Colorado River Fall Fling?

[Tom Goodrick]

In the September Issue of AOPA PILOT, Patrick J Mathews published an illustrated article about flying down the Colorado River. I think this would make a very interesting Fall Fling as we have done before. It would not take too long, about two weeks I'd guess.

It starts at Granby, Colorado and ends at Yuma, Arizona (but we could consider a final leg into Mexico to the Sea of Cortez). It descends in elevation from 8,203 ft at Granby to 213 ft at Yuma. We could start it in mid to late October as winter comes into Colorado and end in the perpetual sunshine of Yuma - a nice change.

Mathews lists a series of airports suitable as fuel stops or overnight stops. I have added a couple near Hoover Dam. The idea would be to make a landing at each airport in the list. A few scenic photos along the way could be posted for the enjoyment of others. The Grand Canyon is right in the middle of this trip so there should be plenty of good scenery for those who hug the ground. Ant airplane would be suitable though you might want to practice flying some out of Granby where the air is a little thin.

I would prescreen and select a set of Real Weather files you can download for certain sets of legs. The point is to experience topical and local weather without making it an IMC experience and without messing up the scenery.

Right now I have a list of 13 airports. The article says the overall distance is 1450 miles. But I just made a flight plan from Granby to El Doctor (MM0G) and it only shows 797 nm with straight legs between all airports. There are 15 airports including San Luis which is needed for Mexican Customs. I'll work up an info sheet on all the airports. I envision this as being strictly eyeball navigation.

Do we want to keep track of fuel and flight time?

Please let me know what you think.

[Ed Burke]

Sounds great Tom, just the thing for my return home after all the Red Centre stuff of the Kalgoorlie trip. I have installed some good scenery for the Grand Canyon and it is always a buzz to wander through there down near the river level. Count me in, I'm easy about fuel and time, a simple fling would be OK.

Ed

[Tom Goodrick]

Here's a list of the airports that serve as waypoints. The list shows the distance from the previous airport.

Granby GNB (8203 msl) (start)
Glenwood Springs GWS (5916) 74 nm
Garfield Cnty and Rifle RIL (5544) 19 nm
Grand Junction (4858) GJT 44 nm
Canyon Lands (4553) CNY 61 nm
Bullfrog Basin U07 (4167) 86 nm
Page PGA (4313) 57 nm
Grand Canyon (6606) GCN 68
Grand Canyon West (4775) 1G4 81 nm
Echo Bay (1535) 0L9 37 nm
Boulder City (2201) 61B 29 nm
Bullhead City (695) IFP 50 nm
Lake Havasu City (781) HII 37 (London Bridge)
Yuma YUM (216) 116
San Luis (50) MM20 16 nm
El Doctor (50 msl) MM0G 30 nm

I have started the route in a Baron 58P flying a few thousand ft above the surface to make photos along the route. There are parts in the beginning where the river is barley visible. It would be good to have the flight plan that shows straight lines between each of these airports.

[jerryluke]

Count me in also. I abandoned my round the world flight in the B350 following 60 degrees longitude because it was incredibly dull. This sound like much more fun!!

[flaminghotsauce]

This does sound like fun. I've been doing some "fall color" flying anyway. I like that it's not really long. I would prefer the eyeball navigation, too. Might as well check out some Mexico in my opinion. I'm not too big on time and fuel either. Just casual sightseeing would be great.

[Allen Peterson]

Count me in.
I think you mean RIL for Garfield Co. (Rifle)?

[johnl]

Sounds like a good idea. I'm on leave next week, and there have been a few British GA types released recently, so if you see a dH Hornet Moth/Miles Whitney Straight/Miles Monarch/Miles Gemini/Beagle Airedale/Percival Proctor* it might well be me.

* all available at www.classicbritishfiles.com

[Tom Goodrick]

Yes, Allen is right. The second GWS should be RIL and the nearest town is Rifle.

This route is shown on the Sectional Aeronautical Charts for Denver, Las Vegas and Phoenix. I have these and they are very helpful in figuring the path to take.

It is unanimous - no rules. Just enjoy the sights and say something about them. The first half of the trip will be made at fairly high altitude. This will make landings and takeoffs a little more interesting for some planes. Turbo-charged planes will have no problem.

[Allan_Lowson]

Sounds like fun, may drag out a Twin Comanche to keep in with the Dakota theme in the world Rally. Well, they should both keep two turning for a peaceful existance.

[Tom Goodrick]

OK We certainly have plenty of interest. In my scouting trip with the 200 knot Baron 58P, I have reached CNY. That's not too much progress for three days. But I have been busy with some other activities ("honey Do's"). I am going to expedite my search for Real Weather files that are suitable. I have about 30 files covering 3 years in the time frame of mid October to mid November. I just have to run through them in different places along the route and pick one or more. If I can get one to work all the way, then I'll just save it in a "Flight" with the Mooney Bravo (the most suitable of the default aircraft we all have and give you a Flight file with the flight plan and the weather file all hooked together. I'll email it to each of you.

