Amarillo, TX

March 4 - 17

Amarillo is another very flat area with a lot of ranching and farm land. It has an elevation of 3,650 ft. which meant that our high altitude work was at 10,000 ft. This was my first time flying over 10,000 ft in a small plane.




There is a large canyon southeast of the city called Palo Duro Canyon. One afternoon we were able to drive into the park at the canyon and do some hiking.

We saw a small cave in the side of one of the canyon walls and climbed up to it. It didn't go in very far but it had a great view.

On another day we drove over to Sante Fe, NM. It was quite a hike but the view from the top of the ski resort north of town was worth it. If there hadn't been a fire in the valley below we could have seen all the way to Albuquerque.

The town of Sante Fe was pretty cool too. All of the buildings (homes, businesses, government) were made of adobe and were either red, tan, or grey clay colored. It reminded me of Sedona, AZ in that respect. It seemed like it would be a cool place to live if you didn't mind being a little out in the middle of nowhere.

Tulsa, OK

February 18 - March 3

Tulsa has to have one of the busiest Class D airports in the country. The International airport was not that busy but there are several large flight schools on the other airport. It would get so busy at times that they would have a seperate tower frequency for each of the parallel runways. One day they had a fly out for lunch and ATC actually called a flight of 19 as traffic for me. We didn't have many weather days here but we did manage to catch a couple of minor league hockey games. We also hiked around Dripping Spring Lake in Okmulgee and we took a trip over to Oklahoma City and saw the bombing memorial.

Little Rock, AR

February 16 - 17

We made a stop in Little Rock enroute to the next assignment and ended up being there a couple of days due to high winds. We took a hike up to Pinnacle mountain which is just northwest of the city.

The trail was only three miles round trip and it had a great view of the Arkansas river. Next we drove down to Hot Springs. Apparently this was the place to go for health improving baths in the early 1900s. There's not alot there now except for a few of the bath houses that have been turned into museums and a horse racing facility.

Jackson, MS

January 24 - February 15

On the way to Jackson I made a fuel stop in Montgomery, AL. This was where we made a fuel stop each day we were doing the Katrina relief flights. A year and a half later and the people at the FBO still remembered me. I guess its hard to forget someone who leaves underwear on your ramp (long story). Anyway, all I really have to say about Mississippi is that it is flat, flat, flat. We mapped about 40% of the state and most of the shots had to look identical. I was able to land at a couple of the airports we dropped supplies at (Hattiesburg and McComb) which was nice. The weather was mostly in the 60s so it was a great place to be in February while everyone else was getting snowed on.