INTERESTING FLIGHT TO TUCSON

                                  Flight to Tucson

"Canadian Bonanza Xray Delta Victor, Yuma Approach, turn left heading

080, vectors downwind right hand runway 26, advise runway in sight,” Said

the Yuma Approach Controller.

As I made the turn I couldn't help thinking what a God forsaken country. Why on earth my Uncle Bucky would come here for 4 months every year I could not understand. 

The aircraft I was piloting (with my wife as a less than enthusiastic copilot) was a single engine Beechcraft Bonanza. We were on our great adventure, a flight to the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean, from Vancouver BC.

The only reason we decided to stop here overnight, was that Bucky had been coming here, from dry, windy, hot, (in the summer) Saskatoon Saskatchewan, to spend the winter. I had heard about Yuma for years and I wanted to see the place.

Well I had already seen enough; it was like Saskatchewan only more so.  

We touched down on runway 26, and while taxiing to the private aircraft parking area, I opened the cabin door to let in some cool air. It felt like a blast furnace blowing in the door. We parked and instructed the gas-truck driver who had followed us to the tie down area to fill up all 4 tanks.  As Beth and I walked to the restaurant in the searing sun, our feet were actually sticking to the asphalt. I half expected to see someone frying an egg, any moment. 

On the way we stopped in at the flight Service station and asked the Operator what the temperature was.

"Well” he said, “it looks like about 106F in the shade, but I reckon out on that black tarmac its more like 136F."

 "Wow no wonder our feet were sticking to the ground,” Beth said.

"I see you're a Canadian registration, where you folks from?"

 " Vancouver BC," Beth said.

 " I guess this seems a tad warm for you people" said the FSS Operator.

"That's an understatement. " I said as we started back to the heat of the ramp.

We entered the small restaurant and I swear the temperature was below freezing.

" Brrr, its too cold in here." Said Beth "Will you run back to the airplane and get my sweater dear."

Oh yea, just what I needed a 2 block jaunt in a blast furnace.

Always the gallant I said, "Not on your life."

We had a quick bite to eat before we froze, and exited back onto the sticky asphalt of the ramp and the suffocating heat.  So far, Yuma hadn't impressed us much.

" Well what do you think?" I said to Beth. "Should we stay here, or try and find someplace a little cooler?" 

"This is awful." Beth said. "I can hardly breath, lets go anywhere where it’s not so hot."

We went back into the flight Service station. 

" Hi.” I said. "We can’t stand this heat. Where is the closest cool place? 

"You Canadians are sure sissies.” He said, as he looked at his weather reports "It looks like the only place within 300 miles of here that is relatively cool is Tucson." 

"OK we'll go there." I said "How cool is it?” 

"Its 84 right now, but, by the time you get there it might be down to 80." 

"OK give us that flight plan form, I'll file, and we'll be on our way." I said.

I took a glance at the large map on the wall and figured the distance (in my usual what appeared to be a rather haphazard manner) by sighting with my finger.  It appeared about 250 miles to Tucson. To be on the safe side, I filed for 2 hours enroute.  I wasn't too concerned, our aircraft had 7 hours fuel, so at 180 MPH we could cover a lot of miles before having to set down.

" There is a lot of mountains between here and Tucson." Said the Operator. " Looks like a real threat of thunderstorms as well, have you flown at night in the mountains before?"  

" No problem, I've done the vast majority of my flying in Real Mountains.” I said with maybe just a touch too much bravado. I didn't like the sound of thunderstorms, but I figured we could always steer clear of any particularly bad ones. We would be in Tucson before dark anyway, after all it didn't get dark back home until after 10, so no problem.

It was about 6PM at the time and by the time we paid for the fuel and got started it was 6:30. The sun seemed high, and I had no thoughts of it getting dark before we got to Tucson. 

" Canadian Xray Delta Victor, Yuma Departure." Said the Controller, "You're fifteen miles east at this time, squawk 1200, cleared enroute have a good trip." 

