BajaNomad - Sea of Cortez Coastline!

Sea of Cortez Coastline!

chuckie - 9-30-2013 at 05:14 AM

I flew out of of Loreto yesterday, on an Alaskan flight. We flew at about 4000 feet up the Sea of Cortez. I was again awed by the fact that so much of our Baja remains unmessed with....Mile upon mile of seacoast north of Santa Rosalia with no road penetrating to it. The terminus of the SOC remains much as I remember it, the river delta still brown and barren. A bit north agriculture has crept further south, and seemingly more towns have sprung up.
An exploration project seems to be glimmmering....A boat trip up the coast.....I'm sure its been done, but I havnt done it.....
Nice to be back in Colorado..pines smell good....

mtnpop - 9-30-2013 at 07:57 AM

Chuckie,, welcome back to "cool" Colorado.... We have snow on the Sangres now and Sat. morning a cool 20 degrees at 6 am
Enough moisture in the last couple of months to really clean up those pines..
we are starting the pack up to head south in a couple of weeks..
Enjoy your visit. see you In Mulege soon...

bonanza bucko - 9-30-2013 at 08:23 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by chuckie
I flew out of of Loreto yesterday, on an Alaskan flight. We flew at about 4000 feet up the Sea of Cortez. I was again awed by the fact that so much of our Baja remains unmessed with....Mile upon mile of seacoast north of Santa Rosalia with no road penetrating to it. The terminus of the SOC remains much as I remember it, the river delta still brown and barren. A bit north agriculture has crept further south, and seemingly more towns have sprung up.
An exploration project seems to be glimmmering....A boat trip up the coast.....I'm sure its been done, but I havnt done it.....
Nice to be back in Colorado..pines smell good....

That Alaska flight was in a jet; probably a B737. If you flew at 4000 feet all the way up the Sea of Cortez you would have run out of fuel about Bay of LA. Jets don't like it down low because the air is thick and the airplane goes slow and drinks up all the JetA. I think you were probably at least 25000 feet above the sea (FL250) where the view would have been a lot better.

BB

Barry A. - 9-30-2013 at 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bonanza bucko

Quote:

Hmmmmmm----on the, "----view being a lot better at FL 250----" I respectfully disagree. I am always totally frustrated at that level as you really can't see much detail on the ground. It's the "detail" that I really want to see, and I wish they would vastly slow the airplane down so I could see it all. :lol:

Barry

mulegejim - 9-30-2013 at 09:11 AM

I believe the plane Chuchie was on is a Bombardier Q-400....a turboprop. Don't know if it makes a difference about altitude or fuel consumption. Jim

jbcoug - 9-30-2013 at 09:11 AM

I know nothing about altitude, fuel consumption, etc., but many of the flights by Alaska into Loreto are now in Turbo props.

John

jbcoug - 9-30-2013 at 09:13 AM

I guess Jim and I were thinking the same thing at the same time.

John

Altitude and Fuel

bajaguy - 9-30-2013 at 09:16 AM

You can't have too much of both

dtbushpilot - 9-30-2013 at 09:56 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by bajaguy
You can't have too much of both

Unless you're on fire....at FL 250....

bonanza bucko - 9-30-2013 at 09:58 AM

A turboprop is a jet engine with propellers in front of it driven by the jet engine. They perform better at lower altitudes than do pure (or turbo) jets. But because they are still jet engines the burn less fuel up high. I guess you could fly the length of he Sea of Cortez in a turboprop at 4000 feet but the trip would be slower and the bean counters at Alaska AL Hq would no be happy with the fuel bill.

I agree that you can see a lot more detail at 4000 than at FL250 but you can see more up high so long as you don't care to see the whites of the burro's eyes. I fly the coast of Baja in a Beech Bonanza pretty regularly. We usually go about 11500 south east bound and 12500 north west bound. We are up that high for two reasons.....lower fuel consumption and higher true airspeeds. We also like the idea of having a longer glide distance if the engine gets sick. But the other main ingredient in flying up and down Baja is wind. As you probably know the wind blows like stink there and especially so in the winter. That is usually out of about 315 (North West). Then the distances between airports where you can buy fuel in Baja are longer than in the US. So, if you are awake and a decent pilot you will pick the altitude where the wind favors your flight the most....on the tail as a help or on the nose as a problem. You'd be surprised about how many pilots who are used to the good ole USA get into trouble in Baja because of winds and long distances between fuel stops. They usually do that because somebody in the back wants to see the waves on the beach and/or because they are hung over (:-)) from an night in the Serenidad at Mulege.

Bottom line: flying any airplane requires that the pilot first understand and obey the rules of flight, wind, weather and fuel. The desires of passengers to see stuff come only after those other imperatives are satisfied.

BB

sancho - 9-30-2013 at 10:24 AM

There is a book called 'Wind, Sun, Water', I believe
the writer is Ed Darack, about a solo kayak paddle
from the top of the Cortez to the East Cape, explores
the Cortez Coastline

bajaguy - 9-30-2013 at 10:31 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by chuckie
..... An exploration project seems to be glimmmering....A boat trip up the coast.....I'm sure its been done, but I havnt done it.....

A great read about the Sea of Cortez was written by John Stienbeck "Log from the Sea of Cortez"