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Grand Canyon, Hurricane UT, Sedona, Valle over Thanksgiving

ScottSchmidt

Well Known Member
With two girls under the age of 2 it has been difficult to keep up with lots of things in my life, including trip reports. This is a little late but still thought I would share a trip we did over Thanksgiving.
We rented a house at Skyranch Grassy Meadows airport in Hurricane UT over Thanksgiving week. It was a great week of flying. I think I put 16 hours of flying on the plane taking day trips to Valle airport, Sedona, tours over the Grand Canyon and sunset flights on most nights.


For starters, it was Emily's first flight. We went up one evening and had a nice quick flight. She didn't mind the earmuffs and it was Anna's (21 months) first time wearing the Bose instead of the earmuffs. I think she really liked being able to hear us. Anna would nod when we asked her a question and liked looking out the window.

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Here is a shot of Grassy Meadows with Sand Hollow reservoir and sand dunes in the background. The house is available to rent on vrbo.com.
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Here are a couple of pictures we took of the sand dunes on sunset flights.
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My parents, brothers and their family came down for Thanksgiving and stayed the weekend. In addition to flying I borrowed a Razor XP from a friend and we had a blast riding that on sand dunes. Gene Porter (RV-7A) was a very good guide on the dunes riding his powerful 4-wheeler. I also purchased a bunch of tannerite to shoot. Shooting tannerite is like flying an RV, you can't not have a smile on your face. If you don't know what it is just YouTube "tannerite".
OK, back to flying.
 
Between flying to Valle airport, Sedona, and giving a couple of tours, I crossed the Grand Canyon six times. Here are a few pictures we took.
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Valle Airport
http://www.valleairport.com/
One morning we flew to Valle for breakfast and to see the museum. Valle is located just south of the Grand Canyon airport. I found out that the original Grand Canyon airport was located somewhere between Valle and the current Grand Canyon airport. When we left we looked for the hangar that is apparently still there but could not find it.
We landed at Valle and were greeted by the manager. He was very nice and offered us a courtesy car. We decided to walk to breakfast which was a funny adventure. The breakfast is located at a Flintstone RV park about 1/2 mile to the north of the airport. The diner is heated by a wood fire place and their coffee was only 5 cents. The breakfast was not too bad.

Pictures of Valle Airport
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You can see the Flintstone park in this picture.
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Valle really had two museums. The owner of the airport has some of the original airplanes used for tours at the Grand Canyon and the manager showed us around those planes. At Valle you can pay to get your type rating in a Ford Tri-motor if you would like as well.
They also have a Planes of Fame museum that was small but nice. In the FBO there is a nice collection of old cars.

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We had a great time there and would recommend this as a stop.
 
The other trip we did was back to Sedona for lunch now that the new restaurant is open. It was my parents anniversary and Sedona is where my grandparents lived. We flew by my grandparent's old house on the way in. I have many memories climbing all over the rocks there. His house is just off the front of the wing with all the trees. He planted tons of trees when he lived there.
You can also see Bell Rock on the right, Red Rock Crossing is the formation before the mesa where the airport is located.

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We ate at the new restaurant and it was good food but just felt to stuffy for me. I really liked the old rustic restaurant much better. The prices were a little high as well, it was a $110 hamburger.
Here is a picture of the new restaurant.
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View from inside.
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I caught this picture of Grandpa and Anna holding hands back to the airplane.
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We hiked to the dinosaur tracks again which is always fun for everyone to see.
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Well, it was another great trip with the RV-10. The flight home is about 1.5 hours and Anna slept the whole time. After we landed I pushed the plane into the hangar and she slept another 1.5 hours just sitting there. There is no better sleeping than in a plane!
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Wonderful write-ups, Scott. You're a master at that. You're going to have to duke it out with Paul and Louise over who gets all the commissions. Between their flight reports and your posts, you guys are surely "selling" a lot of future airplanes!

--
Stephen
 
That's a fact!

Wow! Those images are spectacular! We owned a small lot in Village of Oak Creek (Sedona) and ended up selling it, but wish we still had it. I intend to make it back out West some day...
Thanks for sharing those Scott! Always great posts!
 
Love your pictures

Our kids do the same, sleep long after the flight once the plane is in the hanger. It is an indication that you land the plane well or they are just used to the bumps;)
 
Camera?

Trip looked awesome but as an amateur photographer I'm also intrigued by the pictures, what camera are you using?

--Bjorn
Heber City, UT
N16TX
 
With two girls under the age of 2 it has been difficult to keep up with lots of things in my life, including trip reports.


For starters, it was Emily's first flight.

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About time you told the folks in VAF land about her.;)

Congrats, and as usual, great trip report.
 
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About time you told the folks in VAF land about her.
Congrats, and as usual, great trip report.
I know I was slow on that one. Like I said, things have been very busy around the Schmidt house with both of them.

Trip looked awesome but as an amateur photographer I'm also intrigued by the pictures, what camera are you using?

--Bjorn
Heber City, UT
N16TX

Last year I took the plunge and purchased the Canon 5D MarkII and have just loved it. I still really like my Canon G10 (G12 is the latest) and Panasonic LX3 but the 5D is really a nice camera with a full frame sensor. Those pictures were shot with a 8-15mm and 24-105mm lens.
 
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