" Roger Yuma, good day," I said, as we passed through 3500ft.

It was still plenty hot even at 3500ft, but I was sure it would cool down by the time we got to about 9000ft. As a rule of thumb the temperature drops at about 3 degrees F for every 1000ft you climb. Yuma was only about 2000ft above sea level so it should be a frigid 80 degrees when we got to 9500ft, which was the altitude I planned to cruise.

We were only climbing at about 500ft per min. so in about another 5 min as we were going through 6000ft we noticed an approaching cloud layer that appeared to be based at about 7000ft. I leveled off at 5500ft until we could see how far this cloud layer extended, and it was still very hot. 

" When will we be there?” Beth shouted over the engine noise.

" Well all things being equal," I shouted back, "we should see Tucson in about an hour and a half" She nodded, and didn't look real happy.

Just about then it suddenly dawned on me, daylight seemed to be fading very rapidly.

This was starting to get interesting.

I should mention here that Beth wasn't much of a Co-Pilot.

She wasn't even much of a passenger.

She had an (to me) irrational fear of flying in small planes. This fear was multiplied by a rather large factor if I was the pilot of that small plane. Her fear wasn’t allayed much by the fact we were flying over strange mountainous country with rather ominous clouds starting to gather around us.

 As we passed under the leading edge of the clouds we began to get a bit of turbulence, and within another few minutes it began to get rather dark. I found out later, it always gets dark about this time in the southern USA. The last bit of light disappears very rapidly.

 So much for getting to Tucson in daylight.

About this time it started to rain, and the turbulence increased.  The mountain tops were in the 6000ft to 7000ft range and we were flying close to 5000ft. I was pretty preoccupied trying not to hit one. My eyes were adjusted to the dark pretty well and it seemed that we could make out the darker shapes of the peaks, so I wasn't excessively worried.

 Beth was!

"I don't like this at all" She shouted, "Where are we?"   

I took out the flashlight and gave it to her; I had the map on my knee. 

"Shine the light on the map for a minute" I shouted. 

"What did you say?” she shouted back as she shone the bright light into my eyes. 

" Turn it off  "I shouted being totally blinded. 

She turned it off.

All I could see were little blue and orange flashes before my eyes. I couldn't see the instruments, which even under the best of conditions were virtually invisible, being lit by a little 2 watt red bulb in the ceiling. I couldn't see outside at all, and it seemed to me the turbulence was getting a bit worse.   

" I think we should turn back,” Beth shouted.

 " I don't know where back it is,” I shouted.

My eyesight was slowly returning, but I could still see the orange flashes.

" I don't like the look of that lightening." Beth said.

“What Lightening? I said

"That orange and blue lightening its all around us.”

"That explains my orange flashes anyway. I shouted.” 

She looked at me blankly.

Then we heard the thunder, and it seemed quite close.

I decided to call Yuma FSS (Flight Service Station) and find out what the weather was in the general area and ask for some help.  We were well into the mountains by now, and being so low, with lightning all around, there was little chance we could contact them.

And we didn't.

Now the lightning had changed from sheet to forked. And, it was forking all over the place. The lightning was getting awfully close. The rain sounded like a machine gun on the windows, and the thunder like explosions.  

This is getting REAL interesting, I thought.

"Are you sure you know what you are doing?" Beth shouted.

I glanced over at her for a second, and saw her face in the light of a flash of lightning. Her eyes were double normal size, her skin was, I'm sure, white as chalk, but in the weird light seemed to glow yellow.  To say she looked scared would be an understatement. She was just a little beyond terrified.

" Don't worry." was all I said, being rather preoccupied.

I wasn't quite sure where we were. The airplane was bouncing all over the sky, it was pouring rain, and my eyesight hadn't recovered. However, the light from the lightning made seeing the mountains no problem. 

