Celebration

 

Aerial; cholla, desert gold and ajo lilies, Darby Well area, Southern Arizona

I’ve been absorbed in a project for a couple of months, studying for the FAA Commercial Drone Pilot Certification.  Last week I passed the test.  Normally I wouldn’t share the score, but I got 97%, which will resonate with readers of The No1 Ladies Detective Agency Series, who know that Mma Makutsi was comically proud of her 97% at the Botswana Secretarial College. I got my score before I walked out of the testing center at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, so I was all ready for a nice lunch at El Gato Azul.  That was the conventional part of the celebrations, together with the errands required of rural people like us when we’re in the city.

 

Certification doesn’t allow me access to more places, but it does let me legally sell my drone images and donate them to my favorite nonprofits.  Perhaps the best perk is feeling confident that I know the regulations when I’m out there flying and know how to get Air Traffic Control permission when I want to fly in controlled airspace.  I’m looking at you, Watson Lake.  Then there’s knowledge for knowledge’s sake (no, I’m not being sarcastic).  I now know how to read sectional charts, decode aeronautical weather reports, and understand airspace.  I can read all those little letter and number signs at airports, too.

 

Lupine and owl's clover, Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument Arizona

The big celebration was a road trip with a treasured photography friend.  We met at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, where there were still a few nice flowers.

 

Rattler

Ajo Lily

The focus of the trip was to safely (sandy roads and border crossers) visit a place which, in a good year, has purple verbena and white dune primrose blooming together.  We drove 50 miles on dirt roads, only to find that this was not a good year there.  We elected to keep our eyes open and be flexible as we looked for another place to camp, and among other things we found a lovely growth of Ajo Lilies and a photogenic rattlesnake.

 

Aerial; Organ Pipe Cactus and Black Mountain with blooming brittlebush

On our last camping night together, we found a colorful spot on BLM land in the area.  National Parks and Wildlife Refuges (where we’d been until then) don’t allow drone flights, but I enjoyed some flying time here.  In the morning.  After the 35 MPH wind gusts settled down.  Sigh.

 

Profusion of brittlebush blooms, Darby Well Area, Southern Arizona

The joke was on my traveling companion a bit, since he half-seriously says he doesn’t love yellow flowers.  We had a profusion of desert gold and brittlebush blooming, both yellow.

 

Detail, Darby Well Area, Southern Arizona

It’s getting warm out there, so I’m going to declare the desert camping season done.  I’m looking forward to day trips for sahuaro blooms and to returning to the high country if it ever thaws out.  This all sounds like more celebrations to me.

There are more images on the website, in the Southern Arizona Gallery on the website.