Flight to El Paso, TX

This morning at 0625, 2 May 2011, I departed the KMKC airport on an IFR flight plan to Portales, NM (KPRZ) and then on to El Paso, TX (KELP) or a TDY business trip to Ft. Bliss. This was my first adventure to the Southwest of Kansas City and was also my first experience with high altitude airport flying. My weather was pretty decent the entire flight and I was VMC the entire way to KPRZ, however there was a massive front just to my south that was wreaking havoc for the Dallas area.

The rest of my team was flying out commercial for DFW and then on to El Paso at 0815. This trip for all of them turned out to be a big mess and arrived almost three hours after I landed. “Stack Air” made it through with no issues. I flew at 10,000’ the entire way to KPRZ, which was a 2:45 flight time. Even though I could have gone non-stop, I chose to stop at Portales since it had the cheapest fuel in the area ($4.90), which is still outrageous, but much cheaper than the KELP $7.10. The Portales Municipal airport was a nice quant little airport with two runways, but only one GPS approach. As soon as I landed the manager came out and helped me fuel the aircraft and I changed into my uniform since it was much colder than I had expected. Apparently they had a freak cold front move through and so the temps all dropped down to the 30s. I topped off my tanks and took off for KELP. This was my first “high altitude” take off since the airport elevation was 4,078’ and it was interesting as to how lean the engine had to be in order to get it to run decent. Takeoff roll was a bit longer than normal, but overall it wasn’t all that big of a deal. This flight was not GPS direct like the previous because of all the restricted airspace and MOAs around KELP, so I flew the V208 airway over Roswell, NM and then over a couple of small ridges and into El Paso. Roswell looked really cool since there are a whole bunch of aircraft all mothballed out in the desert. (Sorry the picture just doesn’t do it justice)

The decent into KELP was uneventful although a little bumpy and windy since the desert was starting to warm up and the approach path was right over some small ridges. I was cleared for the visual for RW 26R and came in with no issues. I parked 9WC at Cutter Aviation and tied her up for my weeks stay. The team at Cutter were very prompt and friendly and proved to be a very nice FBO.

My departure on Friday 6 May 11 homebound was relatively uneventful. I departed on RW 26R with an immediate heading correction to the east to avoid crossing into Mexican airspace and then direct to Alva, NE (KAVK), 2:43 flight time. While I leveled off at 9000’ I noticed a large dark cloud forming in the distance in front of me. What was odd about this was that my NEXRAD showed nothing! As I got closer I started thinking about asking for some deviation even though my radar still showed nothing. ATC then called me up and reported a cell directly in front of me with light and moderate precipitation and then asked me if I wanted to deviate, which I do. I deviated 30 degrees to the right and then once cleared went back direct. On the way back the MOAs were not active, so I was able to fly more direct than when I came to El Paso.

Once I was clear of the storm cell, I dawned my oxygen cannula and climbed to 13,000’ to try to benefit from the stronger tail winds. The rest of my trip was relatively boring until I got close to Alva and the controllers started vectoring me all over the place due to the high density Air Force training area around Vance AFB. At one point the controller asked me if I wanted to maintain IFR because he would have to take me well out of my way to keep me clear of traffic. He said that if I went VFR, he could get me in quicker. Since the conditions were VMC, I said I could do VFR and I could do whatever it takes to help him out. He then cancelled my IFR and asked me to rapidly decent 2000’ and to change headings. At that time I watched two T-38s go screaming by below and to my left, which was pretty cool. After a few more vectors, I was cleared direct to KAVK, where I had a challenging windy approach and stopped for gas.

Alva Municipal Airport is nice little quiet airport and Erik, the airport manager came out and helped me fuel the plane. I had called him prior to departure to confirm his fuel prices, however when I landed he said that they were about $1.50 more than what he had quoted me. He apologized and sold me the fuel for the phone price and then gave me the courtesy car to go into town and get some lunch. After lunch, I departed on my 1:15 minute flight back to KMKC with no issues. Overall it was a great flight and once again proved the value of flying GA over commercial air service. On a side note, the rest of my team got delayed again at both KELP and KDFW and made it back to Kansas City about three-hours after me!