Flying in the Southwest

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RiehlGrumman

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A.Riehl
I'm planning a flight from the East Coast to KSGU in southern UT next week. I'm planning on going over Santa Fe and Page to stay out of the tall stuff and out of the SFRA. My problem is it will be mid afternoon with ground temps around 80°when I pass the canyon. Should I plan on making a stop shy of the mountains and waiting until evening to continue? I have mountain flying experience but its mostly the Northern Rockies and Alaska. Turbulence doesn't bother me unless its bad enough to be unsafe. I don't have O2 but I am in a C210 with an IO550 so I'm not too worried about high DA. I still get 500 fpm at 12k' even heavy. Also anyone with experience going into KSGU any local wisdom would be appreciated.
 
You will be perfectly fine with your plane. There are no big mountains on your path.
Dont forget to fly over Shiprock, Monument Valley, The Goosenecks, and Lake Powell- fantastic views.
 
MountainDude said:
You will be perfectly fine with your plane. There are no big mountains on your path.
Dont forget to fly over Shiprock, Monument Valley, The Goosenecks, and Lake Powell- fantastic views.
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Appreciate the reply. Will do. Really looking forward to it.
 
RiehlGrumman said:
I'm planning a flight from the East Coast to KSGU in southern UT next week. I'm planning on going over Santa Fe and Page to stay out of the tall stuff and out of the SFRA. My problem is it will be mid afternoon with ground temps around 80°when I pass the canyon. Should I plan on making a stop shy of the mountains and waiting until evening to continue? I have mountain flying experience but its mostly the Northern Rockies and Alaska. Turbulence doesn't bother me unless its bad enough to be unsafe. I don't have O2 but I am in a C210 with an IO550 so I'm not too worried about high DA. I still get 500 fpm at 12k' even heavy. Also anyone with experience going into KSGU any local wisdom would be appreciated.
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I strongly endorse MountainDude's suggestions and would add the Grand Canyon (although that takes more advanced planning) and perhaps Sedona. You're aware of the convective turbulence characteristic of the desert SW, but if turbulence doesn't bother you it shouldn't be a problem no matter what time of day you fly. However, the scenery is especially spectacular in the early morning and late afternoon/evening sunlight and I try to plan my own flights so as to take advantage of that fact. The convective activity associated with monsoon season should have run its course by next week, but keep in mind the possibility of areas of afternoon thunderstorms.
 
I’ve done that route 3 times, starting off near Milwaukee. Two times I overnighted in Raton, NM, the main reason being I wanted an earlier morning start on the next flying. During business hours they will help you get to a hotel in town, no courtesy car available as of late July this Summer, my last trip. I cut the corners some, but have done most of the sights along the way, including the ‘4 corners’ from 3000’ or so. Of course not much to see there.

One thing to watch are the surface winds, can howl at times. On top of that you ‘may’ plan an airport with one runway. I’ll always adjust the plan as needed. Of course stronger winds & terrain often leads to turbulence. As known, things are usually better early, until 12-1 or so, depending how much wind & terrain features you are dealing with.

I’ve stopped at Page, AZ, GCN, & SGU. This last July I stayed at Cedar City, UT airport a few days before going to Toole, UT airport. They have a special way to pronounce Toole, different than one would expect.

Two of my trips were solo, the other with one. Performance wasn’t to much of an issue, I light loaded the fuel some, always climbing well before getting near any terrain I planned to cross, then having a 2500’+ buffer. A bit less buffer may be fine crossing one hill with an easy out on both sides. I didn’t go to any airport my plane isn’t designed for, the ones you see mentioned in the backcountry.

When I landed at GCN then SGU, we did 2 of the Grand Canyon ‘corridors’, since right there. I think they were at 10.5 & 11.5, depending on direction of flight. At those altitudes it’s not busy at all, any tour traffic is below you. The main thing is to climb ahead of time, starting the corridor level. The corridors are anchored by waypoints, easy-peasy.

My favorite is Monument Valley, not too many rules there, but I don’t buzz any parking lots. I don’t need someone to hound me with ADS information.

When I left the Salt Lake area I climbed West of the Bravo, talked to approach. They let me through the airspace to fly the I-80 corridor to the east. I did all my flying VFR with ADS weather to Garmin Pilot on my IPad, max flexibility.

If you are just going to SGU, could go back the same way. If going further North, the I-80 corridor works. I realize there are more tenuous options between those routes, but they are easy, safe options. Just like any flying, weather factors in.
 

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sourdough44 said:
I’ve stopped at Page, AZ, GCN, & SGU. This last July I stayed at Cedar City, UT airport a few days before going to Toole, UT airport. They have a special way to pronounce Toole, different than one would expect.
Click to expand...
It's spelled Tooele, and pronounced Too-:)illa.
 
What’s the airport in the southwest with a hotel and restaurant on field and nothing else nearby?
 
sourdough44 said:
I’ve done that route 3 times, starting off near Milwaukee. Two times I overnighted in Raton, NM, the main reason being I wanted an earlier morning start on the next flying. During business hours they will help you get to a hotel in town, no courtesy car available as of late July this Summer, my last trip. I cut the corners some, but have done most of the sights along the way, including the ‘4 corners’ from 3000’ or so. Of course not much to see there.

One thing to watch are the surface winds, can howl at times. On top of that you ‘may’ plan an airport with one runway. I’ll always adjust the plan as needed. Of course stronger winds & terrain often leads to turbulence. As known, things are usually better early, until 12-1 or so, depending how much wind & terrain features you are dealing with.

I’ve stopped at Page, AZ, GCN, & SGU. This last July I stayed at Cedar City, UT airport a few days before going to Toole, UT airport. They have a special way to pronounce Toole, different than one would expect.

Two of my trips were solo, the other with one. Performance wasn’t to much of an issue, I light loaded the fuel some, always climbing well before getting near any terrain I planned to cross, then having a 2500’+ buffer. A bit less buffer may be fine crossing one hill with an easy out on both sides. I didn’t go to any airport my plane isn’t designed for, the ones you see mentioned in the backcountry.

When I landed at GCN then SGU, we did 2 of the Grand Canyon ‘corridors’, since right there. I think they were at 10.5 & 11.5, depending on direction of flight. At those altitudes it’s not busy at all, any tour traffic is below you. The main thing is to climb ahead of time, starting the corridor level. The corridors are anchored by waypoints, easy-peasy.

My favorite is Monument Valley, not too many rules there, but I don’t buzz any parking lots. I don’t need someone to hound me with ADS information.

When I left the Salt Lake area I climbed West of the Bravo, talked to approach. They let me through the airspace to fly the I-80 corridor to the east. I did all my flying VFR with ADS weather to Garmin Pilot on my IPad, max flexibility.

If you are just going to SGU, could go back the same way. If going further North, the I-80 corridor works. I realize there are more tenuous options between those routes, but they are easy, safe options. Just like any flying, weather factors in.
Click to expand...
I'm planning on going over Monument Valley and as close as I can get to the Canyon without going through the SFRA. Sadly this is more of a get there trip and less sightseeing. I did the I80 corridor last year coming back from Idaho. That was gorgeous.
I'm going to try to do it in one day. Looks to be about 9 hrs so one fuel stop. Going west I'll have about 4 extra hours of daylight so I have the option to stop if it gets bumpy or popups become a problem and finish it in the evening. I have a second pilot along so I have the option to swap off for a leg if I need it.
 
Remember the part where I wrote, "the convective activity associated with monsoon season should have run its course by next week?" Well, I may have been a bit optimistic on that forecast.
 
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