Day 1 - Torrance to Lake Mead

Tony Cacciarelli • June 16, 2020

Torrance, CA (KTOA) to
Boulder City, NV (KBVU) - June 15, 2019

Landing on Lake Mead

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Pulling up to the boat

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Hanging out with Kevin

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Back in the saddle and ready to go

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Taxiing away

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Original Instagram Post

Wow! What an amazing first day!

Had a rocky start in the morning waiting for the marine layer to burn off.

Flew east past Palm Springs then on the Laughlin, NV for a quick fuel stop, where it was 108 degrees.

Slow climb out of there following Lake Mohave and the Colorado River north to Lake Mead.

Found the boat full of people I’d planned to meet, landed on the lake and pulled right up alongside. Now THAT’S the way to start off this adventure!

😀👍🏼

Not gonna lie. I was definitely nervous as I got ready to start this massive undertaking. I'd been planning, refining, studying and calculating for months before, but when that day finally came to climb into the plane and take off, knowing that I would't be returning to the same airport for two months, it was a weird mix of anticipation, excitement and a healthy touch of fear - not in my piloting abilities, but just in not knowing what challenges I might face along the way and how I would handle them.

I'd hoped to be wheels up by 8am so I could get to Lake Mead before it got too late. Unfortunately, the marine layer stuck around Torrance until almost 11am.

There were still some clouds when I took off from KTOA, but it was VFR and I was able to stay under them until around Fullerton where there were some breaks in the clouds and I could climb up above the layer. Once I was over Corona the clouds broke up completely and I had clear skies all the way to my fuel stop at Laughlin/Bullhead International.

The big factor was the rising temperature. By the time I reached Laughlin it was 108 degrees. As temperatures rise aircraft performance drops, so you have to be really careful since the plane will require more runway to takeoff and won't have the same performance. Thankfully, they have a nice, long runway at KIFP, so it wasn't a huge factor for me in my small plane.

The heat did affect the GoPro cameras I was using, though. I had 3 cameras set up; one in the back of the cockpit shooting out the front window for a nice panorama, a second inside the cockpit pointed out the right side window and a third out on the left wing shooting the side of the plane. This gave me a few different angles as I flew along. I was recording on all 3 cameras but when I looked at the footage afterwards the forward-pointing camera had a freeze-frame image on it for most of the flight. I also lost communication with the wing camera shortly after takeoff. Since it was mounted out on the wing I had to control it from my phone to stop and start recording. I'd hoped to capture the takeoff out of Laughlin then put it to sleep to reserve battery power and wake it up for my landing at Lake Mead. But, since I lost communication it just kept recording until it ran out of juice.

I'd done a LOT of testing with the cameras before I left, but never anything like 100+ degree heat. Little did I know this would be the beginning of an ongoing fight with the GoPros. More on that in the future, but if you're wondering why I don't have any shots of the Lake Mead landing, that's the reason.

Getting to Lake Mead was pretty straightforward. I had planned to meet up right on the lake with Kevin, who I'd only met through email. I let Kevin know I'd gotten a late start but texted once I was leaving Laughlin and he sent me coordinates for where they were hanging out on the lake, over on the eastern side.

I started out following the river north out of Laughlin but that would've led to the western part of the lake so eventually I broke off and headed directly for where the boat was parked. I was only a couple thousand feet above the ground, so I had to dodge some small mountains on my way but made it up to the lake and found the boat.

I landed nearby and water taxied up closer before shutting down. I figured the boat was way more maneuverable on the water than I was, so I let them come to me, threw them a line and hopped over onto the boat. This was one of the coolest things I'd done with the A5 up to this point.

I hung out for maybe 30 minutes or so and talked with Kevin and the other folks on the boat, but since it was later in the afternoon than planned the wind and waves were starting to pick up, so it was time to get a move on.

My first takeoff attempt I had to abort. It seemed to be taking way too long to get airborne, even factoring in for the higher density altitude, plus I ran through a boat wake that started bouncing me around. After slowing down I re-checked the wind and realized it had shifted 180 degrees from when I'd landed, so I'd been trying to take off with a tailwind. Thankfully I had plenty of lake to work with, but I still cursed myself for not having paid more attention. The second attempt went much smoother and I was able to do a fly-by of my new friends on the boat.

I flew back to Boulder City while Kevin and crew took the boat back to the marina, trailered it up and then he picked me up at the airport so we could all grab dinner. Kevin and his wife had graciously offered for me to stay at their house overnight and get me back to the airport first thing in the morning. We had some pizza and sat around telling stories and joking like we'd known each other for years. What an amazingly welcoming group. It was the perfect way to end the first day!