansas, for fuel and the warmest weather we were to encounter the whole trip.  Those who weren’t flight planning for the next leg took the time to lounge on the apron and enjoy the warmth.  We ran into a slight problem in Hugoton when the pumps ran out of fuel after filling only two of our planes.  We planned for another fuel stop and were again on our way.  Unfortunately, even this destination proved too far as the headwind was stronger than expected.  Two planes had to divert while the others continued on.  Our final stop that night was Portales, New Mexico, where we experienced true southern hospitality.  We arrived at 20:00 local and our hostess for the night came to meet us and fuel up our planes.  She allowed us to spend the night in the FBO and even provided us two courtesy cars to head into town for something to eat. 

Day 3 February 28

This day marked the beginning of what we came for.  It was our first encounter with terrain, and the first encounter with the associated turbulence.  The headwind coming over the first serious ridge we encountered gave us a groundspeed of 40 kt.  At times it was even lower as we climbed or at least tried to climb back to altitude after being carried lower by a downdraft.  It gave us some concern in regards to our fuel situation, but on passing over the ridge the groudspeed picked up once again.  Picked up all the way to 70 knots!  The contrast of ridge upon ridge and different shapes and sizes of the hills was incredible.  We flew directly over Roswell Air Center, beside the Sacramento Mountains, and skirted the edge of Area 51.  To remain clear of that restricted airspace we headed south through El Paso’s Class C airspace, the highest class for many of the pilots so far, before proceeding west. 

Throughout this entire leg we could see a cloud bank to the west of us associated with a cold front.  Our paths finally met just west of El Paso.  Our next stop of Santa Teresa lay just on the other side of a 6000 foot ridge.  The lowering cloud left us a 500 foot gap from the top of the ridge – just enough for us to make it through.  Our timing couldn’t have been better.  Looking back ten minutes after landing the entire ridge, only five miles away, was completely obscured.  Our stop in Santa Teresa was extended due to the rain and snow showers associated with the cold front.  To pass the time some of us found a warbird museum right on the airport, while others found a flight school with internet access from which they were able to get a bigger picture of the weather ahead of us.  Their conclusions were a go.  There was a possibility of snow showers and lower visibility so our plan was follow roads into McNeill, AZ,  where NTM Aviation has its base.  This would keep us away from the higher terrain as well as provide a little more confidence in navigation should we encounter lower visibility.  Furthermore, there were two suitable airports along the route should the weather prove too bad. 

Five minutes out of Santa Teresa we flew through the heaviest snow showers some of us had ever flown in.  This is five miles from Mexico!  Ceilings were down to 1500 feet AGL with about a mile of visibility.  This only lasted for about five miles before it opened up into a scattered layer of stratocumulus and even some towering cumulus.  The clouds added their own beauty to the landscape.  It was nice to see cumulus clouds again when all you’ve seen is low stratus all winter.  The moving clouds provided a constantly changing picture of billowing white against many shades of blue.  The sun filtering through and highlighting the rock formations made for a spectacular flight. 

After passing that early snow shower the view looked clearer ahead so we picked up a more direct routing.  Yet we still had three higher ridges to cross before reaching McNeill.  Approaching those ridges we quickly realized our direct routing wouldn’t be possible as the tops of the ridge was obscured.  We diverted to the town of “settlement” to pick up the road that would lead us around and between the last two ridges and to our destination.  As we turned into the final valley cloud still obscured the way.  At this point get-there-itus was starting to become a factor.  Our destination was ten miles away, just on the other side of that mountain!  This is where having twelve pilots in four planes was beneficial.  We had twelve heads to think of all the options; what one person didn’t consider another one would and remind us all on the radio.  On top of that four planes spaced out over eight miles allowed us to scout ahead while still keeping track of the weather behind.  While DJO in the lead was checking if we could make it around the cloud ahead of us, HXS in the back was starting to notice that another cloud was moving in and blocking our exit.  Just as we were about to turn around the blue sky began to show itself above that final ridge and in the direction we wanted to go.  Above was a very defined stratocumulus layer.  We climbed up to 8500 and headed over the ridge.  HXS with its moving map GPS was there to help confirm we were clear of the MOA, and we came over the ridge into the beginning of a beautiful sunset over the far hills.  New Tribes’ gravel strip came into view and we joined a straight in downwind for 17.

