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Pensacola to Phoenix and back

S.Wilson

S.Wilson

Registered User
Anchorage, AK
Tomorrow I'm starting a mini trip in my Super Cub out to Pheonix to spend the 27th - 29th of December with the family. We are all scattered around the country now and picked a random week 17 NFL matchup to meet up for. Im going to make a trip out of it by picking up my brother in Dallas tomorrow on the way out there with sleeping bags and a tent packed. Last time I flew through the West I sort of winged it and depended on the hospitality of strangers for tips on cool spots to land and camp (and a rebuilt alternator). The preliminary plan is to try to make it to Albuquerque area the first night and then snake my way along the Colorado River until I have to be in Phoenix. Then I have to be back in Pensacola for work on the 2nd.
Any insider tips? Anyone else going to be out in the wilderness? Any fun stuff for some 35" ABWs?
 
Some good gravel bars west of Dallas to play on. This is a strip just east of us we like to go.

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This was me sitting in the hangar staring wistfully to the sky making airplane noises in my head waiting for the weather to clear.
Finally left at 1300 yesterday. Gave me a chance to get an oil change in and bleed the breaks. Picked up the brother in Dallas last night and made it to Albuquerque by sunrise this morning.
Let the fun begin!
(Unfortunately my troublesome brakes are still causing me issues. Can't do anything too fun until I get that sorted out.)

(I'll have to explore more of Texas on the way back when it is bright outside.)


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Merry Christmas from 7500 feet. I don't know how you guys out west fly in the summertime.


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Let it be known: ugly Christmas sweaters have many more uses than meets the untrained eye.


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I'm enjoying your trip also but I keep looking at your airplane and having a funny feeling. I dug up some old pictures and I have flown your airplane on floats and wheels about 9 years ago. 76CC lived at Cooperstown 2002 to about 07 when it was traded in on a 2300lb CC ( yours is a much better flying plane ) It was owned by my friend Rich Hanna who is now one of the 4 congressman pushing the new FAA bill thru the house. Small world, great flying Cub.



Glenn
 
Thank Glenn. That is awesome. 6CC has some pretty awesome pedigree.

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Met these guys in flagstaff with the white cub in the background. At 1040 pounds with 31's they put me to shame. We flew down to Sedona for the best airport restaurant breakfast in the world and then down to a ranch friend of his for this photo. Unfortunately the cub based here was in for an ill time annual.
Through these guys I got another contact at Deer Valley in Pheonix who was able to help me out with doing an oil change on the ramp and show off his cool airplanes.

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His panel was pretty unique for a cub. In his words it's "a slow flying yellow bonanza." With 72 gallons of gas in four 18 gallon tanks he is one of the few people with more gas than me with my 60 gallons.



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Currently south of Phoenix headed toward the Tucson area. Checking out the desert and going to fully enjoy the lower altitude flying. Going to spend one night somewhere around Tucson, then east towards El Paso for New Years Eve, then the long haul back to Florida on the first. Work starts back up on the second. Woo hoo!


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Continued south through the desert and did some exploration. Once I hit the border I just followed it all the way to Nogales OLS.
Stopped to check out this cool 100 year old obelisk that marks the order between Mexico and America.

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It's not much of a fence.

Upon checking into the ctaf at OLS, the border patrol guys were very adamant about getting my full tail number over the radio - apparently "yellow cub" isn't descriptive enough. I tried waving at all the border patrol trucks as I passed overhead but I guess that did not put them at ease.

A border patrol A-star pilot made a beeline for my cub after he shut down. I got super nervous until his first words which were, "how are the 35's? I've only flown 31's." He used to fly super cubs for the border patrol in Arizona. Apparently at one point they had 26 super cubs but eventually got rid of them for A-stars. He is currently building a bearhawk and wanted to check out the aoss gear on mine. After talking for a while the other cbp pilot came by and made some comment to the effect of, "if this was a few years ago, we could trade rides one for one." Too bad!

I finally hitched a ride into town after we finished telling lies and found a delicious meal. East bound tomorrow.

Anyone between Tucson to El Paso?


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Beautiful New Year's Eve on a dry lake bed. Headed all the way to Pensacola today. 1200 miles - should be fun.
I saw First Aero Squadron on the map near Columbus NM on the way. I feel like I remember reading about some guys who had just bought the airport a while back trying to turn it into a museum. Besides gas, that'll probably be my only fun stop for the day. Lots of mileage to cover.


