Grand Canyon Flying?

EdFred

EdFred

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Is this now a no no? I'm planning out my big cross country, and I'm going to be in Bryce Canyon anyway. I don't have sectional charts for the area yet, but was looking at RTFP and noticed the GCNP is covered by an airspace with a ceiling of 14,500. Are we now banned from being in that area under 14,500?
 
No , there are fix defined corridors through that area, bet teh GCN sectional to see how to do it. Tuckup Corridor is Very Very Scenic. There is also a CTAF to monitor......
 
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What Bruce said and...

I STRONGLY recommend getting the GCN VFR sectional and studying the reporting points and major landmarks. Memorize them. Listen early, listen often, report like the tour guys do. There is a LOT of traffic through there at certain times of the year.

It's a beautiful area. Just keep an eye out like you would at a busy, non-towered airport.
 
Flying the Grand Canyon is one of the most spectacular things you can do in an airplane. While you can't go as low as the tour operators, beleive me, you still get an amazing view. Plus you can continue a few minutes further north and fly low over Glen Canyon/Lake Powell, which is beautiful in its own right.

Gotta have the chart. And buy it in advance. At Grand Canyon Airport, they'll charge you $8 for it ("All our charts are $8") while you can order it for about $4 anywhere else.

That airport is truly a zoo on a summer day, with all the tour traffic. You'll hear what sounds like a million aircraft on tower frequency. You can catch a taxi into the park. It makes a nice day trip if you're in the area.

Jon
 
Most of Lake Powell has a requested 2000' overflight limit. While only requested, if often abused, I think we will see more Grand Canyon type restrictions. I live near Rocky Mountain NP and there have been several attempts to introduce mandatory restrictions.

Also watch out for tour planes in the Lake Powell / Monument Valley area. Especially near Rainbow Bridge. They aren't as regulated as the GC pilots. They use 122.75

Eric
 
Definitely fly one of the corridors. Take your camera and enjoy.

I calculated the lat/lon of the entry and exit points and flew the line on the GPS. Watch your altitude and make sure you get a correct altimeter setting.
 
I have flown over it the past two days for SFAR training. It is worth every second. I cant wait until I get to fly there daily for tours!!!
 
N2212R said:
Is this now a no no? I'm planning out my big cross country, and I'm going to be in Bryce Canyon anyway. I don't have sectional charts for the area yet, but was looking at RTFP and noticed the GCNP is covered by an airspace with a ceiling of 14,500. Are we now banned from being in that area under 14,500?
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If you can go high--depends on your airplane, O2, etc--you can to to 14,000' and disregard the corridors and altitude limitiations. Remember, you're "only" 7000-8000' above the terrain, so the views remain terrific. The attached photos was from 14,500'.

Hunter

[/IMG]
 
That is gorgeous, Hunter!

You could get your photos published.
 
Handsfield said:
If you can go high--depends on your airplane, O2, etc--you can to to 14,000' and disregard the corridors and altitude limitiations. Remember, you're "only" 7000-8000' above the terrain, so the views remain terrific. The attached photos was from 14,500'.

Hunter

[/IMG]
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Hunter, that photograph is breathtakingly beautiful!
 
For some reason, I've never been too impressed by the Grand Canyon. However, I found Bryce Canyon to be amazing. Be sure to plan at least a short hike through Bryce. Also watch out for density altitude there,... it can be major.


-Erik
 
Okay, I'll pull a Scott and resurrect this thread. Leslie and I are in Scottsdale this week, and I just got checked out in a Turbo 182. We're planning to head up to the Grand Canyon on Saturday leaving at 9:00 (someone else wanted the plane earlier that day for an instructional flight).

I'm thinking we'll head over Love, up to Tuckup Corridor, back south through Dragon Corridor, and land at KGCN to take a taxi to the rim. Then depart, land at Tuba City for GoFlyAmerica, overfly Meteor Crater, and maybe to Sedona for dinner before heading back to Deer Valley. Is that too much for one day? Would anyone suggest other must-see locations?

(I did consider doing a few other airports around Farmington for GoFlyAmerica, but don't think I'd have time to get them in. Not too comfortable mountain flying at night, even with a G1000 for terrain.)
 
gprellwitz said:
Okay, I'll pull a Scott and resurrect this thread. Leslie and I are in Scottsdale this week, and I just got checked out in a Turbo 182. We're planning to head up to the Grand Canyon on Saturday leaving at 9:00 (someone else wanted the plane earlier that day for an instructional flight).