None of my navigation equipment would work. We were to low in the mountains for the VOR's (Visual Omni Range) to pick up a signal, and the ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) was all over the place due to the lightning and mountains. I was doing dead reckoning navigation, primarily with the Magnetic Compass  (which was oscillating wildly from the turbulence) and the Directional Gyro, which of course, has to be reset

from the Compass reading.

I knew the flight plan had been sent to Tucson RAPCON (Radar Approach Control) and they would be looking for us. Unfortunately I couldn't see well enough to read the small print on the map to get their frequency.

Being an Air Traffic Controller, with lots of smarts, (it says here) I had an idea.

I decided to slowly click through the enroute frequencies until I heard an aircraft talking to some Control agency, maybe I could relay a message through it to Tucson.

 Eventually I heard  "Roger Center, cleared to Flight Level 370, leaving 330 at this time, United 455."

This was what I was looking for.

 "United 455, this is Canadian Bonanza, Xray Delta Victor, do you read?" I called.

No answer.

"United 455, this is Canadian Bonanza, Xray Delta Victor, do you read?" I tried again. 

" Is someone calling United 455?" 

"That's affirmative 455, This is Canadian Bonanza Xray Delta Victor, we are flying VFR below you, about half way between Yuma and Tucson, who are you working?"

“We are working Albuquerque Center, what s your altitude, XDV?”

"We are at 5000ft, its pretty rough down here." I replied. 

" Understand, we are climbing to FL370 to stay out of the tops, and turbulence, we can see lightning from here, are you declaring an emergency Xray Delta Victor?"

 "Negative 455. Would you ask Albuquerque Center to forward a message to Tucson with our altitude? I believe they should be able to pick us up within fifteen minutes or so. And could you ask for a frequency I might use to work Tucson and maybe some ATC agency in this area?" 

"Roger will do, stand by."

It was just then a lightning bolt came so close, we actually heard it sizzle. I swear it passed inside our wing. It lit up the cabin like daylight, and almost simultaneously the loudest thunderclap I could imagine hit us.  The aircraft turned almost upside down.

"Oh no." Beth screamed. 

"Don't worry.” I shouted, as I tried to get the aircraft back to an even keel. This was easier said than done, in the rain, lightning, thunder, turbulence, and darkness.

"Xray Delta Victor, United 455 do you read?" It was United 455.

" Roger United 455, go ahead." I replied.

" Roger XDV, Albuquerque has passed your message to Tucson, and they will be looking for you. By the way Albuquerque center says the enroute minimum is 8000ft in your area, and they can't figure out how you are still flying at 5000ft. There is no frequency they can work you because you are to low. They say Tucson should be able to work you when you are within about 50 miles, at that time call Tucson Approach on 118.5."

"Roger United 455, 118.5, check your remarks, thanks." 

" OK XDV…. And good luck."

Well here we were again, all alone.

By now I was getting used to navigating by lightning. I wouldn't say I was actually enjoying the flight, but it certainly kept me focused.  I figured if I just kept on a heading of about 090, and kept flying around the rocks, (as opposed to through them) we would eventually come out of the mountains somewhere in the general vicinity of Tucson.

I was listening on the Tucson 118.5 frequency continuously when suddenly I thought I heard a voice, but it faded and I couldn't raise any one. About five minutes later I again heard a voice, and sure enough it was Tucson Approach vectoring another aircraft.

" Tucson Approach, this is Canadian Bonanza Xray Delta Victor on 118.5 do you read?" I spoke into my headset. 

Silence was the stern reply.

I waited another few minutes, and called again. Still no contact.

" What's that glow in the sky?"  Beth shouted.  I looked where she was pointing and sure enough, there was a faint glow in our 1:30 position. The rain was letting up and the lightning and thunder were almost gone. Except for the clouds that were still touching the mountaintops it was almost a nice evening.

"I think that glow might be Tucson, ... or Phoenix,.. ..or Los Angeles." I said being my normal hilarious self.

Beth didn’t look amused in the least.

" Tucson Approach, this is Canadian Bonanza Xray Delta Victor on 118.5 do you read?" I tried again.  I was shocked as the reply boomed in.

