The scenic route has its own catch, the terrain is so steep you have to climb as fast as you can to give you ample room to manuever and glide in case of an emergency. Winds are often strong on the mountains and often times it scares new pilots. One has to be very alert and often times clouds cover the peaks of the mountains. I have 2 pilot friends who got lost behind Pinatubo because they failed to respect mother nature.
More than a decade ago, the raging volcano threw ashes and devasted most of Pampanga, Tarlac and Zambales. Winds even carried the ashes half-way around the globe. Up to this very day, evidence of the said event is still visible even if you are at or above 6000' above ground.
Normally, Pinatubo tour flights are flown at 6000 feet to get a full view of the crater. This time, I'll give my passengers a treat. I'll fly inside the crater. I'm flying RP-C391, a 190HP Cessna 172. Winds were calm, and the aircraft is over-powered.
After sharing to my passengers the view of Pinatubo, we went straight to Iba, Zambales. The aiport in Iba was built during World War 2 and was used by the Americans as their base. It even had it's own radar before. Iba, 40 minutes away from Clark, is one of my favorite destinations. I'm a beach lover, the white sand beaches of Iba attracts my attention. Plenty of places to eat and the seafoods are cheap.
Aside from the beach and seafoods, Iba is famous for pilots as airport that offers a lot of crosswind for landing. One can get a lot of practice when flying to Iba. It's long runway, enough to accommodate a medium sized passenger plane, allows a lot of elbow room for new students.
I wish I can bring you up one of these days.... :)
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