I'm thinking we'll head over Love, up to Tuckup Corridor, back south through Dragon Corridor, and land at KGCN to take a taxi to the rim. Then depart, land at Tuba City for GoFlyAmerica, overfly Meteor Crater, and maybe to Sedona for dinner before heading back to Deer Valley. Is that too much for one day? Would anyone suggest other must-see locations?

(I did consider doing a few other airports around Farmington for GoFlyAmerica, but don't think I'd have time to get them in. Not too comfortable mountain flying at night, even with a G1000 for terrain.)
Click to expand...

I've done a lot of that flight myself before, minus the Tuckup and Dragon corridors, and I have to say, you could do it in one day, but you'll be looking at a LOT of flying. Might be better to try to break it into 2 days.

But you're in for some of the most gorgeous scenery you'll ever see.
 
Skyvector has the Grand Canyon VFR chart. Just go to GCN, then select Grand Canyon VFR button at the top right corner of the chart.
 
Note that contrary to one of the old posts above, the Grand Canyon VFR Chart is not a "sectional". The Canyon is on the Las Vegas Sectional, but that chart does not give you the important information about corridors, frequencies, etc. Also, the Grand Canyon chart does not expire every six months like sectionals or VFR terminal area charts. The current edition is #3, issued in April of 2001.

The chart is available online through NACO for $3.60.
 
Grant, that seems like an awfully long day even at 150 knots. I'd can the Sedona dinner thing myself, or spend the night in Sedona maybe. You'll end up mucking around on the ground at GCN for a while, if you plan to drive up to the rim (and you should.)

OTOH the flight from Sedona back to Phoenix would be fun :eek: at night, in theory. Instrument ODP then cancel and follow the Interstate for safety?
 
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alaskaflyer said:
OTOH the flight from Sedona back to Phoenix would be fun :eek: at night, in theory. Instrument ODP then cancel and follow the Interstate for safety?
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Sectionals have this really neat feature, where they show elevation. A proper preflight plan will make flight at night just as safe as flight at day in that area.

My Pre-PPL night cross country was in mountainous areas. I didn't hit a single mountain or use an ODP. Amazing!

;)
 
SkyHog said:
Sectionals have this really neat feature, where they show elevation. A proper preflight plan will make flight at night just as safe as flight at day in that area.

My Pre-PPL night cross country was in mountainous areas. I didn't hit a single mountain or use an ODP. Amazing!

;)
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Well, that depends on the light. The issue isn't flying after Sedona, it is taking off. There is a reason there is an ODP and it isn't just for low ceilings.

sedona-airport.jpg
 
Grant,

You might want to consider Bryce Canyon as well. It's not HUGE like the Grand Canyon (and in fact is not technically a canyon at all) but I thought it was actually neater. (That could just be that I had to focus a lot more on the flying around GCN to make sure I was going the right places, reporting the right things, and not hitting the numerous tour aircraft!) OBTW, I read all the stuff in Part 93 about the Grand Canyon, and it's all the stuff that's right there on the Grand Canyon chart, which I know you have. :yes:

FWIW, I did the Grand Canyon from Pearce Ferry to the Bat Cave (just a bit north of Grand Canyon West airport) and through the Fossil Canyon corridor.

Grand Canyon:

web.jpg


web.jpg


Bryce Canyon:

web.jpg


web.jpg
 
I do have the Grand Canyon chart already. We might be able to break it into two days, but our commercial flight leaves Sunday at about 1500 local, so we wouldn't have a whole lot of time Sunday, presuming the plane's even available. We've driven to Sedona before, so skipping it this time wouldn't be too onerous. When I put the flight into the GPS, I think it came out to be about 571NM (including Bryce Canyon), so figure 600 with deviations. Part of it will depend on how long it takes to get a car at KGCN and how long we spend on the ground there. I agree, this does seem like a little much to tackle in a day, other than to just fly over it, not stop anywhere, just to say we'd done it.
 
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Grant,

If I were you, I'd overfly the crater and the canyon and then land in Flagstaff. You can get a rental car with the FBO and drive through the painted desert to the canyon. It takes about 1 1/2 hours, but it's absolutely worth it, as the drive is just amazing.

