Recommendations for flying in the US

Colorado and Utah. The Rockies, incomparable.

dutch_flyer wrote:

In NM I’d look at Farmington as a home base, which puts you in range of a lot of good flying territory. It’s also on top of a mesa, which is just amazing!

Nothing wrong with Farmington (although I think you confuse it with Sedona, which really is located spectacularly on top of a mesa!), but you’ll have limited rental options there. I just checked and there’s only one flight school. Also – you need to get there! I’d suggest flying into either Phoenix or Vegas, where there are rental options aplenty and strike out from there.

It may be premature, but one thing: out there you are in real wilderness, at sightseeing altitudes out of radio, radar and ADS-B contact. Make sure to have at least a basic survival kit (water, water and more water!) on board. I have a grab bag with energy bars, basic first-aid kit and foil blankets that I throw in the back whenever I go flying out there and also take one of these 24-packs of 1 quart (+/- 1 liter) of water. Also don’t be fooled by high daytime temps. This is high desert country where it can get pretty cold at night.

Anyway, looks like you’re on the right track. Enjoy!

172driver wrote:

Also – you need to get there! I’d suggest flying into either Phoenix or Vegas, where there are rental options aplenty and strike out from there.

Good point about getting to Farmington, although Albuquerque is a fine option in that case. I personally hate Phoenix. It’s a city that shouldn’t even exist, and it’s also still blazing hot in the fall. But as a starting point it could be ok as long as you get up to Sedona as quickly as possible… ;). Chandler airport is a good base out of the Phoenix area with plenty of rental choices. From Phoenix you could go north to Sedona/Flagstaff, then the Grand Canyon area (most interesting bits of AZ IMHO), then northeast toward Mesa Verde in CO, then south to Farmington, Santa Fe, over the Sandias, to Alomogordo (KALM), where you MUST stop and go see white sands! It’s otherworldly. From there back to Chandler. I think you can do that in a few days and see a lot of interesting sights.

Rent where it’s cheapest. Fly to scenary.10 hour prepay likely gets a discount.
Discuss deductable and insurance.
LAS Vegas hotels are more expensive weekends.
For survival I have my day desert hike pack
Alternate looking up from canyon wishing I was in aircraft I can see flying over, and looking down at green vegetation in a canyon, wishing I was down there.
Grand Canyon has restrictions. I’ve flown low through the Black and Grey Canyons of the Green River.

Some really good stuff in this thread WRT flying in the West. My own home base is “Everybody’s Home Town”, Prescott, Az, 5,000’ elevation but still hot in the summer. I’ve been to every quarter of the US from there (except the far NE) and at most times of year, all by 172. Late Fall and late Spring are best, but many northern National Parks (like Yellowstone) don’t open until late May.

The key ingredient is Fly Early. Everything’s open by 6am and there’s a golden time in the morning before the bumps get going. Plus you can stay much closer to UK time with less trauma when you have to come back!

Diving straight into long distance touring may take the joy out of it. I started with modest trips, overnights, a few days, weeks and finally a month at a time. Beyond a month you start to run out of places to go!

Beware unreasonable minimums. Most FBO’s insist on 3Hr per day, which is doable but very hard. Some ask for 4Hr per day which is frankly unreasonable. It’s hard to get a day off with those numbers. Try to get a weekly rate somewhere around 15Hrs by finding out what the FBO’s quiet periods are.

There’s no greater flying adventure than touring the West. Go for it!!

Very good points above by Aveling. In Arizona, February, it was bumpy as hell in the afternoon. I also stayed on UK time for the 2 weeks I flew there, which was very convenient for an early start. Unless of course you want to go boozing with the locals, but most of them will drink you under the table

Couple more thoughts:
- if you can, get a C182. The extra ooompf comes in handy in hot n’ high situations
- get the CFI who’s gonna do your checkout to go through hot and high procedures, unless you’re familiar with them. Grand Canyon airport is at 6600ft, Flagstaff at 7000ft…
- check the ground infrastructure of the places you want to visit. Not an issue in places like Sedona or Santa Fe, but there is very limited / no ground transport available at some of the smaller, more remote places. There may or may not be a crew car available and you usually cannot take it for more than a couple of hours. Enterprise Rent-a-Car FBO services will deliver cars to many FBOs, but don’t count on that in really remote places. Often the hotel will pick you up if they know in advance.
- flying early in the day is a good idea
- give yourself a couple of days to acclimatize when you get there

Further to @Qalupalik’s post above I found this weeks episode of flying down the US/Mexican border to be entertaining. Starts in the open desert and
ends at Douglas, Arizona where it is impossible to land to the north without overflying Mexico, with ambiguous legality (might be worth my looking it up). Bear in mind the pilot learned to fly shortly before taking this flight.

“There may or may not be a crew car available and you usually cannot take it for more than a couple of hours.”
Uninsured for anyone not on a US car insurance, I believe, so likely not for you. Some airfields are within walking distance of motels and restaurants, if you want to overnight.
Taxi???
I stay away from the Mexico border, to avoid suspicion stressing the FBO.