Negrito Airstrip Work Weekend

The New Mexico Pilots Association (NMPA) backcountry crowd recently had their spring work weekend. The goal this year was to repair fence and eliminate some roads at the Negrito airstrip.  I’ve built roads but never eliminated them so I was excited to learn something new.

I must admit, the “work” part of this weekend is not my favorite bit. In reality, it is the tent camping, getting out in nature, the spectacular night sky so far away from civilization, and the time spent around the campfire listening to all the crazy things that pilots talk about.

A gaggle of us flew to Reserve, NM for breakfast on Friday morning. Always great fun!

The restaurant of the day…

Sorry Jan… didn’t mean to get you with your mouth open!! 🙂

Then off we went to the Negrito backcountry airstrip.

We got our tents setup, did some talking, and to get the party REALLY rolling, had a big green chili Bratwurst dinner! I was feeling less than great after this…  A fellow aviator used the term “Gut Bomb” – he was painfully correct.

I’ve said it before and will say it again – the night sky there is AMAZING! I wish photos did it justice. Seeing the Milky Way clearly stretched out from horizon to horizon is spectacular!

The next morning was so wonderful that a short flight was warranted.

Then we went to work. The road elimination crew was using words like “rocks”, “shovels”, and “scarify.” That scared me so I jumped in with the fence repair crew.

By early afternoon, the Brats from the night before were fully activated. I was NOT feeling good!

I tried to fight it but my body was not listening to me. Given the way the afternoon went, I decided I had better toss my tent in the airplane and run for home. So I did…

In years past, departing this rather high altitude airstrip (8,200′ MSL) on a warm and windy afternoon would have caused me great concern.  With all the takeoff performance testing that I’ve done and routine experience at Bendit, I didn’t even have to give it a second thought. I knew it would be a non-issue and that’s exactly the way it turned out.  The afternoon flight home was bumpy, as expected, but thankfully that didn’t cause any additional “hardship” for my already unhappy plumbing.

A bummer for sure… I enjoy those evenings around the campfire.

We had quite a crew and all the work got done so great job everyone!!

It took a couple days to fully recover and I have once again been reminded to watch what I eat.  ESPECIALLY when I’m far from a ‘comfortable’ restroom!!