Tuesday, May 2, 2017 Cobra flight #582, PIC #595, 3 landings Amber Hills, Caldron of Hell, Valley of the Horses, Caldron, Puerco Elk, Belen, Rio Grande, Mid-Valley, Manzano Mountain Ridge Run Belen: 7:56 am Mid-Valley: 10:09 am Mid-Valley: 10:14 am Belen: 11:34 am Airtime: 3.5 hrs Total PIC Time: 1544.0 Total Logged Time: 1565.2 It snowed over the weekend and it is the first calm morning in weeks. I saw Paul's vehicle parked outside the hangar. When I saw him after my flight, he told me he flew to Truchas Peak and back. I suspected he did that because I thought I might have done the same if I had gotten up earlier. Today I headed out west to the Amber Hills.
I want to fly some low passes through the Caldron area, and wondered if there was any winds. I flew past the jagged teeth of the north Caldron Bowl and it seemed calm this morning. I wanted to get another look at the huge travertine formations in the drains of the bowl.
A long chain of pools drained out of the Deep Gap. Near the top of the chain of pools, is a tall formation of travertine.
Here is another look at the chain of pools. The large travertine is in the upper left corner next to the shadow of my trike wing.
Here is another view of the travertine waterfall. I have become quite obsessed with this formation and will probably make a hike out here someday to check it out.
The winds were dead calm this morning, so I flew up the canyon through the Deep Central Gap of the North Bowl of the Caldron.
I looped around and exited the next gap to the north. Around and around I went, in one gap and out the other, always letting a couple minutes pass before flying through the same spot to avoid prop wash from an earlier pass.
Here is a view of the top of the travertine waterfall. Death Canyon. I headed around to the right to head up Jaws of
The lower end of Jaws of Death Canyon has plenty of bail out spots, including a dirt road. But it would be a nasty landing if I had to set down here.
I squeezed past the Jaws of Death and entered the South Caldron. A couple years ago, I seriously considered landing on the mesa in the center of the picture above. Glad I never tried this. Trikes are not designed to land on anything less prepared than a dirt road.
I flew a few miles into the Valley of the Horses and only found this small herd of 3. I headed back to the north, heading the Bump visible near the center of the picture above.
The Bump is always fun to fly over. On the left, out of sight in the picture above, I saw an eagle sitting on a small ridge of rocks. I have seen him there in previous years and was glad to see him again.
I flew over the mesa on the east edge of the Caldron, and dove down to exit through the Jaws of Death.
I dropped down low into the Jaws of Death with lots of speed. If my engine faltered, I would have to glide downhill to the flat terrain a mile downstream. Kinda crazy, but I was really only in danger for about 30 seconds, and with my engine having run smoothly for the last 1.5 hours, the chances of a problem striking during this vulnerable window were nearly zero. That's what I tell myself.
I followed the Rio Puerco in the general direction of Belen and accidentally overflew a small herd of deer walking down the muddy channel of the Rio Puerco. I guess they like this spot because there is plenty of food and water here. Paul was nowhere in sight at the Belen Airport. I wanted to fly some more so I headed over to Mid-Valley airport for a pit-stop, then flew over to the Manzanos to see how much check snow they had received over the weekend.
I climbed up over Guadalupe and Mosca Peaks with a light dusting of snow.
Bosque Peak in the foreground and South Manzano on the horizon.
I glided across to South Manzano Peak. It was perfect up here today. No winds, and calm air.
I circled South Manzano and flew out over an east/west ridge and took these pictures to the north. Time to head home now. I headed west, crossed the flats and landed back at Belen. Paul was in the hangar now and as I had suspected, he had made the trip to Truchas Peak and back this morning.
Here are my GPS tracks of the day s fun flight. South Caldron North Caldron Guadalupe and Mosca Peaks Mid Valley Airpark Belen South Manzano
Here are my GPS tracks of the day s fun flight. Truchas Peak Santa Fe Baldy Santa Fe Albuquerque Placer Mtn San Pedro Mtn South Mtn Belen Abo Gap