I Took a trip from S49 to Buckeye, AZ on the 15 of March, I stayed down there for about a month with my son. I watched some spring training baseball games, a couple regular season games of the D'Backs, and a few Suns games. I had a few flights with my grandson and then I came home on the 17th of April. My route took me over the Grand Canyon, from the Peach Springs VOR to St. George, UT. I was trying to fly and take a few video shots at the same time. So, here are a few of the pictures I got with my video camera. I had climbed up to 9300' from my 8500' altitude for this route. Also there is a no fly zone below 8000'. I wanted to be sure I was well above it. I posted my video of flying into Sedona earlier, that I had taken with my grandson on this trip. Bob

Great video's, Bob.

Bob, You reminded me of two things. First, some where, I have an old Poplar Mechanics mag (Like 1920 or so) that has on the cover an artist's drawing of "The First Airplane to Land in The Grand Canyon" as the cover story. I should hunt that up and see where it landed.

Second, back in 1982 I kayaked down the canyon. After leaving my boat and gear off at the put in, I took my truck down stream to the take out (like 350 miles down steam). I was flown back up stream in a cessna 206. I was in the front right seat and we pretty much flew the whole cayon down in and low, checking out the various rapids. Real cool and before James Watt and all the other tree hungers got involved. PG

Real cool and before James Watt and all the other tree hungers got involved

Wow, did that elicit a laugh here!!! I worked for one of the federal DOI agencies during the Watt "administration", and had the "pleasure" to meet him, and many of his lackeys during their rape and pillage campaign. In fact, I flew most of them around on their various government sponsored "fact finding" fishing tours of Alaska.

Trust me, Watt was NOT a tree hugger. Nor was he a tree hunger.....

The restricted airspace over the Grand Canyon came about BECAUSE of all the low level flying that went on there for many years. Piss enough people off, and they'll have a lot of leverage with the NPS, who bullied the FAA into permitting them to restrict airspace.

THAT was a travesty. NPS should NEVER have been permitted to pull that off, but the political heat was huge, and it worked.

People who are paying a lot of money for a "backcountry experience" are simply not going to appreciate low flying airplanes, and there were HUNDREDS of em in the Canyon those days.

But, Watt, et al weren't the guys who got it done.

In fact, those guys did everything they could to develop as much back country as possible during their time in office. Aside from the time they spend "fact finding" during fishing trips, of course.

MTV

MTV, I do remember seeing a photo of James Watt posing for the camera with his foot on top of a dead moose or elk that he just killed, so I guess I shouldn't have labeled him that way. His name just poped into my head thinking about that time period.

I fly the Grand Canyon a lot since it so close and beautiful .Go early morning for best views and conditions. Awesome secereny for miles and miles . Tour operators follow there little "blue 2 -3-etc. "routes on the Grand Canyon Chart. I overfly there stuff (Stay above 8000msl west and 14k middle -east west ) and out of there way. I have been much lower in the Canyon years ago. Park Service pilot Bruce L. flys a 206 from Boulder City in west half of Canyon and down Colorado River for his patrol. I see Bruce ever few days and he has come out and landed behind us at some out of the way airstrips. Bruce used to fly for Lake Meade Air before they went out of business so he knows the area very well. North Rim has Bar 10 and Teweep are on map and another dozen or so that are not on map -5 inside National park property and rest out of park property .

I was just passing through and I was trying to video, fly, and watch for other traffic all at the same time. It was a sight. I'm sorry my video wasn't a little better. Bob

Check out this powerpoint presentation concerning the airspace surrounding the Grand Caynon. Possibly some good information for anyone planning a flight in the area that is not familiar with the operation.
http://grandcanyonairspace.iat.gov/index1.html