While its a passion of ours at Wings Northwest Real Estate to help you find your base of operations in the Pacific Northwest and beyond we also get that you might want to get out and stretch your wings a bit and experience the joy of travel…maybe even by general aviation!

In general aviation travel, there are bucket list items that are somewhat standard:  A flight to Catalina Island.  Oshkosh.  General mountain flying. A seaplane rating. An international trip to Canada or Mexico.  Maybe its flying special routes such as the Hudson River Corridor in New York, or the Grand Canyon airspace corridors!  

In September we were able to check a few off our list, and tried another, which continues to elude us! (Landing at Telluride.)

We decided that it was time to check Sedona and the Grand Canyon off our bucket list. It was a long day but we were rewarded by quite the sights.  After a leg from Portland, our second leg from Battle Mountain to Sedona included Zion National Park, and soon after we flew one of the several corridors in the Grand Canyon Special Flight Rules area!  Preflight planning and a bit of digging helped me settle on the Dragon Corridor, and the views were pretty amazing.  I wanted a little altitude, which worked well since there are specific rules for altitudes when it comes to GA flight over the area.  Below, some of the air tours get to fly the route lower, but they often have turbine and or two engine power.  If you’re going to do any Grand Canyon flying diligent research is a must.  There are several requirements to transitioning through the airspace, but nothing careful study won’t cover.  

Bucket list items in aviation almost always require a bit of homework!  Sedona definitely requires some attention to detail as well. For example, our long day resulted from our departing VERY early in the morning.  Why?  Sedona is high altitude,  its considered a mountain airport, and is…well..in the desert… All factors which affect density altitude.  The moral of the story is you generally want to be on the ground before the heat of the day.  Sedona also sits on a plateau, which means that WHEN (not if) the winds kick up it adds a whole different complexity as the air moves through the red-stone pillars and canyon landscape.  We also planned on landing light, knowing we would get fuel on the way out, which increased our performance should we have needed a go-around.  Because of that plateau, which also happens to be in the middle of a valley of rock, the pattern is somewhat non standard.  The practice some pilots affectionately call the B-52 pattern (aka HUGE!), just won’t work.  You have to keep it tight and tidy, on speed and stabilized, preferably with a tad of extra energy on short final for the unstable wind you might find due to that drop-off at both ends of the airport!  But not too much… the runway is a pretty good length, but because of density altitude the ground speed is already higher, so rollout length is a consideration. So if you’re going to go, make sure you are dialed in on your pattern work and can keep it tight and well rehearsed so that you can identify issues with speed and altitude. Diligent pattern practice will help you know what you need to do configuration wise to get back where you need to be.  Sedona, and mountain flying airports in general, is not the place to not be polished up but they are so rewarding to pull off!

Sedona can check off a few bucket list boxes.  The airport itself of course, but also the $100 Hamburger!  There’s a good restaurant, Mesa Grill, https://mesagrillsedona.com/ on the field where you can walk from your plane and enjoy watching fellow airplane folk check off their boxes too!  We have to be honest, this is going to be a repeated bucket list thing for us, and while a lot of it is just flying into Sedona itself, a lot has to do with Sky Ranch Lodge, too! https://skyranchlodge.com/ Just a few blocks walk from where you chock your plane, this hotel hosts a botanical garden, pools and really comfortable beds!  Our room was one of the several that had a great view of the valley and the city of Sedona below and I think we would definitely say it's worth it. You can walk to viewpoints from any of the rooms.  In fact probably one of the most popular viewpoints for sunset in the area is less than a block away.   People flock in cars to this spot, and you can walk from your room at the hotel!  There’s an Airstream that the hotel uses to do meals like salads and sandwiches as well as pizza too!  The hotel offers a shuttle which is really handy for pilots who fly in to be able to get down to town for a stroll or a meal.  

The FBO on the field was so friendly and greeted us on the arrival.  I felt the machine was in good and safe hands there!  We ended up needing a bit of maintenance and AeroZona aviation got us right in and out and on our way!

https://mesagrillsedona.com/

https://skyranchlodge.com/