Greetings,
SkyFocal and I left Montgomery Field (MYF) this morning (San Diego), heading east, but as soon as we got to the mountains we had to turn around because of mountain obscurations in the weather (not forecasted). Later, we decided to travel north and through the pass along I-10 and ended up in Bermuda Dunes / UDD (slightly East of Palm Springs). This is the same route that Robinson recommends.
I'm writing this from an Internet cafe, but I forgot the USB cable for the digital camera. Pictures will have to wait a bit, which is a complete shame. The mountain terrain was quite incredible. In fact, the mountains here are the largest from base to the snow caps because the base is at sea level. It is really a fantastic voyage.
The winds were pretty strong, especially along the mountain pass. We'll post pictures of the wind farms in a few days. The R22 is a stable platform, even through moderate turbulence. It was a little dicey a couple times, but we left the cyclic alone and let her settle down most of the time.
By the time we stopped at Bermuda Springs, the winds were gusting 25-30 knotts! It would have been a great tail wind, but we decided caution was the better side of valor. So, we got a place to stay and are waiting until tomorrow morning. Only 2.1 hours today, but at least we are on the other side of the mountains (the 1st set anyway).
Stay tuned,
R2