Lunch With a Friend
The following is a narrative of what it took to fly my Cessna 150 Model J from Prescott Arizona to St. George Utah in February of 2005 to have lunch with a close friend. I'm not saying that the following is the best way to do such a thing but it is how I did it.
Nels lives in St. George Utah, some 187 miles away by air or 370 miles automobile. The time is also considerably less by air at 2 hours and 15 minutes vs. 6 hours and 45 minutes to drive. Flying allows one to go pretty much direct whereas driving requires one to drive to Las Vegas Nevada and around the west end of the Grand Canyon. Of course the weather is a big factor. Driving can be comfortable in much worse weather that flying. I could have put off going until later on in the Spring but afternoon winds have a tendency to pick up in the Spring so since the weather looked good on Friday the 4th I decided to go for it.
Before doing anything however, I needed a Las Vegas Sectional and a new Southwest Airport/Facilities Directory. I keep a current Phoenix Sectional and I have a Grand Canyon VFR chart that is current so I used them. Sectionals show topographical information, aids to navigation, obstructions, airports, airport data as well as for airspace information. The Grand Canyon chart has detailed sectional data on one side and air tour operations data on the backside. There are those that fly without current maps etc., but I don't. Flying over the Grand Canyon could be considered risky business as there aren't many places to land in such rugged area. The fact of the matter is you're over the river for a very short time and there is a nice peninsula that extends way down into the Grand Canyon.
My first consideration was the weather. A call to the Prescott Flight Service Station sounded pretty good for Friday. The only thing was the winds aloft at 9000 ft, where I'd be flying. Early morning would be cold and I don't have an engine heater to preheat the engine before starting so I don't generally start 146 if the engine is really cold. Since we were just going to have lunch and the flight would only take a couple of hours I wouldn't have to leave until about 9:30 AM. My thermometer in the hangar showed 40 degrees even thought it was 33 degrees outside so the temperature turned out not to be a factor. The sun sure is a big factor here. There was a low pressure disturbance down in Mexico but it wouldn't affect us for the day except for southerly winds. After 5 PM flight service indicated the winds aloft at 9000 ft. was 180 degrees at 18 knots. Nice for going north but not too good for coming back, going south My flight plan and determined that going would be 2 hours going but coming back would be 2 1/2 hours. I don't like to fly much over 2 1/2 hours so things looked good. I preflight for 6 gallons per hour so that would be 15 gallons of fuel. That's conservative as I really get about 5 gallons per hour. The most I'd plan for is 18 gallons. My plane holds 26 gallons of which only 22.5 gallons are legal to use.
Before leaving for the airport I called flight service for a standard briefing and filed flight plans for flights there and back. I arrived at the airport about 9 AM to preflight and fuel the airplane. It was 9:30 by the time I got to taxing out to 21L for takeoff and a right turnout to the north. I told Nels that I would be there between 11:30 and noon so with a tail wind I felt comfortable with leaving a little late. It was 9:40 before I got off the runway. I was sort of hoping that it would take a little longer going so it would probably a little faster coming back.
Because I wanted to make a right turn after takeoff ATC had me extend before turning right because of the planes in the pattern for 21R. They kind of forgot about me so I didn't turn until I really had to because of Granite Mountain. It was a little tentative but I was watching closely and got nice and close to the mountain. Closer than I'd been in 10 years of flying. In any case, I was off about 10 minutes late and a little west of where I wanted to start but that was ok. I called flight service and activated my flight plan on 122.4 MH.
I selected the airport P37, Grand Canyon Caverns, north of Seligman on my GPS waypoint and climbed to 9,500 ft. northbound for the Grand Canyon. It seemed to take forever to see the Seligman airport but the GPS was indicating a ground speed of over 100 MPH. There was absolutely no turbulence so all I had to do was sit back, keep an eye on the GPS, watch the instruments and watch out for other airplanes.
At P37 I descended to 9000 ft. and set My GPS unit to St. George airport KSGU. My route took me over the Pearce Ferry Sector is restricted below 8,000 ft. MSL. The plateau extending down into the Grand Canyon from the north did indeed look flat but it was covered with snow and trees. The road that goes down there didn't look clear at all. It made things a little tense. I announced on the frequency of 121.95 that I was transitioning the area south to north at 9000 ft in the hopes that the tour guide planes would look out for me as I was looking out for them.. The Grand Canyon chart indicated that planes over flying that part of the Grand Canyon should monitor that frequency and it showed that their assigned altitudes were 7,500 and 9,500 ft eastbound and 8,500 and 10,500 ft. westbound.. I heard numerous reports of sight seeing planes announcing their position and intentions but for the most part they seemed to be lower. The back side of the Grand Canyon chart indicated sight seeing routes and the altitudes they were assigned. Once clear of the tour routes I climbed back up to 9,500 ft.
The St. George airport elevation is 2941 ft. so it took some time to descend to a traffic pattern of 3900 ft. The automated weather information indicated the winds were calm and transmissions from other planes in the fairly busy traffic pattern indicated that they were landing on runway 16. The facilities directory included a diagram of the airport and didn't indicate what I thought would surely be right traffic for runway 16 as the town was off to the east. It turns out there is a big mountain to the west of the airport so the traffic pattern has us fly left traffic right over down town. I understand they are working on building a new airport out of town. It wasn't so busy that I had any problem getting into the pattern and after announcing my position downwind, left base, and final my landing was rather routine. I noticed a transit parking area near the terminal and parked there to get out and called Nels for lunch. Before shutting down the engine I dialed my radio to 122.5 and closed my flight plan with Cedar City Radio, the nearby Flight Service Station.
We had a nice really good visit and a nice sandwich very near the airport. We sat outside as the temp was quite nice. After lunch we had just enough time to jump in the airplane and make short flight over the city as Nels had a 1:30 meeting. It worked out great. He had a camera and took a few photos one that included his home.
As I shut off the engine in the parking spot I previously parked a fuel truck pulled up and I asked for the tanks to be topped off. It took a little over 10 gallons. Just right for a two plus hour flight. I don't recall what the fuel gauges read as I knew what where I was fuel wise. Cessna made a big deal about the accuracy of the fuel gauges not long ago but it is simple folly as one should know the fuel situation at all times. We said our goodbyes and after a good preflight and a call to flight service to activeate my return flight plan I headed for home.
Sure enough, the ground speed was lower going south but the flight only took about 15 minutes longer. Because the GPS recorded the flight up I just followed the flight path back. It was really rather uneventful but the scenery was fantastic.
Back home ATIS indicated surface winds at 11 knots at 170 degrees and runway 12 was the active. That gave me a straight in. ATC had me stay up above 6500 ft. until I got quite close and I landed right in front of my hangar with a flight time of 2 hours and 20 minutes. Before I shut down my engine in front of my hangar I called flight service and closed my flight plan.
So, that was it. A nice flight and a good lunch with a friend I've known for thirty some years. We'll have to do it again sometime.
For comments, suggestions, or questions please e-mail me at ken@cessna150.net.