Monday June 05 through Wednesday June 07, 2006

A few days at Double Eagle

We were supposed to leave for Santa Fe (SAF) this morning, but the wind in Santa Fe was already 10 mph at 5am, and we knew it would only get stronger. We decided to stay another day and try tomorrow morning.

Double Eagle is a very nice airport. Everyone is quite accommodating, including the use of a courtesy car when we've requested it, and storing Voyager in one of the large hangars. I requested help from one of the avionics gurus working here, and he found a short in one of the radio connection wires hidden behind the instrument panel. After running into town to purchase a replacement set of wires, installing them and testing them, it seems my radio communications problem may finally be solved. I hope so….

A myriad of thunderstorms have developed in the afternoon yesterday and today, and the lightning strikes have started numerous fires. There's a constant stream of fire fighting planes and helicopters landing here to refuel. Quite interesting to see the variety of aircraft used for fighting fires, and how they're equipped with tanks to drop fire retardant and slurry onto the fires.

One of the thunderstorms yesterday was so violent that Albuquerque airport was temporarily closed, and a C-130 transport was diverted to Double Eagle because it was low on fuel. The contrast between Voyager and the C-130 is rather stark.

With a little luck well be in Santa Fe in the morning.