Leaving Denver in the Dust for Home

After a long but fruitful flight from Teterboro, it was time to grab some fuel at Denver Centennial’s Denver Jet Center, our favorite FBO.

The ramp was packed. But I would totally come here today, too, since it was a gorgeous sixty-two degrees.

Did they know that we were coming or what?!

Our passengers were happy to stretch their legs after four hours of flying, and they headed upstairs in the FBO to The Perfect Landing Restaurant for a quick bite while Gladys got some love from the fuel truck.

I’ve eaten here a few times. It’s pricey delicious!

From the top of the entrance door, I always get a nice view of the surrounding area. Gladys is so tall that I can see for miles and miles!

No exaggerations, of course.

This King Air 350 rolled up to the ramp.

And this pretty Citation Excel also arrived while we were waiting for the fueling to finish.

This place is busy! But look at those skies! It’s perfect flying weather!

Soon, we were on our way home! This last flight of our New York City trip was only about an hour and a half. It’s the shortest that we’ve done in over a week!

We headed towards Runway 17L for departure today.

And we were soon in the sky!

It looks like Denver could use a little Spring lovin’…what do you think?

Over the mountains were clouds and some virga (rain that doesn’t reach the ground). We dodged a few bumpy clouds on our climb away from Centennial this afternoon.

Because she is a rocket, we were on top of the clouds in no time. Now it’s smooth-sailing to our home airport!

Snow-capped mountains peeked out from below.

And then we entered the high desert of southern Colorado and northern Arizona.

For mid-March, lots of these places had already started to get rid of that nasty white stuff.

Isn’t that meandering river pretty?

And then some pops of bright orange and red as we flew over some rock formations during our descent into home today.

This always reminds me of southern Utah, where I spent a lot of time as a kid. We hiked and hiked and hiked, and then we hiked some more. In formations that looked just like these!

As we got closer to home, we realized that it was going to be one of those hazy days where finding the airport is a little tricky.

Aren’t these mesas and plateaus so pretty?

This is one of my favorite pictures from today…

Apparently, Spring likes us more than it likes Denver. Just look at those beautiful green fields!

Somewhere down there, in all that haze, is our home airport.

And when we got close enough, it finally came into view!

Luckily, we’ve been here a few times. So we know where to look, even if we can’t quite see the runway yet.

It feels good to be home, even if for just an hour!

We passed this pretty hangar with a pretty Citation X in front. Look at those winglets!

Actually, this same airplane used to be based at Swift Aviation when I flew a Beechjet out of Sky Harbor Airport.

It looks like they have grown wise in their old age because they moved to this airport, too.

I think that our wonderful line guys are ready for us. What do you think?

And it seems that we landed just after this Pilatus, since they didn’t even have time to move him out of the way before we came in to park.

That’s OK. Gladys can fit anywhere!

We loaded up the car and got the passengers on their way. They’ll be right back with new slothes in their luggage.

Then we fueled Gladys and re-staged her from the starting spot on the ramp. In just an hour, we will be on our way again for three nights in Bremerton!

Yippeeeeee!

I am sensing a Pilatus theme today. We didn’t get that memo.

But I wouldn’t trade Gladys for a Pilatus. Not ever. Huh uh.

Just above the hangar at which we are based, you can see the antennas of the control tower. I always wave to them, though I doubt that they can see me through the necessary sun shades.

We love being based here at this airport. Everyone is so good to us! The controllers are fantastic.

This little biplane is quite often doing touch-and-go landings when I am at the airport. He was busy in the traffic pattern today.

Can you imagine just flying every day like that? Just because you want to and can?

Fun!

Now that Gladys is ready for our flight towards Seattle around 5:00 PM, I have enough time to run about a mile away to grab a healthy late lunch at Pei Wei. Perfect!

It’s been a long day, since we left NYC around 6:00 AM this morning. I’m hungry!

After a heavenly five days near New York City, I am incredibly excited to get two whole days off to explore Seattle, too!

Stick around. It’s going to be good!