Day 4 February 29

We had the day off with New Tribes to relax and recuperate.  We were given a tour of their facility, drooled over the 206’s with STOL kits, and in the afternoon piled in the back of a pickup to go climb some of the hills we had flown over the night before.   

Day 5 March 1

Despite all our efforts to be airborne as soon as possible we were delayed due to a nice layer of frost covering three of our planes.  The sun should have melted it off soon enough, but it was hiding behind a thin cloud layer.  We were ready for liftoff at 7:45 but didn’t actually do so until 9:00.  Our destination today was Redlands, California, just 40 miles east of L.A.  Our track took us over Tucson, directly over Davis-Monthan Air Force Base and the B-52 graveyard.  Looking below us we could see quite a few A-10’s doing circuits. 

The majority of this flight was over dry desert terrain so it was quite something to come up on Blythe, CA, our fuel stop, and see such an oasis of green dropped in the middle of the desert.  We fueled up, switched pilots, and continued on.  Approaching Palm Springs the visibility began to lower to 8-9 miles in haze.  Flying through the Banning Pass the ceilings forced us down to 5500’ which gave us a nice close up view of the hundreds of wind mills in the valley.  Unfortunately we only caught fleeting glimpses of the 10-11,000’ peaks that were only a few miles on either side of us. 

26 in Redlands was our runway of choice.  This allowed us to experience first hand the illusions and looooong flare that accompany a downslope runway.  We had a short tour of MAF’s hanger, more Cessna 206’s to look at, and then divided up into small groups and went to stay with an MAF family for the night.  Once again a homecooked meal was a very welcome change from McDonalds.

Day 6 March 2

We had another day off from flying.  We spent the morning with MAF learning more about their goals and visions as well as entry requirements.  In the afternoon we met up with some of the pilots friends and relatives who volunteered to be our chauffeurs for the day.  We headed out on I10 straight past downtown LA and the Hollywood hills and on to Venice beach.  Only one of us was brave/crazy enough to go swimming.  It might be warmer than Winnipeg, but the water was still frigid.  The rest of us were content to enjoy the view of the ocean with the sand between our toes.  From there we headed to Hollywood Boulevard and walked the length of it.  Wasn’t all that impressive but we can at least say we’ve been there.  Far better things were to come the next day.

Day 7 March 3

The Grand Canyon!  We headed back out the Banning Pass and then northeast to Kingman, Arizona.  We had lunch and rechecked the weather, which was clear all the way to Las Vegas.  Once airborne the first veins of the canyon appeared almost right away, leading us on.  The Dragon Corridor was our first route over the canyon.  The start of the corridor took us past the Grand Canyon Airport and then over the edge.  Seeing the canyon from the ground is awesome.  Seeing it from the air is indescribable.  You can see every little canyon and have an unparalleled perspective of the surrounding ground drop away into layer after layer that goes down, down, down.  You can watch the Colorado River as it winds its way around and through the glowing red rock formations cut out of the earth.  Essentially, you can just see so much more.  The 45 minutes that we were over the canyon were not nearly enough to soak it all in. 

We headed back south, through the Fossil Canyon Corridor, and followed the length of the canyon west into Las Vegas.  By this time the sun had set and the lights of Vegas came into view.  Class B airspace here we come.  It wasn’t nearly as scary as we thought, although we did discover the controllers wanted an absolutely perfect readback.  They vectored us directly over the strip, just past the “space needle”, to join a right downwind for runway 12R at the Las Vegas North airport.

