Pimping Justine

Justine. That is the name of my plane: Cessna Justine Airplane, as in Cess na’ just ine airplane.

Johnny and I flew to Uvalde, Texas on Monday, 6/29. Just passing Phoenix we saw Roosevelt Lake where Charlie Wooldridge taught me to water ski back in about 1962.



The flight to Safford was 2.02 hours,



from there to Uvalde, Garner Field, was 4.2 hours. The air was smooth at 9,500 feet as far as El Paso, Texas.



Then we hit weather. Down at 7,500 feet under the clouds it was a little bumpy; we got back up for an hour or so, and then back down. We had to skirt a tiny restricted zone that I hadn’t been aware of until my GPSMAP 396 warned me. Looking very closely I was able to avoid it. It turned out to be a balloon surveillance site, but the balloon was still on the ground.



Altogether we left Bullhead City at 6:15 am and arrived at about 3:30 pm local time. It didn’t seem like an hour over two weeks…. It never fails to amaze me how big Texas is. It only takes us about 3:45 to get to El Paso, but that last two and a half hours across half the state seems to take forever. But we survived, Johnny a little worse for wear.

At Sierra Industries we were introduced to jets, turboprops, and piston engine singles and twins, all getting new engines or panels. Justine is probably the “most affordable” aircraft in the shop. Nothing like seeing million dollar aircraft getting two million dollar upgrades.


Justine was there to get auxiliary fuel tanks installed: an additional 54 gallons to the existing 84.



After the 7 hour trip back in a Comanche, (plus a stop for lunch) I started to wonder why I was doing this. One can’t stop for lunch when flying over water, I guess. At least, not if one wants to continue. It will probably be the most expensive upgrade that won’t even be visible until I top it off with fuel and look at the bill…. It does allow more flexibility in finding cheaper fuel though. Monday I bought fuel in Safford for $3.10 per gallon and Tuesday we paid $4.49 in Las Cruces because the Comanche didn’t have the range with an IFR reserve to go that far. Even more depressing was watching them dump the remaining 20 gallons I had in the plane before they started working on the tanks. We should have brought a clean can to transfer the fuel into the Comanche. Hindsight is wonderful.

While in Uvalde, Johnny and I got to see some vintage planes owned by the owner of Sierra industries. It was my first clue that I was paying too much. The second clue was the sales rep, Art Jackson’s new Hummer. These are the planes we saw:













We stayed at the new Holiday Inn Express and enjoyed swimming, playing on the computer and watching TV. Well Johnny did, I swam with him then watched TV and went to sleep. Johnny watched well past when I fell asleep saying it would help him sleep on the plane. When I asked how late he stayed up, he couldn’t remember. I am not raising a dummy.

Johnny wasn’t real enthused about the return flight as you can see.



In the air he slept all the way to Las Cruces


and even felt good enough to have a cheese burger and fries. Big mistake, he ended up bringing it home in a bag, giving it up of take-off. Luckily he slept most of the way home. Before we got to Phoenix it started to get rough at 10,000 feet so we went up to 12,000 and it got a lot smoother. The only trouble we had was getting ATC to okay our descent and had to stay at 11,000 until half way up the valley. This meant a 10,000 foot drop in ten miles. We did a lot of circling. It gave me a chance to take some pictures of the local golf courses and the airport as well as my house.

AAAHHHHHHHH Back in the air

When we fly to the U.S. from Taiwan we used to fly from Kaohsiung to Las Vegas. But as the economy has tanked we have more and more hassles getting our luggage on the domestic flights. In the “good ole days” we could bring 6 bags at 72 pounds each along with six carry-ons for the three of us. Those days are gone. Now it is down to 50 pounds if we can upgrade to business class, 30 something otherwise. China Airlines is very lax about luggage so we don’t have any trouble with them if we start the trip with them. But that means starting in Los Angeles when we return and ending there on the east-bound trip. This leaves the problem of getting to Bullhead City from Los Angeles.

In the past we have rented a van (we once rented a Lincoln Towne Car but it was way too small). Once, our friend John Cowgill drove us in to LAX in our van. This time we were lucky again in that my brother John, (lots of Johns in our life), was going to Mammoth with his son for a Father’s Day outing, and since we were staying with his son for the first night, my brother drove our van to Manhattan Beach and went to the mountains with his son while we drove home. In exchange for this, I agreed to fly to Mojave on Sunday to pick him up since he had no other way to get back to Arizona.



Friend John Cowgill came along on Sunday and we flew to Mojave in central California to pick up brother-John. Mojave is where Burt Rutan has his operation. He made the voyager that flew around the world non-stop, piloted by his brother Dick Rutan and Jeanne Yeager. He also built the first privately built spacecraft. It was Sunday, though, and no one was around. We did see the scrap yard for 747’s and the storage area for other big jets moth-balled and waiting for their next life.







The flight home was bumpy, but not bumpy enough to make my brother sick, even as hung over as he was. Next time I'll get him.