Cool and Fuel

What a day! On the way out to Salt Lake City we saw a very rare event. The top picture is a B1 Stealth Bomber. We were only one thousand feet away. It is very rare to be so close to one of those. As you can see by the picture they are fast. We were flying directly at it at over 600 miles an hour and they were coming at us at over 600 miles an hour. That is a closure rate of 1200 miles an hour. You see a black dot and then it is gone. Remember the speed of sound is about 680 miles an hour. FAST!

On the way back we ran across a long line of storms coming into Minneapolis. They closed the airport and we held in a holding pattern with about 10 other airplanes until our fuel got low and had to divert to Fargo, North Dakota along with 6 other aircraft. There we could get more fuel and wait for the Minneapolis airport to open and then fly back. Today with the high fuel prices all of the airlines carry only the fuel they need. To carry more fuel means the airplane is heavier and burns more fuel costing more money. Because of that if something disrupts the traffic we have to divert and go to a closer airport. Just the way it is today. We are very safe and plan to make sure we have enough fuel but they do not allow any extra. Fargo had so may airplanes on the ground we all had to park side by side and get more fuel and wait our turn to blast off.

What a day!