The Great Gig In The Sky: "Family Time" (Building)

I had a few hours coming my way in a 172 and decided to take my sons with me to Palm Springs today. My wife and daughter are both under the weather, so a trip for the boys was a good idea.

My wife is still a worry-wart. To appease her, I filed IFR so she could see the progress of our flights on FlightAware. That keeps my cell phone from ringing 384 times before I land.

There was a quartering tailwind and velocity changed alot enroute, so there were a lot of corrections to stay on V16. It was a nice, rather boring flight. Why Palm Springs? 1. Almost everywhere in Arizona had Airmets & Sigmets for turbulence and most airports north of Phoenix had wind gusts >25 knots. 2. I still had the headset that was loaned to me the last time I was in Palm Springs when my Bose headset was lost. (long story-see Dec. 2006 if you care) I had mailed it to the person that loaned it to me and the post office returned it after 5 delivery attempts. Today was a good day to return it.

Palm Springs Approach instructed me to maintain best forward speed for spacing. Descending, I had 135 knots indicated until configuring on a 2 mile final. That was the most exciting part of the flight.

It was HOT in Palm Springs. 95 degrees! Phoenix has been warm the last week and they say it's going to hit 90 next week. This must be what is coming our way. That is why March is my least favorite month in the desert. The temperatures are on the rise. 100 can happen in March. It's depressing to know that the oppressive heat is on the way. By June, I'm used to it and actually enjoy it. It's the re-acclimatization part that makes March suck.

We parked at Signature Aviation (expensive but worth it) and they gave us a ride to the terminal and offered a crew car. Very nice. I've always been treated well at Signature Aviation, no matter what the airport. They treat you the same no matter what plane you're flying, which I think is smart.

The boys were starving and there's a Fatburger near the airport. Fatburger is always a treat for the kids, so off we went.

We got back to the airport, turned in the car, returned the headset, filed IFR back to Phoenix and made our way to the airplane. When the fuel was topped off, Signature took the time to clean the windshield without being asked. Another nice touch.

The sun was setting when we took off and it was dark within an hour. I always like coming back to Phoenix from the West at night.

A nice trip with the boys and 5.0 total/1.5 night added to the logbook.