CALIFORNIA / ARIZONA (US). A dream came true when I went to california to visit the well known graveyards in the surrounding area. Our little Piper Cherokee N6717W took us from Cable Airport near Los Angeles to the east, wehre we first reached Tucson after about 5 hours flight. At Davis-Monthan-AFB, the US Air Froce stores about 3000 aircraft of which approx. 2000 are still in an airworthy condtion. It was the first time for me, spotting a big variety of military aircraft like B-52 bomber, KC135 tanker, F16 fighter and so on... 

A few miles northwest of Tucson, you will find a similar sight but with civil airliners stored in the sand. Pinal Air Park hosts a lot of Jumbos and 757's. Even brand new aircraft like the Boeing 747-8i are being stored before being delivered to the customer. The dry climate is just about perfect for the airframes.

Our next stop was the Airline Training Center Arizona in Goodyear Phoenix, where to our surprise are quite a lot aiframes stored as well. After visiting the Lufthansa Flight School, we went to bed after a long day of flying. 

Early next morning, we departured to Sedona for breakfast. A spectecular Approach in between of beautiful red rocks. Field Elevation almost 5000ft! Unfortunately we hat thunderstorms approaching from the south. So we cancelled our plan to see the Grand Canyon from above and flew straight to the west with destination Las Vegas.

The dark clouds came closer and closer - so we made a stop in Kingman Arizona - another airplane boneyard for regional aircraft.

Since the bad weather did not clear up for two days, we had to take a rental car to see Las Vegas. At least it wasn't rainy in Vegas, when we spent the night, walking up and down "the strip". 

Back in Kingman, we departed to our next Graveyard-Stop and my favorite one: Victorville. Upon arrival the marshaller parked us right next to some trijets like an Orbis DC10 and Lufthansa Cargo MD-11F. Great to get that close... 

Weatherwise it was not good enough to make a stop in the Mojave desert so we flew straight home in the next morning, overclimbing the bad weather at the northern mountains of L.A. in 12.000 ft. What an adventure! I will definitely return. The Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and the Airplaneboneyard Mojave are still waiting for me.. :-)

Happy landings.. Sebastian