Homecoming from my business trips via Salt Lake City.  For some reason, SLC has always been my fav airport to rest at for a final leg home, whether to SFO where I used to live near when I lived in Napa, or Phoenix where I live today.  There is something about the peace of one of our more spiritual states, the Wasatch Mountains, what the Native Americans and settlers both knew about Salt Lake, a resting place for those seeking their riches in California or for going back to their roots back east (many of us in Phoenix are from east of the Ol Mississippi, like I am). 

I like living in Arizona because I am both a Northerner and a Southerner, I inspire to be like Abe Lincoln and Robert E Lee, because they were the only two, with Ulysses Grant's help, who could reunite a country almost eternally fractured, and I find Arizona a perfect expression of their dream along with my visits to Washington DC.  I learned to respect countries like Russia, and like France, in my travels because every country goes thru their civil wars, their expansion, then realizes their home is where they are, it just takes time and patience and we are in the greatest era of time and patience that air travel has brought into our lives, to know each other, to meet each other, and add the Internet when we cannot get in the air, and we are just here, loving who we are and letting our leaders do the best job they can. 

People like me do not want to become politicians, they want politicians and leaders to make those tough decisions they cannot, for they see the big picture we do not have time to see and they try to protect us from that big picture, if they are good at their jobs they put us in the roles we serve the world best in, and I feel my country and other countries I have visited have given me that.  That is my back story to Salt Lake City, I used to hate the hub and spoke replacements to non stop flights then realized how they helped me stretch my legs and get out of the hobbit hallow I was in, so I became Bilbo Baggins, gave up the ring of power, and have appreciated coming there and back again as so many of us in this hobby have done either virtually or IRL, as we say, in Real Life!

Cactus521 (Cactus was America West's callsign, 521 is just the month and date of my bday, that is why I use it, plus I have to watch out for the Cactus living in Phoenix, and inside joke between my ex wife from Mexico and I and fools who rush in, LOL)....

 

Edited March 8, 20197 yr by John_Cillis

I love the KPHX to KLAX route, especially when done in VR.

The beauty of fllghtsim is that you see places that you would never see in real-life. 

Yes, Sky Harbor to LAX is a fine route too, one I have not flown often because they did not have a good route to Disney, my only reason for going to LAX, or Knotts, until the last decade or so.  In fact the unfinished route was used in the movie "Speed" which probably many did not catch.  I know about the LA Metroplex because I set up so many business systems training classes all over the place, plus lived there when I first moved to Cali in '66, plus worked for an insurance company that insured teachers, firefighters, and policeman, and government workers which they felt (of course) were the best risks to insure. 

It was a no brainer and they have been successful as a family run biz for 100 years, California Casualty out of San Mateo, I was their WAN admin and internal and external systems designer as they grew their business from California across the country in the early 2000's.  Do not know what happened to them after that though, competition you know, when I leave a company it is usually because I see the competition coming with a better, cheaper product....

Sadly as a citizen of my country I cannot make the same decision, I have to stay with my gut instinct and stay with my homeland, for they have always accepted me back from my overseas travels and the overseas places I have visited have always accepted my visiting again, so I guess I just have a good circle of life going for now, lol 

I guess it comes from flying over Russian airspace as I flew from SFO to Tokyo in 92 according to our flightplan, open skies just work for countries that try to keep trade going one way or another...

John

 

 

I forgot to add that my fav other perfect flight is a subset of this flight, Tahoe to SFO in Carenado's/P3D4.4's Shorts 360, same beautiful route at a lower altitude, you fly almost through the mountains!

Just back from a real flight over Russian Airspace. Cathay Pacific have recently opened a DUB-HKG route. It saves us 7 hours on alternative routes. My wife is from the Philippines, so we make yearly trips there.

 

1 hour ago, Jude Bradley said:

Just back from a real flight over Russian Airspace. Cathay Pacific have recently opened a DUB-HKG route. It saves us 7 hours on alternative routes. My wife is from the Philippines, so we make yearly trips there.

 

That must be a cool route, so much beautiful scenery to fly over, we think we are crowded on this planet but just in the cities, we are a vast planet.  That is why I like Phoenix (except for the cars that have hit me, needed to get around) because it is not so densely populated as other world cities, which leads to less crime in certain ways, except for the ever present domestic violence we sadly have in all societies.  That is why I like flying so much, I sometimes wish I could just cradle that pain in those big cities down there in my arms, and I suspect many fliers feel that way...., especially those of us who have flown outside the comfort of our homelands so we can see ourselves as others see us, so we can be better at who we intend to be....

John

I agree, it seems the further away we get from the surface of this planet, the better it looks and behaves.

I enjoyed that VLJ (virtual life journey)!