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Fulfilling That Promise - Part Two - Entering the Dragon
Daron J Cristy, Contributing Writer & Photographer

Waking up in Williams Arizona, I found that I had a couple of large blisters from the late-night stroll from the airport to the hotel!

First though, a check on the weather, hoping for calm winds. Unfortunately, the winds had picked up and were now 20 to 30 kts with gusts up to 40. No flying today for Mia Noi.

Thankfully, I was able to arrange a car with Grand Canyon Car Rentals to give me some mobility. Luckily, they were also based at Clark Memorial Field airport and were happy to come and collect me from the hotel (which also made me happy, as I had no clue how I was going to get back to the airport). They are the only car rental agency in the Grand Canyon and Williams area, and even able to arrange out of hours pickups and drop offs.

No flying but at least I could now drive to the Grand Canyon Airport (KGCN) and check out airport operations.

Monty at the Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines introduced me to Captain Jack and Captain Scott. They were both very welcoming and provided great insight.

Scenic Airlines started operations in 1929. The following year the name was changed to Grand Canyon Airlines. Grand Canyon Airlines is believed to be the world's oldest air tour company in continuous operations.

After spending the afternoon at the airport chatting with the tour pilots, it was back to Mia Noi to check on her before getting a good night's rest.

Wednesday morning, fingers crossed, I checked the weather. Winds were now blowing 24 to 40 knots with gusts up to 50 knots. Mia Noi's wheels are definitely going to stay on the ground. As a caution I also decided to double up on the tie down chains. It now made sense as to why some of the hooks on the tie down chains were stretched out.

With Mia Noi being safely grounded, it seemed like the best thing to do was to head back to Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines.

En route, I stopped by the Planes of Fame Museum at Valle Airport, but that was closed and looked like it had been for a while. It seems plans are underway for them to reopen in April 2022.

Perhaps I could at least catch a ride in the right seat on a tour in one of their Cessna Caravans or Twin Otters. They had been so helpful and welcoming the previous day, at least I would fly the Canyon, even if I was not the pilot.

I spent quite a while chatting with Captain Scott whilst they decided on the feasibility of flying with the strong winds. But the winds were not relenting, and soon the tour companies started shutting down operations for the day. All the tours ended up being grounded.

Back to base. Another day grounded. Though this was disappointing, I can say that I was able to accumulate a wealth of knowledge and insight.

Thursday was my last hope. Winds had been forecast to ease, perhaps enough for me to get in the air. Hopefully, they would be low enough for me to head to Grand Canyon Airport and complete my mission or I may just have to head back to San Diego.

Waking up to winds of 10-12 knots, not ideal, but we can do that.

Fueled up Mia Noi, did a couple of touch and goes, and then turned north towards the Grand Canyon. I had made it this far; I was going to give this my best shot.

I flew low and slow on the 50-mile trip from Williams to Grand Canyon Airport (KGCN). Flying over what seems to have been an abandoned Valle Airport (KVLE). It turns out that the old man who loved Valle Airport passed away and his family had no interest in running the airport, so they essentially just locked up the gates and have just let the airport slowly fall into disrepair.

An uneventful landing on runway 21 and taxi up to the Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines, which is the only FBO at the airport.

To help reduce weight, I stripped Mia Noi clean of anything that was not totally necessary.

Full tank of Avgas and all systems charged and operational.

I departed on the 9000' runway heading south, explaining to the tower that I would be just to the Southeast gaining altitude for my entry into the Canyon.

As we were hoping to fly north along the Zuni corridor and then south down the Dragon these flight levels are set for General Aviation aircraft:

Northbound is 10,500' and 12,500' and southbound is 11,500' and 13,500'.

Tour companies have their own flight levels depending on whether they are fixed wing or helicopter.

The climb was tough even though the airport is at 6,609 feet elevation. It was still quite windy. It took a while just to get to 9500 feet ASL. Mia Noi just did not seem to want to climb higher. Strong winds buffeted us. After about 20 minutes of no luck, I almost gave up, but somehow, we caught an upwind that lifted us to 10,500. Not enough to go north, but we could fly around the edge and enter the Canyon from the top (southbound General Aviation traffic flight level is 10,500). I called the tower and headed east to circumvent the special flight rules area, so we could enter from the north side.

It was cold too. The Great Lakes does have a heater, but being an open cockpit, it achieves little, especially as the temperatures continued to drop. On some of the footage you can see areas where there is still snow on the ground.

