February 2016

Living the Dream

Ever since I learned how to fly, I wanted to fly my own airplane over the Grand Canyon. It only took me 16 years to actually realize this dream but it was magnificent. You can see for yourself.

The Plan

Grand Canyon airspace is a SFRA. SFRA means Special Flight Rules Area, so normal flight rules are augmented by several additional ones. For example, there are no-fly zones, where you cannot fly under 14,500 feet (like Toroweap / Shinumo Flight Free Zone or Bright Angel Flight Free Zone which is pictured above on the chart excerpt). The area is divided into several corridors that criss-cross the Grand Canyon. No, you cannot overfly the length of the canyon below 14,500 feet. You are also required to keep specific altitudes in the allowed corridors.

I planned to take off from Sedona, fly north to intercept the Dragon Corridor entrance and fly it northbound at 11,500 feet. Then turn around, descend to 10,500 and fly the Fossil Canyon Corridor. Then overfly Diamond Creek sector and depart the area to the west direct towards Apple Valley airport where I planned a fuel stop.

The Flight

There were no modifications to the plan. I flew what I planned. See the overflight videos below.

The Scenery

I took some more pictures while flying. Amazing, majestic views, I strongly encourage you to fly there yourself, you won’t regret it, no chance.

​After the adventure with the alternator pulley the previous day, I was ready for a Grand Canyon tour. Got up early, took off at sunrise and was greeted with this spectacular view. See for yourself in the attached video.

​The airport in Sedona is situated on a mesa above the city. On takeoff, don’t abort too close to the end of the runway because you will fall off the cliff (literally). Know your performance numbers and define your abort-takeoff point before you start your takeoff roll.

Electrical Failure on Approach

Approaching Sedona on a nice Wednesday afternoon, winds calm, approach a bit bumpy, but nothing excessive. On short final, just before the touchdown I noticed the alternator warning light flashing. This meant that the battery was draining and alternator has failed. I have recently went through a costly alternator repair (where the alternator was fine but the field wire to the alternator started exhibiting high resistance) so I thought that maybe this was connected to that repair.

Taxied to the transient parking, shut down, got out and saw that the alternator belt pulley failed causing the belt to completely slip in the tracks.

For a video that is completely out of focus, see below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpSlpxwovIw

Field Alternator Repair

​There were no mechanics available on the field, just fuel, but I got a phone number to a guy local FBO were using. Bob Luna arrived an hour later and said it was a good thing the belt did not fail because we would have to remove the propeller to fix that issue.

We took off the cowling and immediately noticed the solution. Bob removed the identical pulley from the other side which was powering the air conditioning compressor and replaced the failed alternator pulley. That meant I lost air conditioning but the airplane was charging its battery again 🙂

Pulley Replacement

Need to purchase a replacement and put it back on the air conditioning compressor. It is not obvious from the picture, but the pulley has a rubber insert that houses the ball bearings. The rubber insert and the ball bearings were nowhere to be found. Gravity ate them probably.

We fired the plane off, charging was fine, air conditioner belt was spinning a little bit but not too much. Bob was convinced it would not catch in anything around the engine and it was safe to continue the flight. We replaced the cowling, I paid Bob $60 and something extra on top of that and went in to find a room for the night, as it was getting pretty late.

Evening in Sedona

Found a room at the Sky Ranch Lodge, very expensive, but see the views below for yourself.

Departure from San Diego

After spending the night in San Diego, I arrived at the airport around 10 AM, paid $5 overnight parking fee and ordered the tanks to be topped off. The photo above is actually from the evening of the day before.

After a brief delay of about 30 minutes, I took off San Diego’s Montgomery Field for a trip to Sedona, Arizona. I followed the border with Mexico, keeping a proper distance of about 6 miles (10 km). I did not want any mishaps with unauthorized border crossing!

Initially, San Diego controllers refused my request for flight following, indeed they were very busy with several practice approaches and a string of arrivals into San Diego International. I listened to the approach frequency but picked up my flight following only around Yuma, AZ.

Passing Yuma, I bent towards the north-east, following the restricted area boundaries towards Prescott, Arizona. At Prescott, I went direct Sedona.

Flight Track