Day two went well... Although we didn’t get quite as far as we hoped!

We started out the day in Dalhart, Texas, with the hope of reaching Tucson and UIM by evening. We almost made it!

After a hearty lunch, all eleven of us completed our planning and pre-flighted and set off for Artesia. After a few maintenance items, we then headed of for our next stop of Las Cruces, New Mexico. Up until now, we had been flying entirely over the relatively flat terrain of the Midwest. Much of it was extremely familiar to those of us from the flat lands of Manitoba.... However, we were now on our way towards the mountains and the El Paso Pass!

The El Paso Pass was magnificent! Originally, we were going to fly directly over El Paso, to get around a big block of restricted airspace that stretches along a series of mountain ridges. Surprisingly, ATC offered--and then vectored--us through this very same restricted airspace! We were able to fly very nearly directly over White Sands, New Mexico! That was certainly exciting!

After passing through the mountain range, we then landed in Las Cruces, a beautiful city with the mountains that we had just flown over as a backdrop. The sun was setting, and brilliant shades of orange, pink, and red illuminated the western sky. Alpenglow filled the mountain peaks, highlighting the already deep red color of the southwest.

This was as far as we managed to get... Nightfall--along with high winds that were 20 G 30, and moderate to extreme turbulence over the mountains--would not allow us to get into Tuscon for the night.

Tomorrow the goal is to reach Tucson, Arizona, with a stop at UIM to see the work and the facilities that they offer there!