"Canadian Bonanza, Xray Delta Victor, Tucson Approach do you read?"

"Roger Tucson, loud and clear, we are approximately 30 miles northwest squawking 1200." I replied.

 "Roger XDV, Tucson Approach, squawk Ident on 4500, and what is your altitude, sir?"

  "Squawking 4500 Ident, and we are presently at 4800ft, can I have your latest altimeter please."

" XDV, Tucson, latest altimeter 2995, wind is from the south east at

22knots gusting to 29knots, ceiling 6000 overcast, no joy on your

Transponder yet. Confirm your altitude 4800ft?"

"That's affirmative Tucson, and I check the weather, XDV." I replied.

A few more minutes went by.

" XDV, Tucson, we are getting an intermittent target 34 NM north west, try squawking Ident again please."

" There you go Tucson." I replied

"Ah Roger, XDV is radar identified 34 miles north west, the enroute minimum we show in your area is 7000ft sir, confirm you are at 4800ft."

"That's affirmative Tucson, XDV." I replied, "No problem. I am navigating visually. We’re in good shape. Requesting radar vectors to the active runway."

" Understand your request XDV, however we are unable to give radar vectors until you a completely clear of the mountains." Said Tucson APP

"Check that Tucson, will advise when clear." I replied

About three minutes went by.

"Tucson APP, XDV we are clear of the mountains, requesting radar vectors to the airport" I called.

 "XDV Tucson APP, Fly heading 160 degrees for radar vectors to runway 11 left, wind 120 at 24, maintain VFR at all times."

"Roger Tucson, turning right to 160 degrees. VFR at all times, XDV." I replied.

By this time, the city was looking very bright, the rain had cleared the air, and the lights just sparkled, I started to look for the airport, but had no luck.

I was down to about 3500ft, and since Tucson was at an altitude of about 2600ft, we were quite low to try and make out landmarks. (If we knew any) It was going to be a little difficult finding the airport on the edge of the city.

"XDV, Tucson, turn left heading 120deg, the runway will be in you 12 o'clock position at 7 miles, do you have it in sight?"

"Roger Tucson, turning to 120deg, negative on the airport, I would like to continue with the vectors. Will let you know when we have it in sight." I replied.

There were lights all around us, and with many colors, including what appeared to be orange/amber lights on a freeway. I was looking for a string of amber approach lights, that would lead to green threshold lights. I couldn't see any of them and we were getting into the city itself.

" Approach, XDV, still no joy on the runway." I said

"Twelve o'clock at 3 miles XDV"

" Looking." I replied.

 I was suddenly getting tired, we had been flying since 6:30AM this morning.  I have never had trouble finding an airport. However most of the airports I flew into were out on the edge of the city, this one appeared to in the middle.

"XDV Tucson, you are 1 mile from touchdown, the runway is straight ahead do you have it in sight?"

" Negative Tucson I still can't ... OK I've got it"

"Contact Tower now on 118.3, good day."

"Roger 118.3, thanks Approach, changing." I replied

"Tucson tower, Xray Delta Victor is with you 1 mile final runway 11 left"

"Roger XDV, Tucson Tower, cleared to land runway 11 left."

We touched down and to say it was a relief was a bit of an understatement.

"XDV, Tower, clear right at the next taxiway and contact ground on 124.4, good evening." Said Tucson Tower.

"Tucson ground XDV is with you, requesting directions to the itinerant tie down area." 

"Roger XDV, ground, straight ahead, first left, parking will be on your right hand side, good evening."

"Thanks ground, XDV."

When we had parked and shut down the engine, it was very, very quiet.

We looked at each other. Neither of us spoke.

I don't think Beth could believe we were on the ground and she was still alive. She gave me a weak smile, opened the door and we both got down on the ground. 

My legs almost collapsed and I was about to kiss the ground.

But I caught myself.

A macho Captain of an airliner just doesn't do that front of his passenger does he?

Written by Larry W. Bennett