24 | February-March 2017 | Powered Sport Flying Gyroplane Adventure and although the weather had not been treating us badly, the wind was still strongly against us. Once we got halfway to Blythe, we knew we were committed, because there weren’t really any alternatives. We’d also need to avoid some restricted military areas – all part of the plan but quite nerve-wracking nonetheless. For me this was one of the best legs of the trip–amazing, desolate scenery with multiple ranges of overlapping mountains, bleak areas and some green spots too. As the sun sank and we looked back, we could see the tops of the hills and mountains we’d passed beautifully illuminated in the last light, while the land below sank into darkness. Finally we headed towards the last range of mountains. We were still in civil twilight, and I was still flying, but Dayton was ready to take over if it became officially night. Suddenly we took a hit from a really big gust of wind. If I’d been flying my trike, I’d have been upside down after that, but the gyro shook it off and we continued through a few smaller hits with no drama. Now we could see a big river in front of us and realized that it was the Colorado, and beyond that we were in California. We crossed the river and felt very pleased with ourselves at having visited four states in one day. Landing at Blythe, I made the worst landing of the entire trip, feeling thick-headed and stupid as I put the gyro down more or less in one piece. Dayton kindly refrained from telling me what he really thought of the landing, simply pointing out I had flown over eight hours that day. When we got to the fbo, we realized that it was shut and there was no way to get
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTUwNDI3MA==