Gentlemen...Toss Your Cookies

Er ladies, actually. More on that in a few.

Last night, a friend called me in a panic. "I need to get to Grand Canyon Airport tomorrow. My car is in Tusayan and I lost my ride there. Can you take me?" I'm really not in too much need of single engine time, but she's been a good friend and has helped me a lot this past year. It would also be an opportunity to fly. Why not?

We set off this morning, planning on an 11 a.m. departure. Of course this being general aviation, our departure time was closer to 1 p.m. The hot weather that California was experiencing last week had found its way to Arizona. By noon, it was 96 degrees. Did anybody tell Mother Nature that it's only March? It's not even Spring yet!

My wife and daughter came along for fun. That put the G1000 172 I had reserved at max gross weight. Density altitude for the airport was about 4,000'. We took 3,000' of runway to get airborne and best climb was about 500' per minute. We hit clear air turbulence over Sky Harbor and lost nearly 400 feet. Climb performance was terrible. It took nearly 20 minutes for us to climb to 8,500'. By that time, we just told Albuquerqe Center that we were going to stay at 8,500' instead of 10,500' we had requested. We didn't want to take another 15 minutes to get to 10,500.

There was quite a bit of turbulence and my wife was beginning to turn green. Cue Sic-Sac #1. She threw up the Dramamine she had taken as a precaution. That happened over Cottonwood airport so we decided to land there for some fresh air and water. Cottonwood has a nice little terminal. There was nobody there, but a nice selection of complimentary cookies and a cold water fountain to refill our water bottles. My wife decided that a snack of cookies might make her feel better. A few minutes later, the color was back in her face and we headed back to the plane.

We departed on runway 14. Density altitude was an issue again and Cottonwood's runway is only 4,200' long. A short field takeoff was definitely in order. Lean for DA, flaps 10, max brakes, full power...and then everything started to move...in slow motion. Finally we hit rotation speed and the plane just didn't want to climb. I can't believe how close the subdivision is to the end of 14. We could see the whites of people's eyes following us as we skimmed the neighborhood at best rate of climb (not much).

We climbed out Northbound over Verde River Canyon, using thermals to climb when possible. The air was really rough. Bweelchhh. BWEELCHHH. My wife was literally tossing her cookies...the one's she ate in Cottonwood. I thought she was going to kill me when I asked her if she was tossing her cookies, but she was too busy throwing up. At this point, she was not looking good, but there really wasn't anywhere to land. My wife said she could make it to the Grand Canyon, so we pressed on. It took us all the way to I-40 to make 8,500' again.

Soon enough, we were on approach to Grand Canyon Airport. Winds were 180 at 16, gusting to 25. We were cleared to land on runway 21. The gusty crosswind called for 20 degrees flaps and 75 knots on final. It was a little bit of a fight, but patience prevailed and she settled down nicely. We taxied quickly to transient parking where my poor wife promptly melted out of the plane.

We picked up my friend's car and set out looking for a place to eat. Maybe some food would make my wife feel better. We ended up at The Grand Canyon Lodge. It was one of the few places that had table service today. The main dining room was closed, so we had to eat in the bar. My daughter thought it was cool because a few of the bar stools are western saddles. (She loves horses and just started riding lessons this morning.) We finally had to tell her that it was against the law for her to sit at the bar to get her back to the table.

While waiting for our food, my wife warned me that she might not be getting back in to the 172 again today. Crap! I'm a pilot, not a logisitcs expert. Let's see, we have two boys at home with a 13 year old babysitter, no clothes or toiletries (very cheap at The Grand Canyon I'm sure), no hotel reservations and the 172 through 8 p.m. I went to the front dest at The Grand Canyon Lodge and inquired. $179 plus tax! Not bloody likely.

My friend called her office to update them on her whereabouts. She is a pilot for Air Grand Canyon. I have to give them a plug and say what nice people they are. When they found out about my wife's condition, they immediately started making calls to find a hotel for us. They found us a room at the Holiday Inn Express and got us the local rate of $69.

After eating, my wife said she felt better. Well enough to fly home. I knew she would feel better and the front seat would make a huge difference. We stopped by the Air Grand Canyon terminal and they set us up with a fresh supply of barf bags. We thanked them for their courtesy, said goodbye to my friend and headed back for Phoenix.

It was nearly sunset and the winds and temperatures had come down. We departed out. I lazily set the GPS course for Phoenix, dialed in 9,500' and sat back to enjoy the ride. It had been a long day and it was time to let the plane work for me. Just like I was telling my daughter earlier about the horse she was riding. It knows where to go and what to do, you just have to let it know who's boss.

The flight home was much smoother. Our route took us over Williams, Clarkdale, Jerome and then in to the Phoenix Metro area. By the time we got back to Phoenix, it was completely dark. I love night flying. We came in over Lake Pleasant to Deer Valley airport and then the East transition over Sky Harbor. By 8:30, we were on the ground at Stellar. Some of us more glad to be on the ground than others.

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Next week, it will be time to start studying CRJ systems again. I leave for Colorado in less than two weeks for the last phase of my flight training. I alsow plan on getting checked out in the top secret multi engine plane I discovered. It sounds too good to be true. We'll see.

Also, someone that I met through this blog is coming to Arizona next week too see some Spring Training games and visit with friends. We're going to fly to Las Vegas together on Thursday. That should be a lot of fun.