Day 8 March 4

Getting into Las Vegas was one thing.  Getting out was quite another.  Especially when you have one controller who is clearance delivery, ground, and tower.  It took us twenty minutes after start up to just make initial contact.  Someone always beat us to the mic to ask for clearance.  It was only when the cavalry (the controllers own words for his coworkers) showed up that we were actually able to get our taxi clearance.  We departed 30L, got handed off to McCarran approach and before long we were cleared en route.

Ryan Airfield in Tucson was our destination.  We passed just west of Kingman, AZ on our way south and intersected our route from the day before.  It was neat to actually start recognizing towns and features that we had already flown over on other flights.  Gila Bend was planned as a flyover point only, but we decided to land and check the weather into Tucson.  Turns out it was good we landed as at least one pilot was in dire need of a washroom.  The weather looked passable in Tuscon and we headed to Ryan Field.  Flew through a few showers but it was a great flight at fairly low level over the rugged Arizona desert. 

United Indian Mission was our reason for returning to Tucson.  We parked our planes in one of their hangers and then talked with the director about UIM’s goals and pilot requirements.  They lent us two vehicles for the evening and we were able to head into town for a movie.

Day 9 March 5

Poor visibility and thundershowers along our proposed route gave us an excuse to spend time at the Pima Air Museum in Tucson.  This was right next door to the Air Force Base we had flown over a few days earlier.  The museum consisted of 270 planes spread throughout 750 acres.  It took us a good three hours to just walk past all of them, never mind spending time to really look at them.  F-16’s and A10’s continued their circuits right beside us as we walked. 

Back to Ryan Field to check the weather, which had cleared up, and we were off on our long journey back home.  We flew from Ryan to Dalhart, Texas, via Truth or Consequences, NM.  Our stop there was brief; it’s only worth mentioning because of its name.

Day 10 March 6

Having twelve pilots was again an asset on this day.  We flew approximately 9 hours from Texas all the way back to Steinbach, arriving at 21:30 local.  We were happy to be home, but none of us would hesitate to do it all over again if given the chance.  We flew a total of 214 hours between the four planes, flew into eighteen airports and covered a distance of  about 3500 miles. 

Much thanks goes to the mission agencies we visited for hosting us, to the FBO’s who allowed us to spend the night at their airport, and to all those American controllers who had to deal with the sudden onslaught of four completely foreign callsigns.  Three calls per plane was probably the average before all the phonetics were sorted out.  Even then “zero mike india” and “one one kilo” were common.  Finally, a big thanks to Harv’s Air Service for having the confidence to let us embark on such a journey and allowing us to fly away with four of their planes for a week and a half.  More pictures from our trip as well as details from previous trips can be found at their website www.harvsair.com.

Pictures:

Why?
A chance of a life time! All of the Providence students are Private Pilots who need to increase their flight time. A very long cross country (over 3000 miles or 10 times the required Commercial requirement) is a fantastic way to experience different terrain, controllers, airports, high altitude airports, and the decision making that can only come from being on your own. Along the way they will fly by Mount Rushmore, the Grand Canyon, some of the busiest airspace in the world, and undergo a transition of seasons from winter, to spring, and back to winter in the span of a week.

Who?
Chris Carter
Christine Cerilli
David Reader
Lance Penner
Lee Giesbrecht
Richard Wiebe
Ian Torrie
Adam Taylor
Ryan Bert
Daniel Loewen-Rudgers
Jonathan Epp
Ryan Unger


Airplanes:
Cessna 172 C-FIIK
Cessna 172 C-GHXS
Cessna 172 C-GDJO
Pa-28-140 C-GOMI

