Host: Bill Marvel, rv8tor@msn.com, H (970) 241 4081; C (310) 293 2013

NOTE: This trip will take place in both April and October, but attendance is limited, and the April trip is full. Everyone on the April list has been notified by the host. If you wish to attend the October trip and have not been notified by Host Bill Marvel that you are on standby for it, contact Bill as indicated above.

Join our trip both back in time and forward into the future the weekend of March 31 to April 2, 2023. We will be visiting two venues -- Richard Branson’s futuristic Spaceport America launch facility from which space tourists will venture into earth orbit and also Trinity site, where the world’s first atom bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945.

Friday, March 31st:

On arrival at Truth or Consequences  airport (KTCS) March 31, you’ll be met by a private tour bus company and driven to Spaceport America’s visitor center for lunch and your “event unique” name badges. That will be followed by 4-hour tour of the remote facility. The tour price is $65 per person but practically free compared to the prohibitive cost of landing on the spaceport’s runway – several thousand dollars. The tour buses hold 13 passengers, so the two available for us set the maximum number who can attend at 26. Our buses will be dedicated to CPA members only. Private vehicles are prohibited at the Spaceport. 

Afterwards, the buses will return us to the airport for the 50-mile flight north to Socorro NM(KONM) where city provided transportation will take us to the hotel, to and from Trinity Site the next day and then back to the airport the morning of April 2 for departure. There are no rental or courtesy cars available in Socorro but we will drive one from Albuquerque just in case there is a need for ground transportation in the event of an aircraft maintenance problem (or a run to the liquor store…). However, we’ll be staying at the Holiday Inn Express near restaurants and a brew pub so all of the necessities will be close by. Our Colorado Pilots Association group room rate is $134 a night, pre-tax.

Saturday, April 1st:

Trinity Site is open only two days a year and is located in the White Sands Missile Range  within both ground and air restricted areas. We’ll actually stand on ground zero and see the many artifacts brought to the site for the event. We’ll also visit the McDonald Ranch where the plutonium core was assembled. It is located several miles from the blast site. Docents are at both locations to answer all of our questions.

And of course, we’ll have the ever-popular CPA Happy Hour as well as a choice of Friday and Saturday night dinners at either the Jackson Ranch Steak House or the Socorro Springs Brew Pub and Restaurant, both nearby.

Sunday, April 2nd:

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to fly both backward in time and forward into the future!