Last night, I took a few moments to relax under the Blue Moon. I didn’t realize it was the Blue Moon at the time; the moon just looked really bright and really big. It was the first evening in a while that we weren’t under cloud cover. The night was pretty.
Off in the distance I saw six slow moving dots making their way westward. They seemed to be following along Interstate 10.
Flying at night in a single airplane through the mountains and over the desert is an interesting experience. I’d be flying along Interstate 10 as well if I was up there.
With modern technology being what it is, I looked them up on FlightRadar. Here’s what I found.
The six aircraft in question were traveling from El Paso to Phoenix. Operated under Mesa Pilot Training, which I believe is a subsidiary of the regional Mesa Airlines, these six Pipistrel Alpha Trainers will be used to train future airline pilots.
Before spotting these airplanes I didn’t know much about the Pipistrel Alpha Trainer. It is a Light Sport Aircraft, which means there are less stringent regulations around pilot requirements to fly it. These trainers are outfitted with a ballistic parachute system, much like the system found on the more robust Cirrus aircrafts. The Alpha Trainer is designed for pilot training in mind, with fairly limited range and maximum weight capacities. The 90 HP engine is similar to something found on a Cessna 150 or 152, the type of airplane my father trained in back in the 1970s.
Looking around at the Alpha Trainer, they look like they’d be fun to fly. I hope the pilots flying from El Paso, Texas to Phoenix, Arizona enjoyed their flight. I waved to them as they flew over the house with minimal engine noise. They probably didn’t see me.
