I signed up for another fly-in gathering with Platinum Aviation for today; that meant another opportunity to do some cross-country flying and have some fun at the same time! Today's flight took us out to Wendover, Utah, a very historic sight. Personally, I was absolutely thrilled to add the historic Wendover Airfield to my logbook! Unfortunately, not many people signed up this time around and I ended up taking the Cherokee by myself; I would've loved to have another pilot go with me to split the costs. But at least, I got to take the airplane with the cheapest rental rates regardless. So today's fly-in ended up with me in the Cherokee, and my flight instructor and one of his students in the Diamond Star. After pre-flight and topping off the fuel tanks, I hopped in and got the engine started. I taxied to the runway, did my run-ups, took off, and made my way westbound; my route of flight kept me out of Salt Lake City's Class Bravo airspace.
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| Once again, I took good ol' N7625F out on a cross-country flight! Photo taken from the historic control tower located at the equally historic Wendover Airfield. |
After crossing Utah Lake's southern tip, my westbound leg took me just south of Fairfield and then northbound towards Tooele via the Rush Valley; I was careful to remain to clear of several special-use airspace along my route. I remained on the west side of the Tooele Airport and turned westbound again, following Interstate I-80; I also made use of and tracked the Bonneville VOR towards the Wendover Airport. I eventually got sight of the airport and made a straight-in approach and landed on Runway 26. I taxied to the General Aviation Ramp, where I parked the plane and shut the engine down. After securing the plane, I headed inside the FBO and met with my instructor and his student. We put in a refueling order for our respective planes before grabbing a courtesy car and driving into town on the Nevada side of the state border! We grabbed some lunch at a restaurant in a casino before heading back to the airfield to check out the historical sight.
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| Lunch at the Paradise Grill inside the Montego Bay Resort casino. |
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| Checking out the historic control tower on the airfield. |
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The Platinum Aviation "fleet" on the ramp! I have to say though, not much of a fly-in with only two planes!
(Photo taken from the historic control tower overlooking the General Aviation ramp.) |
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| Checking out the hangar that once housed the Enola Gay. |
After we finished up playing around the airfield, we headed back to our planes to get ready to head back to Spanish Fork. I did my pre-flight, payed for the fuel, hopped in, and got the engine started. I taxied over the run-up area by Runway 8 to do the engine run-ups. After run-ups were complete, I made a straight-out departure on Runway 8. After departing, I used the Bonneville VOR again to track outbound. The rest of my flight back was the same route in reverse.
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| A view of the Bonneville Salt Flats, the sight of many land speed record attempts. |
I continued eastbound until hitting the Tooele Valley, where I turned southbound. I passed through Rush Valley before turning eastbound again and headed towards the southern tip of Utah Lake. I monitored the CTAF frequency for the west practice areas utilized by Utah Valley University as well as Salt Lake Approach frequency.
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| View of the Great Salt Lake as I turned southbound near Tooele to avoid Salt Lake's Class Bravo airspace. |
Spanish Fork came into view and I made my normal pattern entry and approach to landing and landed safely on Runway 30. After clearing the runway, I taxied my trusty Cherokee back to the ramp, shut the engine down, and called it a successful, solo cross-country outing.
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