A Blog for Southern California Pilots.
Click on an airport for photos, approach notes, and HD Video clips. Hopefully these images will help give a sight picture to any new flyers to these airports. This was my 11 year adventure in the heavens. Your feedback is welcome, I would love to hear from you!
After a windy and bumpy morning departure from Williams, it turned out to be a smooth ride to Havasu. We had flight following with Albuquerque Center on 127.675 pretty much the whole way...over some very barren landscape, with no highways in sight. It was about an hour flight, so it was wayyy faster, and more direct than driving. We got fuel and a tie-down at Desert Skies FBO, their service is awesome and are very GA friendly. London Bridge resort is right next to the London Bridge, they have a pool, with a water slide, free breakfast, and were kind enough to pick us up from the FBO, and take us back to the airport the next morning.
The London Bridge at Havasu
The Desert Skies FBO was awesome, even popcorn and slushy machines!
I loaded the Zuni and Dragon corridor entry and exit points in our brand new Avidine GPS. The flight from KIFP to the Grand Canyon was about an hour, and smooth as glass the whole way. I'm thinking "this is going to be great tour" Surprise, NOT the case at all once OVER the canyon. LA Center stayed with us on the entire trip with flight following on 124.85, even into the corridor. Once we turned and entered the Zuni corridor we got rocked all over the place at 11,500 feet, I couldn't hold a heading or altitude in the corridor, so I bailed out, and headed back to the plateau. I headed to Valle (40G) airport for a landing as soon as possible to give the family a break from the roller coaster. (I had also read there is a museum, Flintstones village and hotel there) Going in this direction we now had some serious headwinds and turbulence. The windsock was all over the place at Valle, and on final I saw the winds reversed, and I had to switch runways. I could feel the reduced performance of the airplane in the high density altitude when doing a go-around. The runway at Valle has lousy pavement, (similar to Catalina airport) and I got it down the centerline fighting some heavy crosswinds.
KGCN, Grand Canyon National Park airport
Zuni Point Corridor
KCMR, HA Clark Memorial Field, Williams, AZ,
our diversion and overnight stop
After landing at Valle to take a break from the bumps, we departed again and headed south to Sedona for our planned overnight. After more rocking and rolling once in the air, I decided it would only get worse the further we went, and diverted to Williams. I knew there were lots of hotels there and it turned out it was a nice place to do an overnight. It was our lucky day, we caught the only Uber in Williams, to get us to the hotel. The driver also turned out to be the same lady who took our reservation over the phone at the newly remodeled La Quinta Inn. We got a ride back to the airport the next morning with a (hotel recommend) taxi called Two Thumbs Up, again...the only taxi in town. Williams Clark airport has a friendly A&P IA on site called, Performance Air Group, self serve gas (I picked up a few gallons) and a nice new terminal building. I found out later that the Grand Canyon tour ops were cancelled on this day due to all the winds. Thanks to Robert for all his training with me, as I used every bit of airmanship learned on this trip.
at Signature Flight support right across the river from the hotels
We flew east along highway 40 to Laughlin, LA Center on 134.65 cut us loose about 15 miles west of the airport as we were making our decent to the river. We joined the right downwind for runway 16 near the big bend area of the Colorado River. Signature flight support has fuel and over night parking at KIFP, just call them on their Unicom 122.85 as you taxi in, and they will tell you where to park. The guy on the golf cart will meet you and pick up your stuff. Next time I'll ask them to come back later, as it takes me a half hour to collect all our junk, and secure the plane, and I don't like them having to wait for me. The Riverside Hotel is the only hotel with a free shuttle to/from the airport. I found this out after we made our reservations at the Aquarius. We used it anyway, as it was only a short walk to the next hotel over. Laughlin's a great place to fly to and enjoy all the food, (we like the Hickory Pit at the Edgewater) great prices on hotels, and play on the Colorado River. Departing Laughlin to the east you can pick up flight following once above 4,000' near Union Pass with LA Center on 134.65.
Waverunner rentals at The Aquarius Hotel
Departing KIFP to Union Pass, Lake Mohave
Flying to the Grand Canyon with 414ME's new Avidine GPS
