Leg #1 Liberal, Kansas

About 20 minutes into the flight I realized how cool it was that we were so much faster than a lot of the other planes. When we raced two years ago in a C-172 we rarely passed anyone. Now that we had 10-15 knots on a lot of the planes, we really had to keep a look-out for traffic we were overtaking. Not a bad problem to have. The TCAS (taffic alert) system really helped out.

The terrain from Denver to Lufkin was mostly uninhabited. There were a few ranches and farmers, but they were few and far between. We didn't see much civilization until we got closer to Liberal. It was really starting to heat up and we wer happy to be nearing our destination. It was time to get ready for the first fly-by!

For the fly-by, we were instruted to fly 200 feet above the ground over the taxiway parallel to runway 17. It's pretty cool flying that low at full power, with a groundspeed of 145 knots! Upon crossing the timing line, we climbed to pattern altitude, extended our upwind, and pulled the power back to let the engine cool a bit after working so hard for us. We had a smooth landing and taxied to the ramp.

We were greeted by some friendly linemen and some of the local 99's with cold bottled water and a goody bag. When we walked into the FBO we were happy to be offered pizza, cookies, apples, and other treats. It was a very nice FBO with very friendly workers and volunteers. We spent about an hour on the ground, eating, checking weather, and getting our plane ready for another leg.

As nice as the hospitality was, it was time to proceed to Sweetwater, Texas. This was a longer leg of 276 nautical miles. The plan was to get fuel at Sweetwater, then head on the Lufkin, Texas (another 300 nm leg) for the overnight. If we were going to make it to Lufin we needed to be on our way. Little did we know that our plans were not going to go quite as planned...