Day 4 - Lake Powell to Truth or Consequences

Tony Cacciarelli • Jun 18, 2020

Page, AZ (KPGA) to
T or C, NM (KTCS) - June 18, 2019

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Signs of life

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New friends at St. Johns (KSJN)

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Complimentary mineral bath awaits

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Wish this book store had been open

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A downtown area kinda frozen in time

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Nice area to sit and relax

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Much needed and long overdue

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Original Instagram Post

Today was what I’m calling a ‘Meat and Potatoes Day’. No meeting people on boats, no canyon flying, and no water landings or takeoffs. Just getting from one place to another. Still had great scenery to look at and met some nice folks along the way.

Started off talking to some pilots who fly scenic tours around the Grand Canyon and Lake Powell. Mental note: see if they are hiring 😁.

I could’ve chatted all day, but I had places to go.

The first leg, from Page to St. Johns was pretty straightforward. It's cool when these little pockets of green pop up in the middle of the desert.

I flew over Winslow Arizona and sang a few bars about standing on a corner etc. etc., then landed at St. Johns (KSJN) around 11am - or maybe it was 12pm - the time zones are messing with me around here. Can we all just agree to stay on Daylight Saving Time all year?

St. John’s is a really small airport and I ended up talking with these two guys for a while. But, again, I had to get going because I knew the weather was going to change if it got much later in the day.

After refueling, I took off East towards the town of Socorro, NM then followed the Rio Grande down to Truth or Consequences. I had a 25 knot tail wind and saw a ground speed of 106 knots, so made good time...until I got closer to Socorro, where there was a lot of cloud buildup that I had to dodge around.

Things got better once I was past Socorro, but the wind at T or C was gusting up to 24 knots and changing direction every minute, which was a fun way to end a long day of flying. The staff at T or C airport were great. They had space in a hangar overnight and even let me use the crew car to get to my hotel.

I'm staying at the Sierra Grande spa. You get a complimentary 30 minute soak in a mineral bath with your room. That, along with a great meal at the restaurant, certainly helped to unwind.

Tomorrow I head to Midland, TX. I think they have some space stuff going on there.

😀👍🏼

Despite my comment about just trying to get from one place to another, I purposely didn't fly straight from Page to T or C for a few reasons. First, I was thinking I might stop in Winslow, AZ. I learned that there's a park called "Standing on the Corner Park" to commemorate the line from the Eagles song "Take it Easy". Not that I'm a huge Eagles fan, or particularly love that song, but when something is called out so specifically I feel like it's worth stopping to check it out. But, I was more interested in making it to my final destination for the day, so I just flew over instead.

My fuel stop in St. John's took a little longer than expected. There was one guy working the FBO and another who was a local pilot. I was probably their only customer that day, so they had plenty to talk about. Part of me wanted to get going, but I also didn't want to cut the discussion short since hearing the local stories was part of why I was doing this trip after all.

After about 45 minutes I said my goodbyes and got ready for the second leg into Truth or Consequences.

I took a bit of a weird path because I didn't want to cut through the Military area near St. John's. It's not restricted, and I *could* fly through there but I also wanted to fly along the Rio Grande for a while, so heading more due east would give me several miles of tracking the river. A detour like that isn't as time-consuming as landing and going sightseeing, so it was a good trade off for not stopping in Winslow and I hadn't lost too much time talking with the guys at St. John's. As it turned out, a line of thunderstorms were sitting right over that Military area so I had to go around them anyway.

As I was going over Socorro I caught a downdraft that was pushing me down at about 2000 feet/minute. It caught me off guard but I just had to turn a little to the left (away from the big cumulus cloud on my right) and I was out of it in a couple seconds. Having flown gliders when I was younger, I was used to being in and around cumulus clouds. Thankfully those instincts are still rattling around in my head all these years later.

Truth or Consequences is another small town with not a lot going on. I walked around the town in about 15 minutes and it seemed like a lot of places were closed. But, the people were all very nice and it was relaxing to be away from the crowds of LA.

The mineral bath WAS pretty cool and and unexpected perk. I ended up eating at the hotel restaurant, which was really good.

I wonder what will ultimately happen to all these smaller towns. They manage to keep going on tourism or some local industry, but it doesn't feel like they're thriving. I imagine a lot of younger folks are looking for opportunities that will take them away, too.

The United States has the best airspace system in the world, with a network of small airports like St. John's and T or C. For a trip like this, with a plane that isn't designed for long range, the small airports and towns are critical for fuel stops and alternate landing sites in case I run into bad weather. Without them it certainly would've been more difficult to do a trip like this, and would've been a very different experience - not for the better.