I flew to Joshua Tree N.M. for a few hours today.
 

My parents and a hiking friend of theirs were planning a short journey to Joshua Tree, to photograph some of the desert flowers that are in bloom. Looks like we were a week or so too late, but still plenty of color and flowers. There was a Russian group and one of the women was not doing so well. We stopped at the side of the road and noticed that they were tending to someone. We are not sure if she kept on fainting or had heart issues. It was not clear. Cell phones don't work out there, but it was only about 1/2 a mile to the visitors center and I found a Ranger and let him know. Eventually they came to the center and finally , the paramedics arrived - we had already left, but saw them drive up.

The plane...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205196286.jpg
The 405 at the Sepulveda pass. Look at the traffic.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205197443.jpg
Griffith Observatory.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205197708.jpg
Downtown L.A. and Dodger Stadium.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205197769.jpg
Still some snow left.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205197850.jpg

An Airbus landing at Palm Springs.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205197911.jpg
Hey! Why are you tapping on that screen!
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205198032.jpg
Looks like a resurface.
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205198181.jpg
Are we there yet?
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205198263.jpg

Great pictures. Thanks for posting.

Ian

A well-equiped A-36 Bonanza is a great way to scoot around the country. Thanks.

Oh, you wanted to see the flowers?
 

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205198444.jpg
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/5...c3005smmz8.jpg
http://img375.imageshack.us/img375/9...c3008smsv1.jpg
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/8...c3011smzp5.jpg
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/5...c3014smjb6.jpg
http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/3...c3016smcj1.jpg

It's actually a well equipped B-36 TC. :cool:

Nice ocotillos! That's some serious blue in those skies as well.

Looks like a fun day trip and thanks for sharing the pics!

Best,

Kurt

More flowers...
 

http://img389.imageshack.us/img389/3...c3018smxi5.jpg
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/9...c3025smnb1.jpg
http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/8...g3111smde5.jpg
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/8...g3108smba0.jpg
http://img353.imageshack.us/img353/442/img3112smkw9.jpg
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/1...g3110smnd2.jpg
http://img362.imageshack.us/img362/6...g3114smfo0.jpg

The flight home.
 

This little Pitts was having fun with some touch and go's
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/6...g3115smhr5.jpg
Mavrick, there are bogie's all around us!
http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/9...g3116smqw7.jpg
Crowded instrument panel.
http://img354.imageshack.us/img354/4...g3117smnz5.jpg
Almost home
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/9...g3120smqi1.jpg
This guy was near the hanger when we returned.
http://img372.imageshack.us/img372/2...c3032smix6.jpg
Incoming!
http://img365.imageshack.us/img365/6...c3034smbe6.jpg

Thanks for looking and for the comments so far. SmileWavy

Stunning! Beautiful pictures! Wow....but I have a question....what kind of person hops in a plane on a Monday to fly a few states over and photograph wildflowers?! Dang slodave...you are raising the bar on what I would do if I had unlimited time and money! Thanks for sharing.

JA

Thanks! Flight was actually 51 minutes to Thermal (below sea level) and 54 minutes back. I am fortunate to have a flexible schedule and retired parents with a plane.

Tomorrow - skiing!









JK, not for another week or two :D.

Excellent pics as always Dave. Always love the arial photos around LA - especially on the clear days. Thanks for sharing and keep 'em coming!

Thanks Kevin! It was a fun little trip. I'll see if I can work out some time with my dad for some better L.A. aerial photos.

Ah, now I see why Jandrews thought I we fly across a few states. the N.M. in the title stands for national monument. Sorry for the confusion!

I like New Mexico, pretty scenery, clean air(mostly)

Looks the same over here. Everything is starting to bloom.

I could be happy being flown around in one of these...
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205212150.jpg


Joe, it was better here about a week or so ago. Some of the flowers are already past their prime. Enjoy them while you can!

nice shots . i like the narrow shot with field of yellow flowers in the foreground.

Thanks Marc. I need to go back and tweak the colors a bit on all the pics.

Great pics - making me pine for my flying days! Today was sure one of those beautiful days to be up in the sky. Glad to hear someone took advantage of it. . .

Thanks Jeff. It was a very calm day. The Banning Pass was flat in the morning and at about 3:00 on the return there were maybe a total of 4 secs of light bumps.

Going NW and a little before the 5 fwy, we were asked to descend from 8,500 feet to 3,000 or lower - we were about 7 miles from the 5 and needed to hit the mark crossing the five. Steep dive and airspeed increased into the yellow. We leveled for 30 secs, in order to lower flaps, when control chimed in, wondering why we were leveling at 5,000 feet. He was very friendly and concerned after we dumped it again and went into the yellow again with the flaps down - not good. Brief level and gear down. We made it on the mark. at one point we were descending at about 1500 feet a minute. Weeeee!

Funny you mention Joshua Tree. I've been in San Diego since last Wednesday for business. Had the weekend and today (Monday) off. So on Saturday, I participated in San Diego PCA's Autocross in a rented Spec944 car, and today, I drove the 6 hours round trip to Joshua Tree National Park. Took some pics -- I'll try to download them and post them up here. Awesome place to be! Why would anyone go to Disney World or Universal when there's such beauty at so many national parks in CA?

-Z-man.

Cool! Glad you enjoyed the park. Maybe we passed each other. I was at the visitors center around 1:00, having lunch with three others at the picnic table in the back. I was wearing desert digi camo pants with a light brown shirt and desert digi camo boonie hat.

Great shots....LA is looking pretty green this year.


Can you explain to me the details of this screen?

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205242612.jpg


What airport is this & what direction is your final from?


http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1205242783.jpg

Looks like VNY to me.

Did you make it to Cap Rock and pay your respects to Gram?

I think you're a couple states off...

Joshua Tree NATIONAL MONUMENT is not in NM.

But I understand, I'm from NM and was wonderining where Joshua Tree was before I saw the pics which are all taken in California.

Dave,

You are a wizard with that camera! I have seen a lot of your bird/nature pics on OT and they are all excellent.

The first image, is part of the GPS/Nav system. That particular screen, is showing a few things. Terrain - the green and light brown areas and is acting as a "sectional" map. IT's zoomed in, but would look like the old paper maps that pilots used (and still do) for plotting their flight paths. The purple line, is our course setup between waypoints. Upper left corner shows the current waypoint we are going to - Pomona and below, is a warning the shows that there are multiple aircraft close to us that could be come a factor. Those aircraft are also displayed on the main screen as black diamonds, showing the direction of travel and if they are at our altitude or above/below and by how many hundreds of feet. The upper right, shows our current heading. Bottom row shows (from lt to rt), the scale of the map, current GPS altitude, barometer, current course (always differs from the upper right :rolleyes:), current GPS ground speed and miles to the waypoint. The unit ties into a smaller display (look at crowded instrument panel). The smaller unit is where waypoints and courses are programmed and also acts as a nav/comm device and much more. The units also let us tap into XM satellite radio.

Second picture. Jeff is right, that is Van Nuys airport (KVNY) and we are coming in for a landing on the famous 16R runway.

Dave

Nope, we really did not make it into J.T. There really aren't any wildflowers once you actually get to the "trees".

Thank you Markus!

Is that a privately owned A4 Skyhawk?? [the USMC aircraft]??

Must be nice >> sweet

I have no idea. I have not seen that plane before. I did not see an obvious N#... I am guessing it is private.

The military has been known to stop over on occasion, but why they would park at our FBO...