To The Top of the World, Or Ogden

It was a beautiful Saturday morning when I got to fly to Ogden for a quick day trip. When the sun is shining down upon Gladys in such a manner, how can you not want to go fly?

We were in our normal staging spot to load our passengers. Since we would be back tonight, there wasn’t much luggage to load into the baggage compartment. Which is huge, in case I haven’t mentioned it recently.

I vacuumed, dusted, folded seatbelts, and cooled down some sodas in anticipation of six people riding to Ogden with us today.

Scottsdale is home to all sorts of neat airplanes. I often see this guy practicing landings in the pattern. Today, I lucked out with a picture of him flying by. Aren’t biplanes the coolest?!

Soon, we were airborne and on our way to the great state of Utah. My home state, to be exact. We flew over my hometown twice. And I flew exactly over my sister’s home on the flight back.

I waved, Charloe. Did you see it? I can be creepy from the sky like that sometimes.

At four-hundred feet, we were able to turn right to a heading of 285 degrees as part of the JOHHN 1 Departure. Soon we were on with Phoenix Departure, whom I love, and got further clearance to climb (usually to Flight Level 190) before being handed off to Albuquerque Center.

More glorious rays. We are definitely supposed to be in the sky today.

I’ve been told about these volcanoes on the way but have never seen them! Today, I saw them! Aren’t they cool? I was pretty impressed. Maybe I’m too easily impressed?

And the views just kept getting better as we were soon flying past Lake Powell. It looks pretty low this late in the year. I hope everyone has a nice, wet winter so the lakes are full for next year!

Boaters and farmers alike would appreciate it, I’m sure.

Even from Gladys’s office seat today, I got to enjoy some fall foliage down below. Can you see the trees changing? This was near my sister’s home, looking towards Fish Lake.

Now we are getting closer. This is the mouth to Provo Canyon, which heads up to Heber. I always loved going there. If we were really lucky, we got to eat a shake at Granny’s. This is where my love for Grasshopper Shakes was discovered as a kid. Up until that point in my life, I really thought that it was made of grasshoppers and not mint with Oreo cookies.

Boy, am I glad that I corrected my ways and saw the light.

Here is a broader view of Provo as we near our destination. Can you see the airport in the bottom of the picture? I was here just a few months before.

Here is the Point of the Mountain, which was always a favorite checkpoint as a kid. When we crossed this curve in I-15, it meant that we were close to Salt Lake City. Which just took forever to get to when I was a kid, even though it’s only about an hour and fifteen minutes from my tiny hometown.

The Point of the Mountain was also cool because we got to watch the hang gliders do their stuff.

To avoid the Salt Lake International traffic today, we were given a heading that flew us right over Kennecott Copper Mine!

Other than being in a massive truck driving down into the hole, it doesn’t get much closer than this for a great view!

This is the Garfield Stack, which was a checkpoint I passed many times when returning to SLC International after being out in the Tooele practice area as a student pilot. I got my Private License in this busy place, after all.

Antelope Island isn’t much of an island any more. Can we get some rain here, please?

Sun and cloud reflections in the water are so pretty. We simply don’t have water like this in Arizona! No one except Utah has water like this, though. Pretty salty!

It was a hazy day, so we had to get rather close to Ogden Airport before we could actually tell Salt Lake Approach that we had it in sight. This allowed us to be given a clearance to a visual approach at Ogden. Now it’s time to talk to Ogden Tower!

Just a few miles away from Ogden is Hill Air Force Base. It’s a bad deal to land here on accident, since they meet you with machine guns and handcuffs. It is illegal to land at a military base unless in an emergency.

And, even then, they will still meet you with machine guns and handcuffs!

Luckily, we landed at the right place today. My passengers were excited for a day spent with family.

After I got them in their rental car and loaded their few bags, I spent a moment with Gladys to get some pretty pictures of her in the fresh mountain air.

It was such a beautiful day…in the high seventies and no wind. I really didn’t want to return to the triple-digit temperatures later tonight!

Can’t we just stay? Just until it starts to snow? Then I will happily leave.

The Captain had a funeral to attend down in Bountiful, so I got Gladys ready for our flight home later today. That meant getting some fuel for the return trip. No PRIST, please! (PRIST is a mixture added to fuel to help prevent icing. We don’t need it in Gladys since she is so smart with her fuel supply and heats it up before use).

Looks like a game of chicken has ensued. Oh Gladys! You always win!

After everything was fueled and paid for, it was time to head upstairs to a lovely little restaurant called Rickenbacker’s for a bite to eat. When the line guy suggested that I eat at a steakhouse, I was a little nervous about the prices.

But everything was very affordable and looked delicious! Never mind that I had an awesome view of the runway while eating!

I thought that they had the wrong table when they brought me chips and salsa to munch on until my food arrived. This is a steakhouse, right? It was good, though. I ate it so as not to hurt their feelings.

I know, I know. This isn’t a steak.

It is a turkey club sandwich with sprouts, which I am convinced makes any sandwich better. It also had avocado, which makes my heart go pitter-pat. The salt shaker must have fallen from their hands during use, though. These fries were almost inedible because they were so stinkin’ salty! Maybe ask for salt on the side if you try the fries…

With my sodium levels at an all-time high, it was time to update my logbook until the time drew closer to leaving. I was the only person in the pilot lounge and got many pages caught up on my logbook. We’ve just been flying so much that it’s hard to keep it all in writing!

Kemp Jet Services was awesome, like always. Because it was Saturday, it was pretty quiet around here. But they assure me that their summer was very busy, so I was relieved. I love when good businesses have lots of business.

Lookin’ good, Gladys! Lookin’ good!

I had some fun playing with the new camera to see what I could do. I love these shots where the background is super fuzzy, but the foreground is super crisp.

Time to head home! We were loaded up and on our way to the active runway around 4:30 local. It was about an hour-and-a-half flight home this evening.

Hi, Crop Duster!

I love this picture facing the mountain as we taxied to the runway. The Wasatch Front is just beautiful. I feel so lucky to have grown up with views similar to this right outside my window.

Goodbye, Ogden! Thanks for your beautiful weather and generous helping of salt hospitality!

I had the sun to my right on the entire flight home, so I drew the shade. That’s right…I have a shade to protect me from the sun! Look how you can actually see the clouds through the shade, too!

Soon, a hazy Phoenix valley came into view. My airport is just to the right of these nifty little mountains.

Ah, here we are! Home at last! What a nice day at “work!”

Unfortunately, my day wasn’t over yet. We picked Gladys up from maintenance this morning, which meant that my car was way on the other side of town at Williams-Gateway Airport.

Immediately after we pulled in at the hangar, a Citation came in right behind us. Of course we are faster!

The line guys from Scottsdale Air Center brought us a rental car. I don’t know why we are only discovering them now…this was an awesome arrangement! We followed them back to the FBO to do some rental car paperwork so that we could return to our cars on the other side of town.

Depending on traffic and who is behind the wheel, this drive from Scottsdale to Willy Gateway can take anywhere from forty-five minutes to an hour. Ironically enough, it took us almost as long to drive from one side of Phoenix to the other as it had to fly from Ogden home tonight!

And you wonder why I hate road trips!

The moon was out early and was massive. It was so pretty.

And the cloudy sunset was just beautiful. So was Pearl when I picked her up just a little later. It is such a blessing to have such reliable transportation! If she happens to look good, too, well…double-bonus.

What a great day. I am so in love with my job!