MUSTANG!

On the 18th (every third Thursday of each month) the folks at Mojave Spaceport (KMHV) hold a "plane crazy" day. People fly in from all over, there is often a presentation of some kind, and there are interesting airplanes on display.

OK, this is not the first P-51 I have ever seen, nor is it the best restoration per se. It does however evoke a lot of feeling.

A lot of our young men went to war in one of these. Often with less then 21 years old with barely 100 hours in their logbook, little in the way of air-to-air tactical or gunnery training, and they were charged with managing nearly 1500 horsepower, and protecting our bomber formations against some of the most experienced fighter pilots in the world! This was accomplished more by sheer guts and "Yankee ingenuity" than anything else.

There are less and less of these veterans, both human and mechanical left. Be thankful some "rich fat cat" spends his very hard earned money to keep a few flying for us to remember the sacrifice of our fathers.

ALL TIME LOW

On Monday the 13th we hit an all time low here with the "ultimate off road adventure" ,211 feet below sea level that is. That is the field elevation of "Furnace Creek" airport, (L06) in Death Valley. As you can see from the Photos, there is not much there! Not much Humidity, not much shade. There is a lot of heat, 110 at the least, some fuel and a "Pilot's lounge" complete with a bathroom, a chair, and two "phoneless cords" (cell service is OK).

A call to (760) 786-2345 gets you the front desk the the Furnace Creek Hotel, and a courtesy car will gladly pick you up, and the lunch buffet is not too bad. If you need fuel, they can arrange someone from the gas station to go out and pump some expensive 100 octane for you, but I suggest you plan on landing with return fuel.

Flying over from KTSP required threading the dreaded "Trona Gap" which is a narrow and not easy to define corridor between R-2505 (China Lake NAWS) and R-2524 (Edwards AFB), then hanging a hard right over Trona.

Dropping into Death Valley itself is visual overload. It is as the same time incredibly bleak, and otherworldly. Impossible for a camera to do it juistice. To think that this was once a giant lake is hard to picture. About thirty nautical miles south of L06 is the lowest point in the USA, Minus 282 feet below sea level, and to think it is less than 70 NM due west from the highest point in the Continental US, Mt. Whitney, at a plus 14,491 feet above sea level.

There are jeeps to rent, tours, visitor's centers, a museum, lots of rocks, a gift shop or two. Bring LOTS of water, and good comfortable shoes, sunscreen (the Rangers reccomend lightweight LONGSLEEVE shirts and LONG pants rather than shorts to avoid rapid dehydration and sunburn).

It is worth the flight, and seeing your altimeter read "backwards" on short final is a bit odd, but anyone who has not flown out here is missin a real treat.