We’re finally en route and it was a terrific day. We got away nice and early from Gnoss Field (KDVO) and headed almost due east to the Central Valley to get away from the lingering coastal cloud, then south toward Fox Field (KWJF). General William J Fox airport is named after a Marine General war hero and stunt man, and it’s right next to Edwards AFB where a lot of famous test pilots flew. Chuck Yaeger broke the sound barrier there, and the Space Shuttle first landed there. Also Scott Crossfield (not exactly a household name) was the first person to fly an X-15 out of there. And if you’ve never heard of an X-15, it’s more or less a rocket flown as a plane.

We had lunch at Foxy’s Landing, the classic diner-style airport restaurant, which seemed to be full of mostly AF veterans. I wish I could have tried to get some stories out of them.

But we had to get to Flagstaff AZ, another 330 miles. So we took off into the wind – did I mention it was super windy at KWJF? Luckily straight down the runway, but 20kts gusting to 30kts is quite a lot for a small single engine airplane. And it was pretty bumpy all the way to Flagstaff – though beautiful scenery. High desert crowned by snow-capped mountains.

And once we found Flagstaff (KFLG) airport in the distance, we got to land in virtually the same wind conditions as KWJF. Again, at least the wind was straight down the runway.

Another challenge today was flying at pretty high altitudes. Tiring. We’ll be getting our O2 tank hooked up for other high flying we’ll do on this trip.

We’re relaxing now in a nearby hotel after a yummy dinner.

PS – Aviation lesson of the day: Make sure you calculate crosswind effects in your landing pattern. On a windy day like today, you gotta turn to final a LOT earlier.