Belen: 5:38 am Belen: 10:26amAirtime: 4.8Total PIC Time: 1811.1 Total Logged Time: 1832.3

Sunday, June 30, 2019Cobra flight #681, PIC #691, 2 landingsAlbuquerque Bosque, Santa Fe Baldy, Truchas, Valle Grande, Colle Canyon, Valle GrandeI have been wanting to make a flight to Truchas all spring, hoping to see it all covered in snow. But equipment problems and high winds have conspired against me this year. Finally, my trike is perfect and the winds are dead calm up to 18000 ft. I was shooting for a 5:30 civil twilight takeoff, but was a few minutes late. I preflighted my trike in the dark.

I took off and circled the pattern once for my shakedown touch and go, then I headed to the northeast. I had planned on flying to Tijeras Canyon and along the Sandia ridgeline to the southern tip of the Sangre de Cristos near Santa Fe. When I crossed the Rio Grande, I encountered a strong wind blowing up the valley. I turned north and found I was cruising along at 85mph. If it was blowing that strong here, I didn’t want to deal with similarly strong winds in Tijeras Canyon or over the Sandias. I thought I should take advantage of the tailwind while I could. I wouldn’t mind getting up to Truchas as early as possible.

As I overflew the town of Los Lunas, I realized I should grab some dawn pictures of the Cinder Cones. I made a hard 90 deg turn to the left, then lined up on the cones for some photos.

Here is another picture from the Fusion. About this time, I lost my contact with my GoPro6. Still trying to figure out what the cause of the flakey connection is. The Fusion is rock solid.

I flew through the corridor separating Double Eagle Class D and ABQ Class C airspace to the Rio Grande.

Ahead I saw some hot air balloons. The winds up the valley were still there, but at high altitude. I remember seeing the balloons from my house yesterday morning, and thought it must be calm over the Rio Grande. It was calm down low.

My new Stratux ADSB receiver was working. You can see a marker right under the jet-plane icon at the center of the screen. That’s the ADSB reported position of me, with my Mode C pressure altitude.

I flew past Sandia Pueblo and looked over to the Sandia Mountains, wondering what it would have been like if I stuck with my original plan. I was still moving along with a good 85 mph ground speed or 20 to 25 mph tailwind. I was pretty sure this wind would die off once the sun warm things up a bit and I would not have to fight it on the way home.

I saw some strange striped terrain as I angled east of the Santa Fe Class D airspace. It wasn’t an optical illusion. That is I color of the dirt. I’ll have to check it out at low altitude someday.

I climbed up to 10,000 ft and passed by the Santa Fe Ski Area. There were still a few patches of snow up here.

Then I flew along the ridge to Santa Fe Baldy and Lake Katherine. There was a floating island of ice on the surface of the lake.

Here’s a photo of Santa Fe Baldy and Lake Katherine with my handheld camera.

I flew north past East Pecos Baldy to the Truchas Peaks Complex. With all the tailwinds this morning I arrived here at the amazingly early time of 7:40am. Conditions were perfect to loiter over the summits. The Truchas Peaks are behind my trike above. Sheepshead Peak and the Trampas Basin are on the right.

Sheepshead Peak and the Trampas Basin.

I flew over the Trampas Basin then turned south to look down the line of all the peaks.

I wandered over to Chimayosos Peak, which is a mile to the east, then turned back to look at all the peaks again. I like this view, with the sun behind me.

I started my trip back south, passing by East Pecos Baldy Peak, and its small lake.

I passed over Lake Katherine and Santa Fe Baldy again. It was early, so I though I might head over towards Valle Grande and Vents on the way home. I angled off to the west from here.

I stayed high and flew over the top of Santa Fe Airport. I crossed over to Cochiti Lake and headed over to the “Tent Rocks”.

Beyond the Tent Rocks in the direction of Valle Grande was a deep long canyon. The mouth of this canyon was filled with Tent Rock formations, many more in number than at Tent Rocks Park. They are barely visible at the junction of two canyons just right of center in the picture above. At this point I decided to keep my altitude and make a quick flight to the north to Valle Grande.

Here I am approaching Valle Grande. I have not been up here in a while. First time with the Fusion camera.

I left the Valle Grande and followed Colle Canyon to the south. This was “no place to land country” and I wanted out of here as soon as possible. It is probably why I had been over there before.

I spiraled down at the entrance to the canyon. If you look closely, you can see “Tent Rocks” in the picture above behind my propeller, at the center bottom, and just ahead of the nose of my trike. As I slowly descended, I started to feel the thermals generated off the rocks and collected by the canyons.

The canyon to the north looked very interesting. I saw a deep slot canyon and went in for a closer look.

The slot is on the right, and the bottom of the picture. Very interesting place here. I planned on returning in the near future.

Eventually, the thermals chased me out of here. I exited and headed to the west thinking I could make a trip to the Vents. After a few minutes, I realized it would be just as thermally at the Vents and I would not get a good look at them. I’ll come back again soon. I flew over the of Double Eagle Class D and continued on to Belen.

Belen

Here is my GPS track for today’s flight.

Colle Canyon

ABQ

Valle Grande

Santa Fe

Santa Fe Baldy

Truchas Peak

Double Eagle