Sedona Day Trip - Last Trip of the Year!

What a great way to end the year. (10 minutes to 2009 as I am typing)

I was able to fly to Sedona with RaNae and great friends,
meet many new friends during lunch and after,
fly over the Grand Canyon,
and have just an incredible day for flying in the RV-10.

Before we launched from Grassy Meadows (UT47) near St. George, UT I put out a quick post in the Regional section on VAF that we would be flying to Sedona for lunch hoping we could meet up with a few others.
With my post only going out about an hour before leaving I didn't think anyone would even read it.

Gene Porter and his wife Carol were going to join us in their beautiful RV-7A but we decided to all go together in the -10. We headed out around 11:30 and had a 1 hour and 18 second flight to Sedona via Tuckup Corridor over the Grand Canyon. It was sunny, smooth and beautiful on the way over.







We landed and stepped out of the plane into beautiful warm weather. It was in the mid to upper 50's but the sun made it feel like 80 degrees.
After getting a table and sitting down we ordered our food and three guys approached us and introduced themselves. They saw the post and flew down from Flagstaff. I was really amazed they caught the post and very happy the came over to join us.

Here we are having lunch.


From left to right: Carol and Gene Porter, Mark, Pat, Brad, RaNae and Scott

Mark and Brad flew over in a 182 and Pat flew over in his RV-6A.
Brad has a 6A being worked on at Sedona and is completing another 6A back at Flagstaff.

It was a real pleasure to talk with them during lunch. The RV community sounds very strong at Flagstaff, AZ.

After lunch we walked out to the plane and I found three cars blocking the plane with some people around it. RaNae and I joked that I busted a TFR and we were being blocked from leaving.
There we met RV-10 builders Chip, Don and Karen, they have an RV-10 right there at Sedona. A few other pilots came by and we all talked for close to an hour on the ramp.
We were all enjoying everyone's company and that great warm sun. Hard to believe it was the last day of the year.

We exchanged information, purchased fuel and headed for home.
Red Rock Crossing was on our left as well as Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. The Grand Canyon is OK too.

Restaurant






Gene captured this shot of me.






Approaching Grassy Meadows and Hurricane


Spot tracking of the day


We can't think of the better way to spend the last day of the year.
Happy New Year!

I was actually in the air working on my Phase I when my cell phone went off. Since I was entering the pattern at Cottonwood (P52), I went ahead and landed and picked up my voicemail from Brad telling me that Scott's -10 would be at Sedona. We weren't sure of the time (Arizona ignores Daylight Savings Time, putting us out of synch half the year and confusing us all the time), but we guessed right. I went ahead and fueled up and then did a 30-minute fuel consumption run before turning back and landing at Sedona and got to the restaurant last but not too late.

I spotted Brad's 182 and an odd RV-10 (turned out to be a Cirrus) so I taxied to that parking and found out later that Scott had parked at the transient area closest to the restaurant. Just as well, because his beautiful -10 was the star of the after-lunch show. Pictures don't really do it justice; let me just say I am more determined than ever to do an RV-10 next and I now have a standard to build to.

It was also very nice to meet Gene and his wife and I am hoping they will accept our invitation to return in their -7A and join the Flagstaff Airport Slugs for Friday lunch some time.

After spending a couple of hours on lunch and tire-kicking, the Flagstaff contingent fueled up as we watched Scott depart and then departed ourself for home. I had to get back in time to remove the remaining snow from in front of my hangar, so I ended up the day about 1.5 hours short of the halfway mark on my Phase I. Oh, well, it was worth it; I had a great time. Happy New Year to everyone and hope to see you all sometime.

Now I'll have to try the "Sedona via Tuckup Corridor over the Grand Canyon". Thanks for the link, & of course the pics.

P.S. -- I also sent a link of your quick hop from Grassy Meadows to Hurricane to Bill L. at Skypark to show that there was indeed sun and no snow on the ground to the south. He had wanted to fly to Page, AZ in the 9A between Christmas and New Years, and was kind of bummed out about it. However...........he didn't answer his cell phone yesterday, and perhaps he saw the light........(sun).... and headed south afterall.

L.Adamson

Im wonder what the funky little mike-muffs on the Bose are? they don't look like standard ones..

Cheers,
Matt

Mic Muff from Oregon Aero

MattSR said:

Im wonder what the funky little mike-muffs on the Bose are? they don't look like standard ones..

Cheers,
Matt

Click to expand...

http://www.oregonaero.com/p5657_2001.html
http://www.oregonaero.com/p5859_2001.html

I have Bose headsets and PS Engineering 8000B intercom in the RV-10. Initially I had issues with all four headsets and the ambient noise activating the mics. We would be flying along and hear cockpit noise like a metronome. I could tell the electronics were trying to squelch for it but had a hard time. At Oshkosh I took my headsets to Bose and they switched out the mic booms for a different style (non-electric or something) and also told me to put the Mic Muffs on for added measure. They work perfect now.
When you are on the ground taxing you have to talk a little louder to activate but once in the air they activate normally with your voice.

It has been over a year since I dealt with this issue and can't remember everything about the mic modification but if you have the PS Engineering audio panel and Bose headsets and feel they are being activated with cockpit noise, give Bose a call.

Thanks for the info scott - i'm sure that will come in handy some day