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 Of Baja California, it has been said
that "things are better there". I must agree! From the air or on
land, attop an old mule or strapped in to a dune buggy, my time spent in the Baja has been
some of the best days of my life. This photograph should verify what I am
saying. It is of a typical Baja desert sunset with Boojums silhouetted against a
flaming sky near Catavina. A day of exploring that closed in this kind of spectacle
was often just taken for granted, but never unappreciated! Read on, fellow traveler,
and I will tell you of days and nights in my own paradise. Flying in Baja 30 years ago was an adventure. There were practically no nav-aids and charts weren't available. One of the great bush pilots of Baja, Arnold Senterfitt and his wife Patty, created a great chart for Baja and also published a book showing all of the airports and strips in Baja. For years that was the essential cockpit companion for Baja fliers. There were quite a few great Baja bush pilots. One of the greatest is Francisco Muņoz. He no longer flies but if you are ever in Bahia de Los Angeles look him up and get him talking about flying. He learned to fly in the 30s. One of his early jobs was flying government surveyors around the Yucatan peninsula. At one time he had his own airline flying fishermen to Bahia. He later flew for the salt works at Guerrero Negro. Aileen Saunders is another great one. She was a two time winner of the Powder Puff Derby. She knew all of the strips in Baja. She was the force behind the founding of the Flying Samaritans. One guy who never got his name in the paper was Don Marks of Marks Aviation Repair at Gillespie field. He was a mechanic and a damned good one too. Every once in awhile some unlucky pilot would bend an airplane down in Baja. If the plane was salvageable Don would get someone to fly him to the site with some spare parts. He would get the plane flyable and then fly it back to his shop at Gillespie. That took some nerve and a load of know how. |
