Inside Grand Canyon Caverns:
After the tour, we packed up, checked out and headed off towards Valle airport (40G), which was to be the staging point for our touring of the Grand Canyon. We headed up onto the Colorado Plateau, which offered some beautiful views of cliffs and a sudden change in the elevation of the surrounding terrain. Valle is a quiet little airport with a lot of neat stuff. Inside the FBO building are a lot of old cars and motorcycles (from the 20's and 30's), all beautifully restored and in working condition. The guy at the FBO was very friendly and brought us to one of the hangars in which there were several antique airplanes, all beautifully restored and airworthy. Valle is also home to a flying Ford Tri-motor, though right now the plane is at Page airport (our next destination) for engine work.
Once we had fueled up at Valle, we were off to begin our tour of the Grand Canyon. Climbing up to 10,000 ft we headed off along the southern rim of the canyon. The views were absolutely stunning.
The Grand Canyon (we have lots more pictures):
We then headed back to Valle for some more fuel before leaving for Page (PGA). This initially involved climbing up to 11,500 ft to fly through the Zuni corridor over the Grand Canyon. This corridor gave us fantastic views of the Bright Angel area of the canyon as the sun began to sink towards the horizon. After crossing through the corridor, we began a slow descent into Page, on the shore of Lake Powell. We arrived just as the sun was starting to set. All of the rocks were a stunning red color. We were met at the edge of the runway by a man from the FBO who showed us where to park and brought us into town for dinner and a place to stay.
Lake Powell:
Great pictures. The plane running ok? What's your gross weight? Sounds like she climbs like a homesick angel. Not much happening here...JD
ReplyDeleteHey JD! Plane is running fine so far. Not burning much oil. We did notice some oil drips when we stopped at Valle, but it was drips not a puddle. Seemed to be coming from the overflow anyway. Oil was a little under 6qts when we left Lancaster and was down to about 5.5qts last time we checked (at Valle). Admittedly, getting up to 11,500 ft did take some time, but we made it there.
ReplyDeleteThe last picture is great. Sounds like you're having a great time.
ReplyDeleteSteven Nichols