Arizona to Nampa, Idaho Cross Country Trip 2007

April 28, 2007 - Day 2:

After a good nights sleep, Kara and I headed down to the breakfast room at the hotel and munched on some donuts and waffles before asking the desk clerk if we could get a ride to the airport. She made a call and in about 5 minutes a white stretch limousine pulled up - now I was expecting a van or something, so this was a treat for both of us! The chauffer put our bags in the back and we climbed in for the 5 minute ride to the airport. The guys at Sphere One must have thought we were celebrities or something from the stares we got when we walked in. We walked on out to the flightline and put our bags in the CTSW, then pulled it over to the fuel pumps a few feet away to top off the tanks again.

After a preflight we discussed our next planned flight leg that morning. Leg 4 would take us up a valley to Provo, Utah. We would fly via a couple of VOR's as it was the best course to stay near some airfields in case of an emergency. We followed a FedEx plane to runway 20 and took off at 7:50am after a few minutes wait for him to clear the area. We then turned north and proceeded to the Milford VOR then made an easterly turn headed for the Delta VOR. The scenery was a little sparse, but we did get a surprise when we saw what remained of a volcano and some lava fields just a few miles from Delta. We made another slight turn easterly and headed toward Spanish Fork (U77) airport, just south of Provo, UT. The mountains outside Provo were beautiful as we made our way to land. We stopped briefly in Spanish Fork long enough to hit the bathrooms and stretch our legs before saddling up and getting ready for our next leg. Leg 4 covered a distance of 165nm and lasted 1-3/4 hours.

Our next leg of the flight would take us over the Great Salt Lake before we crossed the Utah/Idaho border. We planned a final fuel stop in Burley, ID (KBYI) which was about a 2 hour flight away. We took off at 10am and proceeded to climb out over Utah Lake toward Garn (17U) field and toward Tooele Valley (KTVY) field. We had to get high enough to get over some pretty tall mountains, yet low enough to avoid the Salt Lake Class B. Along the way we flew over the Bingham Copper Mine, a huge open pit mine rivaling some of the mines in Arizona I've flown over. We then started the long journey over the Salt Lake. I decided to climb above the Class B ceiling to get a big picture view of the Lake. We could have stayed low, but the altitude certainly gave us plenty of  glide margin in case we needed it. The lake seemed to go on forever. We stayed east of the numerous restricted areas over the Salt Lake Desert to the west of the Lake. Somewhere out there is the Bonneville Salt Flats where many land speed record attempts have been made. Leg 5 was uneventful and soon we were setting up for a landing at Burley at 12 noon. Our flight lasted 2 hours covering a distance of 180nm.

We were somewhat disappointed at Burley (KBYI). Lots of run down hangars and abandoned buildings. We were able to scrounge up someone to get us some fuel, but the facilities were some of the worst I had ever experienced. To top it all off I had to share the bathroom with 3 cats who appeared to have made it their home. Kara and I survived our 30 minute stop and grabbed some snacks to munch along the last leg of our trip.

Leg 6 was nearly a direct flight into Nampa, Idaho (S67) and covered 136nm. We took off from Burley at 12:35pm and climbed to 6500 to get out of some turbulence. We flew along the Snake River from Twin Falls to Glenn's Ferry and gradually started a descent into Nampa. The air was a bit choppy due to afternoon heating but we landed safely at Nampa at 2pm. We called Harold and told him we'd arrived and he arrived about 30 minutes later. We took the plane to his hangar and put it put it away for the night, then headed off to Boise to relax and enjoy Harold and Phyllis's company the rest of the evening.

Follow the link to Day 3 adventures.