It’s the end of another busy year of flying . I just arrived at the airport in Denver and the previous owner of a Cessna 172RG is sending someone to pick me up from the airport and handle the last few details of the sale. I sure miss Stapleton, it was so much closer to town. Heck it was in town. I away give a hard time to a good friend and native of Denver about moving the Denver airport halfway to Wyoming. I away thought it was so cool driving under the runway on I 70 and see an aircraft Landing above me. Things sure seem to change fast at times.
My ride shows up and I give him the balance of the moneys owed. Time for him to take responsibility for a rather large wad of cash. We stop at a bank so I can make a deposit and then on to the aircraft located at the Centennial airport. He gives me the keys and log books and I start a very in-depth preflight inspection. You just never know what to expect. So even though the aircraft is in annual, I check everything twice. There are some minor things but nothing un-airworthy . I get some fuel, the aircraft starts and everything check out during run up. I call the tower and I’m off to my first stop Las Vegas, New Mexico KLVS. The plane accelerates nicely and is flying shortly. I flip up the gear up lever and check some other gauges while I’m waiting for the gear to retract. Everything is working well I look out the window and the gear is still down. Not what I wanted to see. I put the gear lever to the down position and take a deep breath. It moves into the locked position and the green lite comes on. I very happy I don’t have to start pumping the gear handle. There is a little hesitation but I say what the hell I’ll try up again. Same thing it does not retract, it just starts to retract and then stops. I put the lever into the down position and once again it cycles into the down and locked position and I get the green lite. I decide well okay don’t take any more chances, I’ll just have to fly with the gear down.
It’s late afternoon when I arrive at my first stop. You don’t get very much daylight during the winter months and nine out of ten of these aircraft I ferry could use new windows. Trying to land when the sun is low on the horizon with poor windows can be extremely challenging when you are unable to see. It’s not low yet but will be in a few hours so I decide to spend the night in Las Vegas, New Mexico, heck I’ve got all day tomorrow to finish about five more hours of flying to my final Destination Nogales, Arizona. I’ve stayed there before and they where extremely nice about picking me up and taking back out to the aircraft in the morning...