We got up at 5:30 this morning and are on our way home. We are pushing strong headwinds and expecting (praying) to be home by supper time. It looks like we may get stranded if we don’t get moving so we are doing our best to get going. We will likely call when we are a little closer to the border and update you on our progress. See you in a bit. Steve

The gang flew all the way to Oklahoma City and dropped off Elizabeth to be with the Providence College Basketball team. Then they continued to Wichita, KS. The weather has been great, but so have the headwinds.

A short flight from Tucson, to McNeal, Arizona (Tribal Air Airport). The plan is to spend the day with Tribal Air.

We departed San Bernadino and stopped in Blythe for fuel again. They were still not happy to have to fuel our planes for some reason but after a short stop we were on our way out. One more leg brought us to Ryan Field outside of Tucson. One plane went to the fuel pumps and two went to the UIM hangar.
We were a little confused as to where everyone went but soon found each other and had a meeting with the UIM aviation director. He told us what they are doing in Mexico with their 206 aircraft and then it was off to our separate billet houses for the night.

Spent the day with MAF and then toured LA. We got lost in the city but wound up at LAX for a while watching planes land. We saw the Hollywood walk of fame and spent the evening there before returning to Redlands.

After yesterday’s practice into Las Vegas, everyone was full of confidence and ready for the departure. The pilots once again did a great job at the radio work and we were off to Blythe CA. We were fueled by a gentleman who was just disgusted that he had to work when we came in, but we were on the ground very briefly and into the more busy airspace as we passed through Banning Pass and into the Los Angeles area. We could not land in Redlands this year as the runway is due for resurfacing the next day and we would be stranded, so we went to San Bernadino. This runway is also under construction and we could only use half of it. We would spend 2 nights at MAF (Mission Aviation Fellowship). The pilots spent the night at some MAF family homes while the brave and fearless instructors took a well deserved break at an MAF apartment.

Just got a update from Tomas:

After an early start we headed off towards Albuquerque and began to see our first terrain. Some were content to practice their visual navigation skills in this new terrain, while others were fascinated (perhaps overly so) with the VOR. Mr. Kornelson in fact, was so fascinated that when the VOR flipped from TO to FROM he and his crew videotaped the event and were heard cheering with delight by several other airplanes. We landed in Sandia East outside of Albuquerque and to our delight, found that it was a residential airport.
We discovered this by taxiing off the runway and onto a road. The FBO (Fixed Base Operator) operator managed to navigate us through the streets and to the FBO. Some houses on these roads had hangars attached, and some houses simply were hangars that people had converted. When we went to leave this field we discovered that HXS (one of our planes) would not start. The delay was a faulty magneto, which put us several hours behind schedule. We had a short flight to Eagle II on the west side of Albuquerque and then on to Flagstaff AZ where we were greeted by the cold white stuff again.

March 3
Day 1

For the forth year running, the second year aviation students from Providence College, in association with Harv’s Air Service, embarked on the cross-country of a lifetime. All of the Providence students are Private Pilots who are building time towards their Commercial licences. A very long cross-country (over 3000 miles or 10 times the required Commercial requirement) is a fantastic way to experience different terrain, busy airspace, high altitude airports, and the decision making that can only come from planning flights out in the “real world”. Along the way they flew over the Grand Canyon, into some of the busiest airspace in the world, and underwent a transition of seasons from winter, to spring, and back to winter in the span of a week.