Bob and I arrived at Montgomery field a little later than planned... blame it on some extra weather analysis and flight planning. The weather looked pretty good, so we decided to shoot for
Lordsburg, NM and would continue to Deming, NM if we had enough fuel. With the plane packed and my car buttoned up in the hangar, we finally got going around 6:45am. If we had left "on time", we would have been able to depart
VFR, but the morning clouds got worse as time passed. No problem, though... a call to ground control for an
IFR-to-
VFR-on-top clearance went exceptionally fast and we were off on our adventure.
After spending about 30 seconds in the clouds, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise above a white blanket covering the San Diego area as we climbed to 7500 feet. The weather was fine, and although some thunderstorms had formed early, they were isolated and far from
our route. As we neared
Lordsburg, the fuel computer reaffirmed our calculations of fuel remaining (1 hr 20
mins), so we continued on to Deming, another 49 miles away. After landing, we were both ready for a walk and a bite to eat, so we borrowed the available crew car (an old blue van) and headed to town. The fuel gauge read "empty", but in my infinite wisdom commented that it was probably broken because why would they loan us a van with no gas in it? "Maybe we should stop for gas?" said Bob, three
times. "
Naw... we're only going a couple miles. It probably has plenty in it," I replied, so we pressed on. Turns out there isn't much to Deming... Denny's was the preferred choice for lunch and just as we turned off the main road, the engine quit and we rolled into a parking spot 100 yards from Denny's. To make a long story short, we got a fuel container, filled it up, and got the van a little closer to Denny's and back to the airport without further incident. The radar picture was looking good eastward for another 100 miles or so, we decided to fly toward
Las Cruces, NM, and on to El
Paso, TX if we could. The weather was deteriorating rapidly in Deming, so we high-tailed it out of there and ended up making it to El
Paso. The friendly staff at
Cutter Aviation brought our bags inside and fifteen minutes later, we were in our rental car headed for the
Hawthorn Suites the
FBO recommended. A nice respite in the hotel's hot tub and a great steak dinner topped off a great day first day on the journey east. Today's flight totals: 5.4 hours, 584 miles, four states.
Lordsburg, NM and would continue to Deming, NM if we had enough fuel. With the plane packed and my car buttoned up in the hangar, we finally got going around 6:45am. If we had left "on time", we would have been able to depart VFR, but the morning clouds got worse as time passed. No problem, though... a call to ground control for an IFR-to-VFR-on-top clearance went exceptionally fast and we were off on our adventure. 
After spending about 30 seconds in the clouds, we were treated to a beautiful sunrise above a white blanket covering the San Diego area as we climbed to 7500 feet. The weather was fine, and although some thunderstorms had formed early, they were isolated and far from 
our route. As we neared Lordsburg, the fuel computer reaffirmed our calculations of fuel remaining (1 hr 20 mins), so we continued on to Deming, another 49 miles away. After landing, we were both ready for a walk and a bite to eat, so we borrowed the available crew car (an old blue van) and headed to town. The fuel gauge read "empty", but in my infinite wisdom commented that it was probably broken because why would they loan us a van with no gas in it? "Maybe we should stop for gas?" said Bob, three 
times. "Naw... we're only going a couple miles. It probably has plenty in it," I replied, so we pressed on. Turns out there isn't much to Deming... Denny's was the preferred choice for lunch and just as we turned off the main road, the engine quit and we rolled into a parking spot 100 yards from Denny's. To make a long story short, we got a fuel container, filled it up, and got the van a little closer to Denny's and back to the airport without further incident. The radar picture was looking good eastward for another 100 miles or so, we decided to fly toward Las Cruces, NM, and on to El Paso, TX if we could. The weather was deteriorating rapidly in Deming, so we high-tailed it out of there and ended up making it to El Paso. The friendly staff at Cutter Aviation brought our bags inside and fifteen minutes later, we were in our rental car headed for the Hawthorn Suites the FBO recommended. A nice respite in the hotel's hot tub and a great steak dinner topped off a great day first day on the journey east. Today's flight totals: 5.4 hours, 584 miles, four states.
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