Rodeo

[Willy]

Stopped by Denver - Stapleton with some of Maton's purchasing agents, setting up logistics for the flight. Got a good price on buffalo steaks.

Matson is advertising this as the "Great Western Tour". Instead of the Line's normal luxury flights to Hawaii, we're flying it like a cruise ship in the air, stopping at points of interest in the American West. Matson is not sparing any expense on this to demonstrate it's aircraft and flights as the most luxurious in the air.

[Willy]

Some of the passengers showed up a day early and as I had to make a test flight anyway, I just flew 'em on down to Tiajuana for a day's shopping. Taco and Maddog flew along as well. Figured while I'm down here, I'd get a full set of of those fancy Mexican tuck and roll leather seats put in while I'm waiting. Should look pretty good with the hand carved mahogany panels in the cabin.

Looking forward to the start of the trip tomorrow......

[Willy]

A great start to the trip! Things got a little crazy at LAX for me and I couldn't get out of town fast enough (pic 4). I got out of there so fast that I forgot to raise the flaps up that last notch and ended up getting a flaps overspeed that had me wondering if they were going to work at Las Vegas (pic 3). Apparently PRB had a guide book with him and was pointing out the interesting stuff as we flew over the California desert.

We got to Vegas all to soon and I was sure relieved that my flaps were actually working. After we landed, I got part of the postflight lineup (pic 2). And I took pic 4 for PRB after I got offline. He was on about Area 51 and Janet Airways... That's an Janet DC-4 behind me.


Pics are in reverse order. The forum software does that at times.....

[Taco]

Here are snap shots of the DC-4s line up at LAX, and two of Western's DC-4 climbing over the Angeles Crest Mountain Range.

[Willy]

Borrowed an old biplane from a German buddy who hangs out on the strip (as much time as he spends in the casinos it's a wonder he still has it) and while my passengers were spending the day taking Vegas, I went up and got a few shots.

More pics to follow....

[Willy]

I kept looking for the Sands on the way to Fremont St but didn't spot it on the way out. After several passes on Fremont with it's train station, I headed back and spotted the Sands, so I did a little lower pass on it to answer Moses's question from yesterday.... "Who's playing at the Sands?". The answer, Frankie and the Rat Pack!

[Willy]

Borrowed another biplane and headed out over the desert for some more sightseeing. Found this airbase out in the middle of nowhere near Groom Lake and took a few pics before some fighters showed up and chased me off.

Amazing the stuff you find near Vegas!

[PRB]

Got only one good kodak of yesterday's kickoff flight. Somewhere east of LA, in the Mojave Desert. Since I had a full fuel load, my DC-4 was lagging behind the "main body" a bit...

[Moses03]

We pressed on to the greater Phoenix area. Nice flight over some spectacular desert scenery.

[Willy]

Nice flight from Vegas to Phoenix. Now that we're in his territory, we've got a scheme. We're going over to Lionheart's place to party. Get him drunk and have him make a Lockheed 18 Lodestar

[PRB]

A fun filled flight to Phoenix followed our Las Vegas leg. The desert is fun to fly over. The did cross over the Hualapai Mountains about half way from Vegas to Phoenix. That's in the pic where the dirt gets pretty darned close to the bottom of the plane. At 9000 feet we crossed the ridge line with plenty of room to spare. Maybe even 200 feet.

[Taco]

Ah.....shucks, forgot to load the bloody film in the magic box!

[Willy]

We had a real nice shortish flight from Phoenix to Tucson. We flew over what we figured must have been the Arizona Tea factory enroute. Next stop Albuquerque (unless we make that left turn).

[Moses03]

Couple of shots from the flight to Tucson- including one of that mysterious C-124 that was shadowing us.

[PRB]

Plane went down for engines at Phoenix. Towed her into the hangar to get some modifications done, then flew over to Tuscon.