It was sure nice to finally get
some truly great flying weather for the March Breakfast Club
event
to Nogales, Arizona and Angie"s Café. As you might
recall, the last 3-weeks of February were
rain soaked and as such, the weather washed-out, on two occasions, our
scheduled event to
Kingman. So with clear skies
being the order of the day, we departed Scottsdale Airport and
turned south and, with clearance, we traversed the Phoenix Class B
airspace and turned to the
southeast.
After being released by Phoenix
Tracon, I tuned-in on our air-to-air, group flight following
frequency to report-in. Don Downin
(BC-10) responded but he was with another group that was
going to Tucson, Ryan for their
annual "Aviation Day" celebration. His beautifully restored, and
polished aluminum, Piper 140, The
Silver Eagle, draws attention to any show or airport that he
visits and I am quite
sure that he would get his share of attention at Ryan. There was a lot
of frequency chatter by
several groups going to different places so we were not able to talk
much until we go south of
Ryan and the "air chatter" thinned-out.
Even if the radio airways were clouded with congestion, the skies
were clear as a bell. After
passing Ryan, I could clearly see Kitt
Peak Observatory off to our
starboard side. Mount
Wrightson at 9500' was plainly visible to our port side as we
traveled further south. The ASOS at
Nogales International Airport
(that's right "international") stated that the winds were light and
favoring left traffic for runway 21. I reported 5 miles to the north
for a mid field cross-over for
the pattern. After securing my airplane, my wife and I joined-up with
some of the early arrivals
and to get some photos of other arriving aircraft. Alan & Mary Travis were one of
the last to
arrive in the NEW Diamond DA40-180, but more on them latter.
We all rejoined in the terminal building and Angie's Café. Angie's is a
small café to the right as
you enter the terminal. Tiffen
Aviation Services is to the
left. Larry Tiffen is also the
airport
manager as well as the owner of the FBO and his wife operates the small
café. Seating is
somewhat limited as there are only about 5-6 tables available. The
café is a semi, self service
style. The menu is on the wall adjacent to the walk-up order window.
The coffee (aka rocket
fuel), is to the right of the window. As you might guess, the menu is
somewhat limited as you
might expect from a small, sorta outback type operation, but the prices
were quite inexpensive. My wife and I got the last of the tables along
with Brant & Linda Saperstein.
After placing our
orders and getting our drinks, I started filling -out the attendance
sheet and passing it around. I
also got some photos of the folks at various tables as we waited for
our food orders to arrive. And we waited..............and
waited................and waited..............and waited. I would guess
that
it was 45-minutes before we got our orders. The food was OK but they
are definitely not geared
to serve a large influx of hungry aviators (that can not be good) even
after I gave them a weeks
notice that we would be arriving. By the time that we got our food,
some of the folks were ready
to leave.
After topping-off with fuel (the airplane as opposed to rocket) that
was about .40 a gallon
cheaper than at Scottsdale, some of us walked down to where Alan had
his new plane parked. That DA40 sure had ramp appeal. The "all glass"
panel looked like something right out of a
corporate jet. It took Alan a good 15-minutes to clean-off al the drool
from the envious
onlookers. The wind had picked-up just a tad that reinforced the
decision to depart runway 21. The trip home retraced our inbound flight
but with a slight headwind, it took about 10-minutes
more for the return leg.
The Nogales Squad
What's Next?
The April Breakfast Club event will see us traveling to a new location, Williams, Arizona. We will be dinning at Max & Thelmas that is next door to the Grand Canyon Railroad Station. In May, we will be returning to the Echo Bay Marina that is on a finger of Lake Mead. That's all for now but remember, fly safe.Below are links to some photos of the Nogales event. Just click on the link and enjoy.
Rick May's Dakota Linda & Jeri-Ann BC Folks BC Folks BC Folks DA40-180 Panel Alan's DA40