MMSP - KELP
Aeropuerto Internacional Ponciano Arriaga - El Paso International Airport
This is our last stop in Mexico, and we are now heading to El Paso, Texas.
This is the way I remember Texas: dry, vast, flat, huge. I have been to Texas a couple of times in my life, never to El Paso though. And hot as hell (in July at least).
Once you get into the USA, it’s obvious that you are in the USA. Vast infrastructure. Highways, freeways, well-lit airports.
In fact, it is not unusual for airports to be so close to each other, that pilots can get confused and end up landing where they should not. This is the case with El Paso. There is another airfield (Biggs) which is right next to it, has a runway of almost the same length and same heading as runway 22 in El Paso. This is the only country in the world where airports can be so close to each other that they can be confused during approach.
We do find the right airport and the correct runway, and land with a crosswind of 15kts. Not strong enough to be troublesome, but enough to bring some spice into the final approach and landing.
Despite its massive size, we won’t be doing a lot of stops in the USA. Maybe 3 or 4. The USA is so massive and huge, that’s it would take too much time to properly traverse it in detail. We’ll probably plan that for another project, once the world tour is over.
For now, bye bye Latin America, and welcome to the United States of Awesomeness
