Wednesday, October 24, 2007 180 th Cobra flight, 190 th PIC Golden Bosque, Stone Mazes, 3 landings Takeoff: 1:34pm Landing: 2:53pm Today s airtime: 1.3 hrs Total PIC 437.0 Total Logged Time 458.2 I arrived at the hangar around 8am and found Ken in his trike, ready to taxi out to the runway. He took off while I pushed out my trike and preflighted. I turned the key on the ignition to warm up my engine while I put on my flight suit. I heard a very wimpy turn of starter, and then nothing. Cold temps of the last few days, and not flying for the past 2.5 weeks had weakened my battery. Frustrated, I drove into town and bought a battery charger. Ken landed and he pushed his trike in the hangar, while I hooked up the charger. While my battery charged, Ken and I made a gas run into town, then killed some time cleaning the hangar. After 2 hours of charging, I pushed my trike, gave the starter another try and she started right up. While I was putting on my flight suit, Ken noticed fluid gushing out of my radiator. I killed the mags and looked things over. The coupler between the radiator and the flexible stainless steel tubing I had replaced last month had come loose. Scary, because I had flown to Pagosa Springs and back on this setup. I am cautious about over tightening hose clamps. This had combined with the cold temperature cycle to loosen the radiator hose. I didn t tug on the radiator hose during my preflight. I will now. I reattached the hose, over tightened the clamps and refilled the system with anti-freeze. I started the engine and ran it for 5 minutes, then shut down the engine and yanked hard on the radiator hoses. They were solid now. When I took off for a shakedown flight Ken left for home. I followed him down I-25 for a while. Later, Ken said he waved at me from his truck, visible at the center of picture to the right.
The cottonwood trees of the Bosque were the middle of their fall color change. And the wind was calm down in the valley. It was very beautiful today. I headed over the Rio Grande and was surprised to see how dry it was. This could be fun. Now I could make low level flight over the river bed, between the cottonwood trees without fear of a water ditching. I decided to save that flight for some other day. I was still a little shaken by the radiator hose incident.
I followed the river south, sometimes leaving the trees to fly over freshly mown hay fields. At one point I saw something ahead in the river bed. I came in for a closer look and saw where someone had a bad day last summer.
I left the river and headed to the mesa south of the airport for a change of scenery. I was near the observatory when I noticed something off to the side. I went over to check it out and saw these circles of stone. I am always finding strange stuff out here. Gazebos, pillars, target circles, indian ruins. At first I thought it was some sort of pagan altar, but on seeing my pictures, Amy recognized it as a Meditation Labyrinth. Note the smaller labyrinths nearby. Check out this link http://www.angelfire.com/tn/sacredlabyrinth From /SacredLabyrinth When you walk a labyrinth, you meander back and forth, turning 180 degrees each time you enter a different circuit. As you shift your direction you also shift your awareness from right brain to left brain. This is one of the reasons the labyrinth can induce receptive states of consciousness. It can also help to balance the chakras.
More from http://www.angelfire.com/tn/sacredlabyrinth Each person's walk is a personal experience. How one walks and what one receives differs with each walk. Some people use the walk for clearing the mind and centering. Others enter with a question or concern. The time in the center can be used for receiving, reflecting, meditating, or praying, as well as discovering our own sacred inner space. What each person receives can be integrated on the walk out. Your walk can be a healing and sometimes very profound experience or it can be just a pleasant walk. Each time is different.
The mesa south of Belen airport is becoming a center of New Age Mysticism. I saw an icosahedron made from landscaping timbers. A huge pile of over 100 spare timbers was nearby to build something really big. A mile north I saw pole with a bench and a dozen other poles arrayed in a circle around it. Another mile north I saw a smaller ring of poles with the telltale meditation bench. While the labyrinth is visible in the most recent high resolution imagery from Google Earth, these other structures are not. Something is going on down here.
I made my way back to the pattern and landed. I had a fun flight, and enjoyed finding the maze down south on the mesa. But I was most felt lucky my radiator hose had come loose at the best possible time. My preflight list keeps getting more detailed and longer. Here is my GPS track. Belen Ken s truck Circle of Poles Observatory Labyrinth