California

Canyons and Casinos

This page is a transcription of an article published in Flyer magazin issue December 2010.

Canyons and Casinos

The origins of this adventure came about as a result of another flying holiday. The year before, we'd travelled to New Zealand to fly around the South Island with Flyinn Tours, based in Geordie Hill, near Wanaka. On this trip we met Chris, who was from Palo Alto, California. So when we discovered some friends of ours were moving to San Francisco for 18 months, the idea of visiting them and maybe doing some flying at the same time started to form. Several emails to Chris later, I was in contact with the Sundance Flying Club in Palo Alto, south of San Francisco, for a biennial flight review (BFR) and with a 172SP booked for eight days.

Discussions at home had centred on visiting Monument Valley, so this initially became the focal point for the trip – however, emails to California and suggestions on the FLYER forums (http://forums.flyer.co.uk) helped consolidate this, changing from a sprint to Monument Valley and back, into a slightly wider tour to some of the stunning National Parks of Southwestern USA. Initial plans also included a visit to Santa Monica, but reviewing the usual July weather there suggested an IR would be necessary if we wanted to depart early in the morning, so this was replaced by a stopover in Las Vegas – along with possibly the obligatory flight over the Grand Canyon. With the outline itinerary drafted, we set off from Heathrow on 7 July for San Francisco.

After a few days acclimatizing and relaxing with our friends, it was time for me to sort out the flying preparations. On a previous trip, 18 months previously, I had gone through the validation process to get an FAA PPEL on the basis of my JAA PPL but never had the opportunity to validate it with a BFR. The first thing was some ground school to understand the basics of the sectional charts, along with the specifics of flying out of Palo Alto, sitting as it does underneath the San Francisco Class B, as well as being adjacent to San Jose International and Moffat Naval Air Station. My initial concerns over flying in what looked like quite complex airspace were quickly proved to be fairly groundless as I discovered the meaning of full service ATC. During the course of the BFR, as well as the usual stalls and general handling, my instructor Libor explained how simple the process actually is with flight following in the USA - so different to what I am used to in the UK.

Hoover Dam with the new road bridge almost ready for use

So, BFR completed, equipped with a range of charts for Southwest USA, it was time to bid our friends goodbye, head south over the Golden Gate Bridge early one morning to collect the 172 and fly off on the first leg of the trip - Palo Alto to Las Vegas.

As the direct route would require crossing the Sierra Nevada, I planned to head south-east towards Los Angeles and then over the desert, past Edwards Air Force Base, before turning northeast to Las Vegas. Given that direct, this would be a four-and-a-half-hour flight in the 172, we planned a fuel and comfort stop at Fox Field in Lancaster. As it turned out, this became slightly more than the planned short stop when we tried to depart for Las Vegas.

Checks complete and refuelled, I tried to start the engine - it turned over a couple of times but did not start - on the second attempt to start, there was just an ominous click and no movement whatsoever of the prop! After speaking with the guys from the FBO, we were introduced to one of the maintenance companies on the field who investigated the problem and we discovered that the starter motor had failed. Not an overly good start to the flying adventure - especially as it was also our wedding anniversary - so the show in Las Vegas had to wait for the following night.

After a couple of phone calls, a replacement starter motor was ordered on overnight courier and we were set up with a car and a hotel for the night. A couple of phone calls from the hotel, along with use of the free internet, and our other hotel bookings which had been made in Las Vegas and Cedar City were quickly adjusted to accommodate the enforced delay.

After spending some time in the pool at the hotel, wondering whether this was just a foretaste of things to come (fortunately not!) we were on our way late the following morning with a repaired 172. This gave us a taste of the temperatures we were going to see, as we slowly climbed out of Fox Field and headed towards Henderson Airport, Las Vegas, where we landed later in the day in temperatures of 42°e. The iced water we were given from the Follow Me truck en route to the terminal was very welcome! The whole process from landing to arriving at the MGM Grand where we were staying only took about an hour and finally we had reached our first destination only one day later than originally planned.

Mark and Rachel with the extraordinary rock formations of Monument Valley behind

After a couple of nights in Las Vegas seeing the sights, along with the spectacular Cirque du SoleiI show Ka - and some small winnings to go towards the cost of the trip - we left the hotel early on the Saturday morning to fly to Cedar City in Utah - and the process was just as smooth in reverse, with us taking off around 0800, about an hour after leaving the hotel.

