Eric, sorry i didn't catch this post before now. The site was kind of messed up the last week or so, and i didn't see your post correctly. I did see your photo of our bird in the background on Facebook though!
I took 4 guys out there this year on Thursday and came back yesterday. We had a great time, and saw you taxing out from Steller West when we were just getting to our airplane for preflight yesterday morning around 7:45am. You have a very nice looking machine and would have loved to hook up with you to talk commanders/aviation, etc... Hopefully sometime we can hook up.
We just love this event, yes it is not perfect and it has many issues and complaints just like any other event, but we just love the journey from the midwest out to the high desert and the overall journey of it.
Yesterday was a beautiful day to travel through the west to the midwest. We had a first time fuel stop on the way back to KOFK (Norfolk, NE). It was a nice little airport with great runways, cheap fuel ($3.75/gallon Jet Fuel!) Super nice line guy with a quick turnaround and other super nice pilots hanging out and wanting to talk about commanders and conquests, etc...And did i mention $3.75 Jet fuel? Lol, our gas for the rent a car in Reno was $4.19 a gallon of car gas? Is our world turning upside down?
I wish our Commander had an 1000 gallon tank as i would have filled it up right then and there.
Anyways, leaving this airport we had to cross a front/weather system. I was close to just landing in western Iowa, but found a hole through the front and weather system. I could see clear blue sky through the front and decided to give it a try with radar. I wish i would have taken some photos and videos and all would have enjoyed it, but i am just bad at videos and photos and thinking about that stuff when in the moment. I could tell we had about a 20 mile window, but i could tell the clear air was below us, so i went down the 19K and some small vectors and stayed clear of the clouds in between layers and had a very smooth ride through the area. After we cleared it Minn. Center asked about it and gave the ride to others in the area also. You can see the path on Flight aware too if you look. It was just a gorgeous ride and great view of the weather which i always respect but am amazed with it also. I just wished i would have thought to record some photos and videos, but maybe i will get better at that in the future to share with all.
Anyways, long rant here again, but i hope to meet you sometime in future either out there or over here.
I hope you enjoyed your weekend also up at the worlds fastest motorsport and didn't eat too much sand on the windy Saturday in 40mph winds. Thank god i had dental floss to clear out the sand in my teeth Saturday night. lol.
Corey