Route:
Steinbach South, Manitoba  (February 26, 2004 left at 11:10 am)
Piney, Minnesota (5-6 miles visibility in haze)
Fergus Falls, South Dakota (20-30 knot headwinds)
North Platte, Nebraska (overnight) Departing morning of February 27, 2004)
Roswell, New Mexico
Hugoton, Kansas
Dalhart, Texas
Portales, New Mexico
Santa Teresa, New Mexico
Tribal Air, Arizona
Blythe, California
Redlands, California
Kingman, AZ
over the Grand Canyon
Las Vegas, NV
Gila Bend, AZ
Tucson (Ryan Field), AZ
Truth or Consequences, NM
Dalhart, TX
North Platte, Nebraska
Aberdeen, SD
Piney, MB/MN
Steinbach South, Manitoba (March 6 21:20)
 

Updates:
February 26 11:10
They have departed! The weather was a little scuzzy departing, but rapidly improved just south of Steinbach.

February 27, 08:35
Jon says "so far so good", everybody is excited, today's destination is Roswell, New Mexico. Battled continuous headwinds 25-30 knots so progress was slow. Weather cleared just south of Grand Forks, North Dakota. Weather is clear along the route

February 29 18:00
Hi guys,
We're in Arizona right now at New Tribes Mission Aviation headquarters.  We
got in yesterday late afternoon after having to divert around some rain,
cloud, fog, and mountain ranges.  As we got closer, the weather turned
beautiful and we flew in over the last ridge in bright sunshine and dead
calm conditions.  So far we have been averaging about 20 knot headwinds all
the way from Piney to here.  On a couple of legs we were routinely seeing
groundspeeds of 65-70 kts.  HXS's GPS showed 28 kts groundspeed during one
enroute climb.  Anyway, tomorrow we leave for Redlands in the morning, then
Wednesday we'll start heading back home.
-Jon

March 1 23:00
Adam Taylor here, in not so sunny California... The temperature is between 5 and 10 degrees, but we don't mind. We just punched through into Redlands before the ceiling got too low... Flew through mountains today, we also flew over an air force base in Tucson Arizona. Our Groundspeed picked up a bit today, which was encouraging, and we could see about 95-100 kts. A great sight compared to our usual 60-70. Right now the weary travellers are separated, all at different MAF workers houses. Tomorrow we are getting a tour, and a presentation in the morning. We are all looking forward to being let loose on Los Angeles. We'll leave here on Wednesday morning, probably stopping by the Grand Canyon. This whole trip so far has been full of great flight experiences, and I'm excited to see what will happen next. The scenery is beautiful, and the weather has held, and God's hand has been on us the entire way. Signing off, Adam Taylor

March 2 18:30
Hi guys,
I guess a couple of guys emailed you last night already, but I haven't had
internet access, so I'll do it today.  We're in Redlands, arrived yesterday
evening (Monday) after tailwinds (or at least no headwinds) all the way from
Tribal Air.  Tomorrow morning we leave, weather permitting, for the Grand
Canyon.  After that we're a little undecided, except that UIM invited us to
stay in Tucson for night, so we'll try to work that in on our way home.
-Jon

March 3 16:45
Right now we're in Kingman, Ariz, flight planning for the leg over the Grand
Canyon.  We left Redlands this morning just before 10:00 California time. 
The plan is to overnight in Las Vegas, then bright and early tomorrow
morning head down to Tucson to UIM.  The winds have been fairly cooperative
today so far. Hopefully that will continue for the next few days.
-Jon

March 5 14:30
Phone update from Jon, about to leave Tucson, the goal was to make it to Kansas.

March 6 11:00
Phone update from Jon, leaving North Platt Nebraska for Piney, Minnesota.

March 6 19:30
They are home!! A very tired bunch of pilots snuck in under some low clouds to make it all the way home!

History:
2003 Providence Aviation Trip
2002 Providence Aviation Trip

Contact Harv's Air Flight School

Harv's Air Service
Steinbach South Airport
Box 1056,
Steinbach
Manitoba
CANADA
R0A 2A0

Ph: 204 326 2434
Fx: 204 326 4182

Toll free in Manitoba
(800) HARV-AIR
E-Mail adam@harvsair.com
MSN Messenger: adam@harvsair.com

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