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What a great trip. Thanks for posting and the pictures.

1200 miles in a day in a Cub is a long day. Hope you have decent WX.

Your image of the marker on the Mexican border looks very similar to this one on the Montana / British Columbia border.

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It ended up being a long trip back. Starting near Playas, NM, I made it as far as Houston before weather forced me down. Luckily I have some friends who run the FBO at Huntsville (UTS). Supper nice folks fed me leftovers from their still warm New Years dinner, put my plane up, and gave a me a ride to Houston. I ended up renting a car and driving the rest.

The day before I stopped in Willcox NM (Cochise Co - P33). It was another super friendly FBO who lent me some more brake fluid for my ever leaky breaks. The airport manager showed me a really cool local Super Cub that the USDA apparently uses (or contracts - I don't know) to hunt coyotes. Apparently they go out every morning to shoot them - unfortunately I had just missed them by the time I showed up. It was a super cool rig with that folding out window (forgot the name of it) instead of a slider. The rear seat had a narrow seat back to fit a cradle for the rifle or shotgun.
It also had this odd device on the left main gear. Can anyone help me identify it?
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But his tires weren't as big as mine! ;)

My new mission in life is how to figure out how to get the permit or the right permission to hunt hogs out of my cub. That has to be the coolest thing ever.




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Cool trip and pics. I didn't know anybody used those automatic flagman anymore or even make refills for them.
 
Automatic flagman. Used to dispense paper to mark spray swaths ( or other ground features). Seem to recall it used folded sheets of paper similar to toilet paper.
 
It's the old way of marking swaths spraying prior to GPS.... question is why on a coyote rig.. mark the kill so they wouldn't blend into the landscape?
 
DarrenLucke said:
It's the old way of marking swaths spraying prior to GPS.... question is why on a coyote rig.. mark the kill so they wouldn't blend into the landscape?
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Looks like the same rig that I've seen around here on ocassion. They have a ground team that inspects and catalogs data from their kills for the USDA.
 
Kirby is exactly right, ground team inspects and takes data from their kills. Ive seen one on a supercub here local at Okmulgee. I almost got one onetime just to buzz Tim with,, toilet paper his whole yard.....I still know where its at.....
 
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Never saw an automatic flagman on the landing gear before. Here is a picture of my Dad's Thrush and an Ag Cat with them mounted on the right wing next to the fuselage. The toilet paper was glued to a piece of cardboard and there was a plunger solenoid at the back under side of the tray that kicked the flags up and out. You didn't dare drop a stack of flags or you had a mess.
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On the coyote hunting, I just had a guy visit from Montana that flies helicopters that USDA owns. He has a guy riding that shoots coyotes for the cattle and sheep ranchers. We were talking about farming and subsidies. Us grain farmers don't get much subsidy right now but he didn't like us getting anything. After he left, I wondered if the ranchers pay for the helicopter time and the ammunition(I bet not) and thought, isn't that a subsidy.
 
I still have an old automatic flagman from my CallAir. Extra new solenoid in the box. Doubt there is much demand for either.
 
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Medically I'm down for the count for the foreseeable future. Got rear ended by a drunk driver this weekend and luckily escaped with only a broken neck - no paralysis or death thank goodness. (Using your imagination, that last picture was the Toyota corolla I was riding in. My seat was the right rear one. And no, it was not originally a convertible.)
However, this gives me a chance to post some more photos from the trip across the country. Flew over the boneyard at Davis Monthan. Pretty funny to see all the front line fighters gathering dust, broken up B52s, and the newest addition of P3s and T34s. Not too many baby hornets because the Marines just won't let them go ;)
The foreign looking village is - you guessed it - a recreation of an Afghan bazaar near Playa, NM. The DoD uses the former mining property as a big playground with fake villages like this one and some random Afghani farm houses sprinkled about the hillside. The old company town is used as a giant mout town for house clearing and whatnot. Apparently they run pretty big civil affairs type exercises out there. It's all pretty funny looking from the air.
Once I finally download the pictures off of my digital camera, I'll have more to post.
Happy Wednesday.
 
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