June 30, 2011 - Sedona, Mesa, Grand Canyon & Hoover Dam

Lynnette is ready for her last flight of this vacation in the RV.  Her next flight will be in a Southwest 737.  What fun is that?
 
The FBO Building at Sedona.
 
Lynnette liked this windmill at the airport.  I told her I'd make one for her using my new welding skills.
 
Taking off, you can see the new restaurant building under construction.
 
Sedona from the air.
 
We flew south to Falcon Field Airport (FFZ) in Mesa, Arizona -- east side of Phoenix -- to visit my aunt and cousins who live there.  Falcon is a towered airport. 
 
My aunt Merrilyn, cousins Doug and Rick, and Doug's wife Charlotte.  We had a nice breakfast at IHOP and then a nice visit at Aunt Merrilyn's house.
 
They took me back to the airport and watched me take off, then Doug dropped Lynnette off at the big Phoenix airport.   By the time I took off at Falcon, it was hot -- over 100 degrees.  I could only climb to about 5000 feet before I had to throttle back to keep my engine oil from getting too hot.  There were mountains ahead of me higher than that.  Fortunately, the desert thermals were strong and I climbed easily to over 10,000 feet despite being throttled back.  At one point I even racked the RV around in a 360 degree turn trying to stay in a thermal!
 
I was heading to the Grand Canyon and my route took me right back over Sedona.  It really is an aircraft carrier in the sky.
 
Looking down on the river where Lynnette and I had lunch the day before. 
 
I took another picture of Sedona and my camera told me the memory chip was full.  Bad pre-flighting on my part!  Well, there was no way I was going to fly over the Grand Canyon without being able to take pictures.  I flew over the east side of the canyon and headed north to Page Airport.  There, in the nice Classic Aviation FBO pilot's lounge, I downloaded the pictures from my camera to the laptop computer.  Then it was back into the air to fly the Grand Canyon!
 
Here is Page Airport. 
 
Lake Powell is just to the north.  I hear houseboating on Lake Powell is a lot of fun;  I'm trying to talk family and friends into a houseboating trip some day.
 
The dam that created Lake Powell, and the only bridge across the Colorado River that I saw the rest of the way. 
 
I hadn't reached the Grand Canyon proper yet but the view was still pretty spectacular.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Approaching the Grand Canyon from the north over a sea of trees.  It looks like I'm low but actually I'm at 10,500 feet! 
 
But there were a few areas you could land in an emergency. 
 
The Grand Canyon opens up before me.
 
Since they have so many rules concerning flying over the Grand Canyon there is a special chart.  There are corridors you have to stay in at certain altitudes.   Prior to the flight, I had plugged in the lat/long of the cooridor endpoints in my GPS. 
 
Flying up to Page I had crossed the Zuni correidor at 11,500 feet.  Now, I was coming south through the Dragon corridor at 10,500 feet. 
 
While transfersing Dragon corridor, I slow overtook a tour airplane below me at 10,000 feet.  
 
 
There is the Colorado River, way down there.
 
Just about to cross the south rim.
 
The mid-afternoon air was a little bumpy. 
 
This wasn't the best time to be taking pictures.  First thing in the morning or maybe an hour before sunset. 
 
 
 
NOw I'm heading north again through the Fossil corridor.
 
 
 
I'd like to go on the seven-day rafting trips someday but wonder if I'd be able to hike out.
 
 
 
 
 
The Grand Canyon West airport (1G4).   The famous Grand Canyon Skywalk is a seven minute busride from this airport but I can't see it in this picture.
 
Where the brown water turns blue is where the muddy Colorado River meets Lake Mead.
 
I'm out of the Grand Canyon and flying over Lake Mead.
 
 
 
 
Hoover Dam and the new Hoover Dam bridge. 
 
 
 
My destination for the night was Boulder Airport which is very close to Hoover Dam.  I had made arrangements with the FBO to rent a car and it was waiting for me when I landed. 
 
I had a reservation at the Haciena Hotel & Casino which was very inexpensive and close to Hoover Dam -- but this was more than offset by having to rent a car to get there.  I arrived too late to take a tour, but I did drive across the dam and across the new bridge.  The bridge is a pretty impressive engineering feat in and of itself.  This picture doesn't capture how massive it is.
 
I couldn't get a good picture of the Dam from the ground.
 
 
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