By some miracle as we flew east, we hit another up draft. We had made it to 11,500. Immediately turning Mia Noi around, we headed straight for the lower check in point on the Zuni corridor.

Changed frequency to 120.5.

This was when I first really noticed that the battery life on my iPad had drained quickly and was now only 35%. Thankfully, I had a battery backup with me, looks like I will be using it.

We flew over the edge of the canyon. Immediately the winds whipped up, updrafts, downdrafts, and some abrupt cross winds. It was freezing cold and as you can see in the video, we got jostled around a lot. I am sure that the only reason I was comfortable flying in these turbulent conditions was due to my aerobatic training and knowing the full capabilities of Mia Noi.

Flying north I proceeded up the Zuni corridor. The battery on my iPad continued to drop dramatically.

Initially I had hoped to fly up to Marble Canyon (KL41) but the cold, the poor performance on the iPad, and the fact that I had burnt so much fuel getting to altitude ruled that out as a possibility.

Captain Scott had told me that the circle at Point Imperial, in between the Zuni and Dragon corridors, represented a no-fly zone or more specifically a Critical Noise Sensitive Area. He suggested I fly around the top rather than try to sneak through the narrow corridor on the south side. Well, to be honest, it was too darn cold, so I decided the southern pass was going to be our route of choice. By now my whole body was shaking from the cold.

https://youtu.be/h3Gvquh3Tq8

Time to descend to 10,500 feet and start the southern pass down the dragon. Hopefully both I and the iPad will benefit from the slight drop in altitude.

Using the battery booster, I was expecting that the iPad would survive the flight, but now the battery strength was all the way down to 5%. The booster did not seem to make much difference!

I did manage to get the latest ATIS before the iPad shut down completely, the battery booster had failed. After some research, lithium batteries do not do well in extreme temperatures, hot or cold. This also explains why 4 out of 5 cameras failed too.

Tilting the plane over I caught a glimpse of the river as we passed over it. This was the check in point that Captain Scott had mentioned. Contacting the tower with the latest ATIS, they cleared me to land on runway 28 by entering right base.

Just for clarity I notified them that I had lost all navigation and traffic due to the iPad failure. Back to old school VFR flying!

Mia Noi was on track, so the tower called to let me know to continue, as well as notifying me there was a tour plane passing about a thousand feet below me under my left wing. I had a visual on them. The tower called back and told me to turn and follow them in. It was in fact Captain Scott.

The tour plane landed well before me and called out windshear at 50 feet. Of course, just one more challenge! The runway being 9000 feet long, I just kept up airspeed and powered through it. We floated down the runway for a bit due to the speed, but slowed down nicely, touching down smoothly, and taxied back to the FBO.

Now I was safely back on the ground, I thanked Captain Scott for all of his insight and especially for calling out the windshear.

As both the iPad and I thawed out, both functionalities returned to normal.

Do you have a plan for total electronics failure?

A few photos with some visitors who wanted to take pictures in front of Mia Noi. Then a quick refuel and it was time to head back to San Diego via Lake Havasu.

As I departed, I thanked the tower for their hospitality and for their patience with me.

Flying over vast areas of desert. The views were stunning.

Just a few hours later I was approaching home as the sun began to set.

As the sunset on Montgomery Gibbs Field, I placed Mia Noi safely back in the hangar and headed home.

Mission accomplished Kevin, I completed our flight as promised. It was certainly not what I had expected, I was not able to fly as many routes as I wanted and did not get to land at the other two airports. But I did it, I flew the Grand Canyon in Mia Noi.

The views were quite spectacular, and even the clouds in the sky seemed surreal. It had been unexpectedly cold which had produced the electronics issue.

Perhaps it was meant to be that I did this trip solo. I met some great people along the way and learned a lot about my capability as a pilot and my faithful Great Lakes biplane, Mia Noi.

When I came to process the video from the flight it was obvious that not only had the cold shut the iPad down but also the cameras. As you watch the videos you will see each camera drop off as it shut down due to the cold. Only one camera was able to survive the whole flight and I have no idea why.

If you too want to fly the Grand Canyon you should go to your local pilot store and get a paper copy of the specific aeronautical chart for the area. One side has the flight rules for General Aviation and the other has the rules for commercial tour operators who have specific authorization from the FAA. This will be the best $5 you spend!

Should we revisit the Grand Canyon? I really would like to fly into Marble Canyon (KL41) as the views are supposed to be spectacular.

Perhaps with a group this time?

Let us know your thoughts. mianoitrading@gmail.com

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