If you have to do it in one day, drive back to Flagstaff in the evening for dinner in one of the many excellent restaurants there and then fly back. If you have more than one day, I'd stay at the Little America hotel in Flagstaff (the FBO has crew rates for ~$70, IIRC) and then fly to Sedona the next day.

-Felix
 
I highly recommend flying into Sedona. It was the destination on my long x-country during my training. Very cool approach, and good food to boot (although I ate breakfast there...not Dinner).

Anyway, here is a shot approaching SEZ.

320181230_W3m7A-L.jpg
 
billwil said:
I highly recommend flying into Sedona. It was the destination on my long x-country during my training. Very cool approach, and good food to boot (although I ate breakfast there...not Dinner).
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Bill,

Good to see you on here again. Methinks you need to update your signature. :yes:
 
If you do the Tuba City - Meteor Crater also do a fly by of the Grand Falls on the Little Colorado. Probably not much water this time of year, they were spectacular last Spring. 35 25 45/111 11 56
 
Kent, I lurk. B)

Oh...and how's the "limited time only" sig now? Thanks for pointing it out. :)
 
Okay, we didn't do quite the aggressive schedule we'd proposed. We had too good a time on the ground at the park, so we wound up spending almost five hours there. I don't regret it, though!

Visibility was "poor", only 67 miles, according to the measurement at the park. And the winds were 8G24, so it was a tad turbulent. We flew to the canyon, but didn't cross it. Then we headed back toward Meteor Crater, circled it, then headed back to Deer Valley. Arrived just after sunset, and the G1000 kicked into night mode. It made it a little hard to read, though, and it happened as I was on base for landing, so I didn't want to play with getting the brightness turned up.

Overall, a good flight, and I'll upload pictures soon, if they turned out any good!
 
ejensen said:
Most of Lake Powell has a requested 2000' overflight limit. While only requested, if often abused, I think we will see more Grand Canyon type restrictions. I live near Rocky Mountain NP and there have been several attempts to introduce mandatory restrictions.

Also watch out for tour planes in the Lake Powell / Monument Valley area. Especially near Rainbow Bridge. They aren't as regulated as the GC pilots. They use 122.75

Eric
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When I was there we used 122.5 uplake (northbound)and back to KPGA CTAF when within 10 nm of Page downlake (southbound).
 
citationxjl said:
I have flown over it the past two days for SFAR training. It is worth every second. I cant wait until I get to fly there daily for tours!!!
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Pretty cool to see this. Circa 2010, Jeff had over 4,000 TT with most of that single pilot in C-208. He made chief pilot before age 30. The last I heard from him he was flying in Hawaii. Jeff is one of the good guys.

As a side note, I have flown all the GC corridors on multiple occasions. Other than saying BTDT, Lake Powell is a more awesomer (TM) flight.
 
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Richard said:
Pretty cool to see this. Circa 2010, Jeff had over 4,000 TT with most of that single pilot in C-208. He made chief pilot before age 30. The last I heard from him he was flying in Hawaii. Jeff is one of the good guys.

As a side note, I have flown all the GC corridors on multiple occasions. Other than saying BTDT, Lake Powell is a more awesomer (TM) flight.
Click to expand...

Cataract Canyon is a way way awesome flight, and you won't get busted for being in the canyon.
 
What is really cool is to fly low Flagstaff to Sedona early in the morning with the sun coming from low east. You come over the rim, and wow, you'll never forget the view.

There is an AIRPORT at the bottom of the canyon at L41 at Marble Canyon with a café. Its not in the park, but it is in the canyon near the river. The pattern is right in canyon, below the canyon walls. Way cool if your plane and you are up to it (not too short, 3700' runway length).
 
coloradobluesky said:
What is really cool is to fly low Flagstaff to Sedona early in the morning with the sun coming from low east. You come over the rim, and wow, you'll never forget the view.

There is an AIRPORT at the bottom of the canyon at L41 at Marble Canyon with a café. Its not in the park, but it is in the canyon near the river. The pattern is right in canyon, below the canyon walls. Way cool if your plane and you are up to it (not too short, 3700' runway length).
Click to expand...

The approach to Sedona in the evening light from the west is quite spectacular as well. The colors and light just get sublime.
 
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