I'll Meet You at the Monuments

As many of you know, I have had a number of different jobs over the years. I have met some interesting characters, well traveled folks of all different walks of life, but many of them seem to have something in common. A weirdness (that I probably share with them) to reach out when we cross paths in strange situations. I know it happens to pilots all the time, talking about what aircraft we have flown, what airports we have flown in to and out of, close calls and near misses that gave you a new lease on life.
A few days ago I had the pleasure of landing at Monument Valley airport, at just 42 feet wide, landing towards a cliff wall that rises hundreds of feet in front of you, it doesn't leave much room for error. With such an interesting set of obstacles, the airport doesn't get a lot of use but on the day we landed there were around 15 aircraft parked at the small field! Folks from all across the country were there, some had started out in Ft. Lauderdale, others from South Dakota, and one nice couple who had flown up from Phoenix for the day. But what was really amazing is that all the people were excited to see one more airplane join the group. As I walked around looking at the different planes, every one of the pilots were excited to tell me about where they came from, where they were going, how did I like flying the Twin Otter and how long I had been flying. It was like an impromptu community had sprung up in the desert and I was the newest resident. It is a pretty cool feeling to feel like you fit in somewhere you've never been before.
After some of them took a tour of our airplane, after we had exchanged stories about our flight experience, after talking about where we were and where we wanted to go in life, after a round of handshakes and "nice to meet yous" they jumped in their planes and flew away. Just like that our little community had disbanded and we were a pair of pilots waiting for our passengers to show up to a little strip of asphalt in the middle of the desert.

Some days the cloud are below you.

Sometime you just have to reflect.

And every once in a while you get a rainbow!

At Monument Valley, a large cliff wall is only a couple hundred feet behind me.

A couple Bearhawks!

A 4-legged passenger!

A real beauty.

These two came all the way from Florida!