"Provo Ground, this is Mooney Niner Niner Echo Whiskey at the north ramp with information Bravo. We will be departing to the north east, flying towards Heber." We taxied to runway 13 and at 73 miles per hour, lifted off the runway, retracted the wheels and soon settled into a steady climb at 105 mph. Gear up, propeller adjusted and the air was smooth as glass. No other traffic and by the time we reached the mouth Provo Canyon, we were at 8500 feet...a safe elevation to fly up the canyon. A few minutes later we were passing the back side of Timpanogos (see photo) and by the time we reached Deer Valley, we were at 12,000 feet and on a straight course for..."Is that called Teegert?" Mickey asked. "No, it's Tigert airport in Soda Springs," I said. "He was the doctor there and I think delivered a few of my siblings."
I'm still working on instrument time so went "under the hood" which means I put on these goggles that have the top half of the frame blurred out so I can only see the instruments in the plane. Constant scan looking at attitude indicator, altimeter, heading, compass, airspeed indicator, tachometer, manifold pressure and oil and fuel gauges. Glancing out from underneath, I could see Bear Lake in the distance caught a sighting of Logan. Still lots of snow in the mountains.
About Preston, I took off the goggles and could see Sherman Peak straight ahead. Since I had been looking forward to doing a fly by of the house since we got the plane, I course corrected to just in front of Soda Peak and started the descent. It was only a matter of minutes from Preston to Lago and even with the throttle way back, we were pushing red line speeds at 192 mph. The day was absolutely fabulous for flying--completely clear, calm and cool. We circled the house a few times until Kent & kids, Dad and Mom came out and waved then flew to Grace and straight down the runway. Then climbed 500 feet and flew on in to Soda, over a glass smooth and sky reflecting Alexander Reservoir. All the smoke and steam from the plants was floating straight up so no wind. I had only intended to circle but we did a quick pit stop with a picture perfect landing coming in from the south at Soda. Tigert has the shortest and narrowest runway I've been on in the Mooney and it took most of it to stop without much brake pressure.
We turned around, and took off to the south, turning out and over the pass by the TV towers. By the time we were over the house, we were up at 9,000 feet on our way to 11,500 for the flight back. A little more hood time on a heading straight for Heber. Passed Beaver Mountain up Logan Canyon, then Pineview Reservoir and were soon over Jordanelle. Little puffy clouds had popped up all over since we had left and we navigated around a couple but the canyon down into Provo was clear of clouds. Again, descending at good speed, we came over the Orem house at 9000 feet and were in contact with the tower where we got instructions for a left down wind on runway 13. Boost pump, cowl flaps open, gas on the right tank, landing gear down, mixture rich, prop forward, seat belts set and we were on final for landing. Easy in with a bit of a bounce on landing but good. From take off to touch down, one hour and eleven minutes!
All those years and years of driving that route - from 1973 when I first went to BYU until last week. I've gotten used to it but now, it's as if there's a new secret passage opened up and suddenly I'm free! It was cool to fly over the Bob Young place (which I've been calling Tranquility Base in my notes and folders). Eyed a possible runway through the fields west of the house. Mickey, my instructor even noted how beautiful it was up there and what a nice place it was.
Anyway, back home (Orem home...now need to differentiate!) I worked some on the cars. They are both completely clean and waxed right now and look great. All yard work was done on Friday night so I actually just pulled out the lawn chair and napped in the sun for a few minutes. Robert Pearson called to see what I was up to the rest of the day as he was tending kids while Kimmie was gone. "Don't asked me what I'm doing the rest of the day--ask me what I already did!" He was excited to hear about the flight. He also is biking and challenged me to join him on a bike trip over the Alpine Loop in a couple of weeks so I got out the road bike and pedaled up to South Fork. Again, a most beautiful day and perfect for riding.
Then back home to change and pick up Marni, a work mate of Shannon's, in Salt Lake. We met Steve and Shannon for dinner at CPK (California Pizza Kitchen) and a movie at the Gateway. Great time! Afterwords, we drove by Marni's new house as she's been looking for some time for a place for her and her big dogs. It's a very cute home up in the Harvard-Yale area with a nice back yard and a good fence.
Home by midnight...feel into bed and right to sleep! A great suck marrow day!
The rest of the week has been ok. We know that you can't experience sweet unless you know bitter...so some of work contributed to me having a fantastic Saturday and weekend! I won't go into detail but it appears from our execs that there is now an effort underway to find a suitor for the company...someone that would keep it intact and still help to fulfill the vision of providing live channels through the Internet. For me, the job is week to week and right now, I just want to get Tranquility Base taken care of before making any big changes.
Anyway, great to talk to most of you at one time or other during the week!
Love to all!
Peter
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