Tucson Day Five

Saturday was the day Huguette was to depart for Santa Barbara and her new assisted living apartment. The original plan was for her to depart around ten in the morning, but the air ambulance firm called and said they had an emergency flight to conduct first. The departure was moved to late afternoon.

That gave us a chance to attend the Davis Monthan AFB open house and air show. We walked the ramp for a few hours looking at the static display aircraft and watched the aerial displays. We could not wait for the scheduled performance by the Thunderbirds, the Air Force aerobatic team, and took the bus back to the campground. As it turned out the Thunderbirds did not perform due to high winds. We had seen them practice the day before, so that was OK, but they are sure something to watch.

We drove over to the nearby commercial airport, and waited for the ambulance to arrive with Huguette. Since this is a charter flight, and not subject to stringent security measures, we were able to walk out on the ramp and check out the aircraft. We chatted with the flight crew taking her to Santa Barbara and found them to be great guys. The aircraft to be used was a Lear 35 that, while a bit smaller, was much quicker than the turboprop aircraft that brought her to Tucson. Once Huguette arrived at the airport things went very quickly. People were moving around so fast that I was not able to get very good pictures. Seems as soon as I pressed the shutter someone moved into the shot. Sorry for the bad photos.

Huguette was in Santa Barbara about an hour and a half after leaving Tucson and was soon getting settled in to her new apartment. We hear she is very happy there and already getting acquainted with her new neighbors.

Huguette is a nervous flyer under the best of circumstances.

In she goes!

Tight squeeze. Four crew, one passenger and baggage.

Door closed. Time for the checklist.