Thursday, May 15, 2020

Day 6

We awoke in Lamesa TX before dawn, and prepped the plane for an early morning departure. The flight to Roswell at sunrise was smooth as silk, the fields and desert below us bathed in a soft, glowing blue. When we arrived, I circled the field overhead and Filip started shooting photos—Roswell is currently home to hundreds of parked airplanes, and the visual effect of all of them together is spectacular. We shot for awhile, and then came in to land. On the ground, we found their mechanic who agreed to change the oil for us, and we ventured out to explore Roswell for a bit. The town is filled with alien paraphernalia, it’s wild.

Upon returning to the airport, we had a lengthy flight planning session. The flying is getting really exciting now, as we venture into the mountains. We had a call with pilot Greg Brown, who gave us some invaluable knowledge of flying this area and awesome route tips. We finished up with a solid plan for the next three days.

After wrapping that up, we loaded up and pressed on to our home for the night, Belen, New Mexico. Incredibly, our route from Roswell passed over the Corona VOR. Ridiculous.

Some really kind people on the field at Belen, we talked to a pilot who was about to take up a couple for a flight, and just before they departed, the guy proposed! Super cute, great to witness it.

We spent about an hour before sunset reloading the aircraft and disposing any unneeded gear—the less weight we have in the plane in this area of the world the better.

All in all a solid day, with more exciting flying on the horizon.