Eclipse 2023, southwestern US

The annular eclipse on Oct 14 over the southwestern US had been on my agenda for a while, an ideal opportunity to go for another short GA-trip. Starting at Montgomery Field, San Diego, I planned to watch the eclipse somewhere in the Four Corners region. The weather forecast was a bit uncertain, but eventually everything worked out beautifully. We planned from day to day, just the first night at Tucson had been booked from home.

This is what we did, about 1400NM and 18hrs hobbs time.

We took off on Thursday, a nice early morning departure. As I did on several occasions in the past I used a C172 of Plus One Flyers. N74C is the nicest 172 I have ever flown. Clean, new paint, great performance (180hp conversion), good useful load, great instrumentation.

Waiting for IFR release at MYF. Great panel!

First fuel stop at Gila Bend, AZ, 5.63$/gal. Not bad, and totally hassle free.

On the way to Tucson we passed the Pima copper mine, an impressive hole in the ground. Great soaring weather too!

After landing at Tucson we had to wait on the taxiway for a bit to let I don´t know how many AZ Air National Guard F16s taxi by.

We used Atlantic FBO, which provided great service, a modern crew lounge with cookies and beverages and the nicest crew car I´ve had yet. We took it to the Pima Air Museum, a couple of miles down the road. Also, after our return they gave us a ride to our hotel which was much appreciated. It comes at a cost though, about 70$ for the overnight (we did not refuel). Anyway, not too bad compared with major European airports.

The museum is really cool with a lot of interesting airplanes, both inside and on a vast outside area. Here are just two examples….if you´re into it, a visit is highly recommended.

The next morning, a dawn departure again.

First stop for the day was Chandler, in the southeastern parts of Phoenix. The Hangar Cafe was a recommendation of a friend. Well worth a breakfast visit. We also got relatively cheap fuel at the self service pump. Again, everything totally relaxed, major credit cards accepted, easy peasy.

Our next leg was IFR to Sedona, AZ. As always in complicated airspace, going IFR is easier if you´re not familiar with the area. We had to wait a couple of minutes for the IFR release, there was quite a bit of traffic. During the climb out Approach vectored us right across Sky Harbor, apparently we were not the only ones who had to wait.

Getting closer to Sedona the landscape turned red, it´s really quite spectacular. We were cleared for the visual and cancelled IFR before landing. Unlike in Europe, you don´t have to close your flight plan anymore, the IFR cancellation takes care of this.

On final for Sedonas RWY03…what an approach!

We took a very nice 2hr hike before having lunch at the Mesa Grill, a cool restaurant just next to the apron. Many things to see from there, but I can´t post all the pictures. We saw all kind of airplanes while eating, including a Marine Corps V22 Osprey that visited for the Airport Open House Weekend.

The last leg of the day was a quick 150NM to Gallup, NM. On the way we passed the Winslow Meteor Crater. I had seen it in June, but my daughter had not, so delayed picking up our IFR clearance until we had circled it.

Gallup, NM. Another uncontrolled airport that provided easy refueling and a surprisingly good 70$-motel in walking distance.

I wanted to do a couple of night landings to be legal flying with my daughter, should I need it later during the trip. A gentleman from Phoenix had flown his Arrow over to Gallup and brought his telescope. We used it to watch the Saturn rings after I had parked 74C for the night. Awesome experience!

Early the next morning we thought about staying at Gallup to watch the eclipse but instead opted to fly 70NM further north to Shiprock, NM., a 1600m airstrip in the middle of nowhere. We weren´t the only ones with that idea. When we landed quite a few planes were already there with more arriving until a few minutes before totality. Getting out of the plane people starting introducing themselves and we had the greatest time together with a bunch of like-minded aviators, waiting for the moon to cover the sun.

Unlike a total eclipse, the annular eclipse leaves the outer part of the sun visible….a ring of fire. It makes for a very eery light and temperatures dropped significantly. Being at an elevation of 5200ft, it got COLD!

That´s what Shiprock has its name for:

After the moon had traveled a bit further it got warm again and before long people started to depart. We talked a bit longer with a couple from Colorado who had flown in with their C185 and eventually set off for the most spectacular flight of the trip, across the Monument Valley to Page, AZ. The pictures can only partly show the beauty of this area. It´s breathtaking!

Approaching Page from the southeast you´ll get a good view at Lake Powell.

Page Airport, AZ. Good self announcing on CTAF was very important (as always), as landings are usually on RWY33, departures on RWY15. Again, though there is quite some mixed traffic it´s all very relaxed, even without a “Flugleiter”.

This is the crew car we got from Million Air. Cool!

The day was not over yet, although what we had seen would have been enough for a week. We departed Page for the 10min hop over to Marble Canyon, L41. This little gem is a small airport inside the Grand Canyon Special Flight Rules Zone. You cross the rim within 3NM of the airport and then descend into the Canyon for landing. There´s a lodge at the end of the runway where we spent the night.

On right downwind RWY03 you pass Navajo Bridge.

Right base….even more spectacular than Sedona if you ask me.

We met two pilots from the UK who had flown their 172s in from Vegas. They did not know EuroGA, would you believe it? Guys, have you found the forum in the meantime?

Before calling it a day my daughter and I spent an hour on the deserted runway watching the stars….wow!

We were not really sure how to start our Sunday, we finally decided to cross the Grand Canyon and fly to Lake Havasu. Crossing the Grand Canyon Special Flight Rules Zone below 14.500ft is only possible through a few corridors. We flew down the Dragon Corridor at 10.500ft before picking up our IFR with LA Center.

Crossing the Colorado river.

Lake Havasu is a town that is known for its “London Bridge”. Rather unspectacular though, I would not recommend doing a large detour for it.

On our way to Los Angeles we needed gas and lunch, Big Bear seemed to be a great stop for this. Fuel is the cheapest you´ll find anywhere in the LA area, the Barnstormer restaurant is right at the flightline. The airport is situated on a plateau next to a lake at an elevation of 6.700ft, so you better consider density altitude when you go there. When we left it was at 8.500ft, but take off performance calculations showed margins within my comfort zone.

We walked along the lake for while, fall had already arrived despite the warm day temperatures.

The last leg of the day was a 1hr sunset flight across the greater Los Angeles area. It´s stunning to see how large this metropolitan area really is. One airport after the other and complicated airspace called for an IFR flightplan again.

My original plan was to fly into LAX, but after getting quotes from the two FBOs I decided that it wasn´t worth the 600$+ bill. Instead we chose to fly to Santa Monica. We parked the airplane there for two nights, for a total of about 40$.

We spent the next day walking on the beach and visiting SoFi stadium for Monday Night Football, quite an experience.

The trip was coming to an end on Tuesday. We filed an IFR plan to Gillespie Field, San Diego, not just for simplicity. The marine layer made a VFR departure from Santa Monica impossible, although it took only a minute to climb out of it. On the way south SoCal TRACON vectored us across LAX airport, there´s a 747 just crossing the 24L numbers.

We visited @Silvaire at KSEE and had a nice time at his beautiful hangar before eventually returning 74C after a short flight over to Montgomery. It was a beautiful little trip, I can´t wait to return for the next one.