1+1>2

The last step in commercial single engine are a couple of long cross country flights, one day the other night. With my busy schedule, it's better to just combine them in to one trip and that's just what my instructor and I did yesterday.

I planned to Laughlin/Bullhead City (KIFP). Laughlin is a casino town located in the bottom point of Nevada, right across the Colorado River from Bullhead City, AZ and a few miles from the California border. The departure was planned so we could get there just before sunset and depart a few hours later for a night flight back.

VFR flight planning is so tedious that I always try to make the route as efficient as possible. Instead of routing around Phoenix airspace, I routed us straight through it. When my instructor looked over the flight plan, he said that I should have planned around Phoenix airspace. I said that it was planned directly through on purpose and that obtaining the clearance wouldn't be an issue. He politely disagreed and in the spirit of traveling to Nevada, I offered a wager. If I'm wrong, I'll buy dinner. If you're wrong, vice versa. He sensed and easy win and immediately agreed.

I got a northwest departure clearance from Gateway tower. Immediately after the take off roll, I asked for a frequency change, which Gateway tower granted. I already had the Prescott FSS in backup and switched over to open the flight plan. Flight plan opened in 30 seconds. Sweet. Com 2 had Phoenix approach dialed in and a quick call to them with request resulted in: "Squawk **** and remain clear of the the bravo airspace". My instructor started to get that evil, "I was right, you were wrong...totally wrong...so wrong that I'll remind you of it daily for the rest of your natural life look." Inside my head I'm quietly saying, "Wait for it...wait for it..." Just as he was opening his mouth to say something dry and sarcastic like "Well that was fun", Phoenix approach came back and told us we were cleared through the bravo, climb to 4,000 and fly the East Transition direct Deer Valley (KDVT). HA! Flight plan accurate. Suddenly, I started getting hungry for steak and lobster.

After Phoenix, the plan was to fly to Wickenburg, and then follow US93 and I-40 to Kingman, then Laughlin. Part of the cross country was to include a diversion, which he gave me over Wickenburg and had me change the route to direct Lake Havasu. A diversion is basically changing the route and/or destination of flight while in-flight. You must plot the new course, measure the distance and calculate ground speed. That allows you to figure the new time en route and fuel required so that your flight plan can be amended. There are a few methods to calculate ground speed in-flight (GPS cheating excluded) and I chose calculating the time between two known points on the chart. You should hit your destination in plus or minus 3 minutes, which we did.

Coming in to Laughlin is interesting. The elevation is nearly sea level and the area is in a valley with mountains to the East and West and Lake Mojave and Davis Dam to the north. Although I've been to Laughlin countless times, it's always unreal seeing skyscrapers rising out of the desert, in the middle of nowhere. Seeing it from the air proved to be no-exception. It was dusk and the lights of the casino were beginning to overpower the remaining sunlight. I forgot my camera. Bummer.

Just as we were entering the airspace, the tower announced that it was closing. I asked them for a quick weather brief and we were good to go. The only other traffic was a King Air that was departing to the East. We landed, and got the very last transient parking space. After topping off, the FBO (Sun Western Flyers) called a complimentary shuttle to take us to The Riverside Hotel & Casino.

My father has an interesting friend that lives in Laughlin. He is known as "The Watch Man". He's a tireless promoter and a real character. He's made and lost fortunes more than any person I've ever known. Anyway, he's currently in the money and owns several stores located at the Riverside. I told my instructor about the store and he said he wanted to see it. When we got there, we spent a few minutes looking at a few of the over 100,000 watches he has for under $20. You can find anything from Rolex "like" watches to NFL team logo and Betty Boop watches. Needless to say, it's an interesting place.

The point is, they were having one of their hourly drawings and I grabbed two tickets. The first drawing was for a free pair of sunglasses from "The Sunglass Man" store located elsewhere in the casino and the second was for a free watch. The girl drew the first ticket and it was my instructors. Then she said his ticket could go back in for a chance at the second one. Believe it or not, he won the second drawing too. There was at least 150 tickets in the bucket, so it was pretty amazing. Anyway, he got to spin "The Wheel of Watches" to see which watch he won. It was a digital watch that will serve nicely as a knee board clock. We went to "The Sunglass Man" and he picked out a pretty nice pair of Ray Ban knock offs. Not bad for free and it put him in a better mood about having to buy dinner.

Since he's a CFI, lobster and steak isn't in his budget. The charitable side of me told him the cheap dinner buffet would be just fine. Dinner was decent and then we decided to play around for a little while before leaving. I think they were having a convention for chain smoking, tattooed, foul mouthed alcoholics in trucker hats and wife=beater shirts (not that there's anything wrong with that) this weekend. Needless to say, the casino wasn't too much fun and an hour was all we could stand. We took the shuttle back to the airport for the flight home.

The Riverside Flight Service Station's computers were down and we couldn't reach the Prescott FSS, so we returned without a filed flight plan. We flew back at 9,500 to ensure radar coverage the whole way and just used flight following. On the return trip, we flew via Needles, Lake Havasu, Parker and then joined I-10 straight to Phoenix.

It was getting close to midnight and Phoenix approach sounded like most of the red-eyes had come in. A touch and go at Sky Harbor would be fun. When I asked the approach controller, I expected an immediate "negative". She said "stand by". Ask and ye shall receive! 30 seconds later, she told us to follow a Pilates straight in for 25L. Tower gave us landing instructions that included immediate vectors out. The touchdown was a lot of fun. I graciously thanked them and we were back on our way to Gateway. Ten minutes later, we were on the ground in the same parking spot we left eight hours earlier.

I'm really enjoying flying with my current instructor. Not only is he like Rain Man when it comes to aviation knowledge, we think alike and get along well. He said this trip was the most enjoyable long cross country he's had and I agreed.

5.2 Hours PIC cross country, 2.7 night. 1 landing at PHX. Good sights, good food, smooth air and good company. 1 day cross country, plus 1 night cross country = more than 2.