Marana-Regional (Avra Valley), AZ, USA - 27/01/2009

We arrived at Avra Valley, or more correctly "Marana-Regional" as it's now officially known before 0700 for our AMARG and Pinal Air Park overflights.

We were flying with the good folks of Tucson Aeroservice Center and we had two Cessna 172s at our disposal. I jumped in with Skippy while Glenn and Shigg-eh paired up in the other aircraft.

With the sun coming up it was quite a sight, and the air was smooth as anything.

After a very successful mission we returned to Avra and I shot some of the residents resting around the airfield as we taxied back.

One of the resident types - the Starship - had eluded us, however, but Jim Beardsley, TAC's Director of Flight Training kindly offered to take us across the airfield to see them up close. They're certainly different, and in my humble opinion they're rather photogenic too. Such a shame Beechcraft withdrew support for them and effectively grounded them.

Back across the runway was the main ramp and lurking there were a Magister, an A-37 Dragonfly that had seen better days, but of most interest to us were the three T-37 Tweetybirds that were scheduled for delivery the very next day to the Colombian Air Force.

After breakfast in the airfield restaurant we headed across to Skippy's friend, Mike "Major" McDougall's Fighting Classics operation.

Mike's main project at the moment is this hangared two-seat A-4 Skyhawk that actually started life as a single-seat example, destined for the Royal Malaysian Air Force. It was never delivered however.

Such a project requires a vast amount of parts and Major's workshop is surrounded by both A-4 and F-8 hulks.

A really fascinating place. Major hopes to have the aircraft in the air before too much longer. I wish him well with it.

All told a great morning. We got everything we wanted and then some. Sincere thanks go to everyone who made it possible.

We headed back to Tucson for the afternoon, and more specifically the Davis-Monthan approach.