PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - 300 mile cross country
View Single Post
Old 17th December 2003 | 16:16
  #2 (permalink)  
FlyingForFun

Why do it if it's not fun?
20 Anniversary
 
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 4,782
Likes: 12
From: Bournemouth
I did mine by accident - didn't actually mean to do it when I did.

I was doing my hour-building in Phoenix, and decided, since I'd never been there before, to go to Las Vegas for the night. About 3 hours each way in a PA28R. An hour into the outbound flight, I realised I needed to use the toilet. Another hour into the flight, and it became clear that I wasn't going to be able to make it all the way to Las Vegas. So I stopped at Needles, just on the California side of the California/Nevada border. My 300nm flight is Chandler, Phoenix AZ -> Needles, CA -> North Las Vegas -> Chandler.

I landed at Needles, and taxied to the ramp. The place was deserted - all it needed was some tumbleweed blowing across the runway, and it could have been out of a cheap American road movie. I walked towards some building, to be met by an elderly gentleman who walked with a limp and had several missing teeth. He seemed friendly, and obviously worked at the airfield, so I asked him to point me towards the bathroom, and a telephone (to update my flight plan). "Don't you want any fuel?" he asked. No, I had enough fuel. "Hmph. Bathroom's that way, phone's that way" he said, all the friendliness having disappeared from his voice when he realised that I wasn't going to buy any fuel from him!

The rest of the flight was relatively uneventful (but only relatively!)

FFF
-------------
FlyingForFun is offline