Second Leg: Sedona AZ to Hobbs NM.

Hello again!

I am in Hobbs, which is tecnically in NM, but I am already East of the Pecos river and 4.5 miles of the border with Texas.

The big mountains are behind now. Only the big plains ahead.....

I had to make changes to the second leg to be more southerly than initially planned due to severe weather advisories on that route; Mountain obscuration and Icing. You do not want to be into any of these 2 situations on any plane, particularly in unfamiliar terrain. So after some thinking and further planning I headed SW.
The problem with this option was a large area of restricted zones running N to S that only allowed a "narrow" pass sanwiched with the Mexican border around the town of El Paso. The good thing though, in addition to better weather conditions, is that this route crosses the Guadalupe Mountains / Pass which is the one that Kern and Rinker Buck took when they flew coast to coast from East to West with a Piper Cub in 1966. (Flight of Passage). I couldn't wait to fly over these mountains and try to experience what they may have felt when doing so.

OK, now some pictures:

A couple of pics of Sedona at sunset and in the morning from the airport mesa and the Sky Ranch hotel were I stayed during the night.

Images while leaving the beautiful Sedona area right after take off.

Flying over a canyon during the route to my first stop in Grant County airport. A place in the middle of nowhere but conveniently located for refueling.

N669TW parked in empty Grant County airport. Tumbleweeds were pasing along the plane pushed by strong winds and gusts. See following video:

Huge extensions of desert sceneries and geographical terrain scars.

 Some isolated unnamed mountains along the way...

Flying over the Pecos river (I know, I was also expecting a much larger river!) and extensions and extensions of oil rig fields.

Picture of my bird after landing in Hobbs properly tied up, so that it does not fly away.

Hobbs, also known as Lea County regional airport is very nice, as you can see. (Elevation 3,660 ft)
The 2 landings today were quite tricky because the winds were strong and with gusts. I selected airports with several runways so that at least one would offer good alignment with the wind and limited the crossed wind component.

A picture showing the road to Hobbs town, taken from an hotel shuttle that kindly was requested to take me to the Lea County Inn.  Short after landing the guy at Tailwind Airways where I parked the plnane for free, is telling me that this town is attracting so many jobs for the oil industry that it is almost imposible to find an hotel room, but they were very helpful.

My track logs from today:

Sedona (KSEZ) to Grant County airport (KSVC)

Grant County airport (KSVC) to Hobbs (KHOB) (The track shows I slightly flew over Texas.
The restricted areas I was mentioning before belong to Fort Bliss and extend N to S from the word "Socorro" in this map and almost to El Paso. This being the reason for not being able to fly in a straight line.


Totals for the day:

• 524 nm
• 4hours 56min
• Max height: 10,200 ft  

Great day for flying with tailwinds ranging between 10 to sometimes up to 40 knots!

I need to check the weather in detail, but it appears that a stationary front around the Dallas - Houston- New Orleans triangle area may slow down my progression. I need to study how it develops and see if I can go around it. Or consider wait and take some resting time.  Storms in this area are serious as I am entering Tornado alley.

All best,
Eduard