Rodeo

I kept looking for the Sands on the way to Fremont St but didn't spot it on the way out. After several passes on Fremont with it's train station, I headed back and spotted the Sands, so I did a little lower pass on it to answer Moses's question from yesterday.... "Who's playing at the Sands?". The answer, Frankie and the Rat Pack!
 
Borrowed another biplane and headed out over the desert for some more sightseeing. Found this airbase out in the middle of nowhere near Groom Lake and took a few pics before some fighters showed up and chased me off.

Amazing the stuff you find near Vegas!
 
Got only one good kodak of yesterday's kickoff flight. Somewhere east of LA, in the Mojave Desert. Since I had a full fuel load, my DC-4 was lagging behind the "main body" a bit...
 
We pressed on to the greater Phoenix area. Nice flight over some spectacular desert scenery.
 
Nice flight from Vegas to Phoenix. Now that we're in his territory, we've got a scheme. We're going over to Lionheart's place to party. Get him drunk and have him make a Lockheed 18 Lodestar :icon_eek: :d
 
A fun filled flight to Phoenix followed our Las Vegas leg. The desert is fun to fly over. The did cross over the Hualapai Mountains about half way from Vegas to Phoenix. That's in the pic where the dirt gets pretty darned close to the bottom of the plane. At 9000 feet we crossed the ridge line with plenty of room to spare. Maybe even 200 feet.
 
We had a real nice shortish flight from Phoenix to Tucson. We flew over what we figured must have been the Arizona Tea factory enroute. Next stop Albuquerque (unless we make that left turn).
 
Couple of shots from the flight to Tucson- including one of that mysterious C-124 that was shadowing us.
 
Plane went down for engines at Phoenix. Towed her into the hangar to get some modifications done, then flew over to Tuscon.
 
Kind of a longish flight for us from Tucson to Albuquerque. But still had a good time with a fun flight.
 
Rgr. on being a long flight, but we all made it to Albuquerque. Real neat got to fly near my home in New Mexico. Scenery of the parked DC-4s is from Calclassic 1959.
 
We left Albuquerque for Pueblo, Colorado. Due to DC-4s being unpressurized, we had to find our ways through the San Juan mountains after flying over the Rio Grande Rift. Had a great time.
 
Pretty much a milk run from Pueblo to Cheyenne. Rockies to the left and plains to the right.

The PSA ship didn't fare too well however. She slammed her nose wheel down and collapsed it, wiping the smile right off the nose. The PSA public relations guy on hand was livid.
 
Nice flight to Cheyenne. Although I had a couple of small minor problems at the end. It was getting dark on me and I couldn't make out the runways, the lights at the end. So I guessed wrong at which rwy to land on and had to dodge a water tower on short final. Just before the I got to the fence, they turned the airport lights on. Then I had to wander in the semi darkness to find the parking spot. But it sure was a pretty sunset.
 
Got a couple of reasonable kodaks across the plains of eastern Colorado on the way to Cheyenne. Looks like we're headed back into the hills on the next leg!
 
Crossed the Rockies again going from Cheyenne (KCYS) to Grand Junction CO (KGJT). I was trying to keep from going much over 12,000ft as the DC-4 is unpressurized and eventually found a long valley going through the mountains to Grand Junction. But in doing so, I got separated from the flight and ended up approaching the airport from the opposited end that they were. So, I lined up with the taxiway and landed there, and drifted off onto the ramp to keep from hitting the aircraft that were parked on the taxiway. A typical Flight 19 performance....
 
A fun filled flight, as Willy said. It would seem we are back amid the dry country. Pretty scenery to fly over.
 
A few more snaps. It started as a busy day at Cheyenne, with (a) seven Skymasters waiting for clearance. (From left to right, Moses, Willy, MM, Taco, PRB, MDK, and vW.) Then an ascent to 12,000 hoping to skim over the tops of the ridges. Flying is a challenge, especially near the edge of the air (b). Most emphatically, this is beautiful ski country in the high Rockies (c) with green forests and snow packed peaks covering the horizon. Eventually, the terrain descended into more of a southwestern scrub brush pocked with ravines and canyons (d) as we made our way into Grand Junction. Lovely country.
 
Great night flight into KSLC. On landing, we decided to stick close to the pilot from Western Air Lines as he knows the best bars in Salt Lake City.
 
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