2hr flight from Calexico to Long Beach in May09. It was seriously hot and tubulent in the desert, originally we were going to route up to Palm Springs and through the Banning Pass but in the end we thought sod it and re-routed via Julian to get away from the desert (and being kicked about by turbulence).
We took it to 12,500 no problem. We mainly stuck below 10k though in the desert as it was taking a long time to get up above 8500 and cooling was a problem. At Calexico we had full fuel and 2 POB and it was 43C and we were off the runway in 2000' or less (whatever that is in metres!)...
siratb 2 years ago