The flight took us initially out through the McCarran Class B airspace, over the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead before heading north-east towards Cedar City, where we landed about 90 minutes later. Cedar City is a small regional airport with a runway of similar length to my normal base at Bournemouth but with just a common traffic frequency - as we landed straight in from the south there was one other aircraft in the area. After a slight mix-up with the hire car - the web booking was confirmed but the office had no cars, so we ended up with a large 5UV which had just been returned - this for the price of the smaller car we'd booked. So with only a short delay were on our way to Bryce Canyon, which was the first of the national parks we planned to visit.

Las Vegas Strip and McCarran International Airport

We'd been told that Zion Canyon was more spectacular than Bryce Canyon but the views from the rim of Bryce were spectacular, with vistas of Utah and further south towards Arizona. The following day we drove south from Cedar City to Zion National Park, which was equally stunning, although this one was viewed from the canyon floor rather than the rim so it is difficult to say which was better. It was much hotter in Zion Canyon, which possibly shortened our time visiting and limited the desire to explore some of the walks - when we returned to the car it settled on a temperature of 112°F.

Primm Valley golf course in the desert near Las Vegas

On the Monday morning, we left Cedar City for Page, in Arizona, heading towards the original goal of the trip - Monument Valley. Density altitude is a major consideration in this area and features as a warning on most of the ATIS broadcasts. With only two of us on board and over 7,000ft of runway at Cedar City it was not too much of a concern and we were soon flying over Zion Canyon on our way south-east. This was the shortest flight of the trip, taking only about an hour to reach Page where we were greeted by a golf cart Follow Me and within 40 minutes we were en route in the hire car to Monument Valley.

Wehre it all started - flying in New Zealand, November 2009

The view down the valley was exactly as seen in the movies and everything we had expected - well worth the trip to get there. We were hoping to view the sunset in Monument Valley but for once the clear evening skies we had seen up to this point deserted us, with a thunderstorm instead. Not completely a surprise given the temperatures we had been experiencing. Because of the day lost earlier in the trip, we now needed to start heading back, having reached the furthest point east.

Monument Valley, the reason for the trip

With another early start, to help combat the effects of density altitude, we departed Page on Tuesday morning for a final stopover in Las Vegas - and an excuse to see another show! Given where we were, the obvious route back was via the Grand Canyon and so departing Page we first climbed to reach the GA altitude for Marble Canyon before routing down to just west of Grand Canyon Airport. Following one of the designated corridors, another benefit of flight following was highlighted when the controller told us we were clear of the flight free area and able to turn slightly earlier than planned.

The forecast was for some isolated rain showers and we flew through a couple of these as we passed over the canyon, but they were barely enough to wash the windscreen and overall the flight was very smooth. Approaching Las Vegas, the traffic density started to increase and after a couple of vectors from the controller, when it was difficult to spot some of the traffic which was passed to us approaching the Hoover Dam, we landed again at Henderson Airport - earlier in the day and so slightly cooler for this return visit.

After this second, shorter stop in Las Vegas, we departed Wednesday morning back to Palo Alto via Lancaster again for fuel and a comfort break. En route we saw once again the sheer size of Edwards Air Force Base with vast runways in the desert and what appeared to be a tiny C-17 on final dwarfed by the scale of everything else. Fortunately there was no repeat of the previous problems in Lancaster, and barring the gusting wind, which was fortunately almost straight down the runway, we had a brief stop for lunch and fuel. European & US VFR Navigation Charts Experience the next generation of intuitive VFR charts. Register at JeppDirect.com for news, product updates and specials.

Route Spec

After leaving Fox Field we headed north-west over the oil fields of southern California and past a rather cloudy Monterey Bay on the coast before returning to Palo Alto mid-afternoon under clear skies but somewhat cooler temperatures than we had become used to.

Overall, the trip took eight days and included around 14.5 hours flying and was a great introduction for me to flying in the USA, showing how easy it is with flight following and the full-service ATC. There were only a couple of times when I think the accents got the better of me and in all cases the controllers were unfailingly helpful - and on the one occasion when they could not provide flight following initially, we were called back within five minutes.

Next time, we may go at a slightly cooler time, which wasn't possible for us this year. As my first 'solo' flying adventure, it has provided some useful hints for future trips - as well as reminding us of the need to be flexible with our plans, which includes trying to allow for events like starter motor problems!