I am finding it no trouble to navigate (and thus I can enjoy the scenery) by using a GPS map on the panel showing the flight plan path. I don't fly that path but fly around it in the canyons that contain the river. But be advised the stock scenery (which is all I have) does not do justice to the river in all cases. It would be hard to navigate by pure eyeball because in some places the river dissappears or hides as a thin line on the walls of the valley. By looking at the relief map with the straight path shown, it is easy to figure where the river is going next. It is fun to run near the water and turn through the canyons following every bend in the river. But at 200 knots, it is a bit dangerous to follow every turn as the speed expands your radius of turn. The route would almost be well suited to a very slow aircraft like a Cessna 172. But then there are some very long stretches where you just want to get to the next airport. I have flown parts of the Grand Canyon before and know that will be neat going low and slow.

I'll get this set up shortly.

[Allen Peterson]

I've made a couple of test flights, the first was in my Seneca V. I took off from GNB and flew direct to GWS with the AP on ALT and NAV. I had to climb to 11,000 feet to clear the ridges.
Then I read Tom's post about following the canyons, which is what I like to do anyway.
The 2nd flight was in my Piper Apache (with Tom's fds). I took off from GNB and turned north and west and found a pass that I could fly at 9,000 feet - and maybe 8,000 feet if I were careful - and had a nice "scenery flight" to GWS. I used Real Weather but it was clear with little wind, a very nice day for flying.

[Tom Goodrick]

So far, I have tried two files, October 25 and 26 2006 where a front moves through Denver dropping snow on the mountains. The second one is good down to the Grand Canyon because it clears up behind the front and our path is on the back side of the front. But at the Grand Canyon it shows broken Cumulus IN the canyon. That spoils the fun. Now I know to check the Canyon first.

But it may be that we must use "Fair Weather" to fly in the Grand Canyon. I have only 26 more files to look at. I'll check Oct 27 2006 which lets the front get farther east.

The whole point of this is to fly in the canyons. Unfortunately FS has a habit of putting low clouds in canyons. But the RW files do show snow on the mountains as they should. That is one value of using RW.

[flaminghotsauce]

Tom, are you pretty settled in the route? I printed out the list last night. I'm not sure if I want to set up a giant flight plan, or just enter them one leg at a time. So I keep the list handy on my desk.

I might fly this in FSX, I'm not sure. I've got a wider selection of aircraft in FS9. I don't know if I can use the weather file or not. I've never tried exchanging WX files between the sims.

[Tom Goodrick]

I will send everyone a Flight file called Colorado_Fling_Start that will have a Mooney Bravo parked at Granby. When you start it, you will find there is already a flight plan entered that will draw straight lines through all these airports. These airports pretty much define the river's course though they zig-zag a little over the river. You do not have to follow each leg exactly, just use the red line as a guide while following the canyons that contain the river. But you will have to pass over each airport in order to trigger the the next leg and see miles to the next airport. If you don't trigger each leg it just means you will see a white line instead of a red line and will not see the proper distance for the leg. But that's no big deal. Do with the flight plan what you wish.

i recommend you use an airplane with a turbocharged engine. You can even use turboprops like the Beech 350 or the Beech B200 or the Piper Meridian (on my site). The runways are of reasonable length but these need only a 3000 ft runway, even at high altitude. There are 6 other turbocharged aircraft on my web site:
Cessna 340A
Cessna 414A
Beech Duke
Aerostar 700
Piper Mirage
Piper Turbo Aztec
(I thought there were some turbocharged Cessna singles but couldn't find them when I looked just now. I know I did a 182, 182 RG and a 206.)

These are all setup (along with my FD for the Mooney Bravo) with proper engine power and auto mixture so you just leave the mixture at full rich for climb and cruise.

It will be difficult to start non-turbo aircraft at Granby.

I have found a suitable weather file which will be included in the Start Flight. It is from November 2, 2006. It is clear except for some haze as you approach Yuma. There are some interesting winds and cold temperatures.

You can land at any airport (no rules). But I intend to land at KGJT, KPGA, 0L9, KHII, KYUM, MM20 and MM0G. I may hop down the Sea of Cortez a ways and then cut across the Baha Peninsula and come north to KSAN. By the way, you won't find much of the Colorado below Yuma. It has been split up into several small rivers and creeks for irrigation in Mexico. Also, so much water is diverted from it in the US that very little reaches Mexico.

I'll send out the Colorado_Fling_Start file shortly. There is no specific start/stop time. Taking a month would be appropriate.

I'll make the flight first in the Mooney and note my flight time to each stop.

I'll be having breakfast at Remington's, a mile from the Granby airport before 8am which will be the time on the Start file. There's good food at The Mesa Cafe on the field at Grand Junction. The Fiesta Family Restaurant near the Page airport sounds good. "Tail of the Whale" sounds good in Overton, NV (3 mi by shuttle bus from 0L9). There are new facilities at Yuma Airport including the Yuma International Restaurant on the field that was beiing built when I was last there (1998). My guess would be it would serve great Mexican food and even greater Marguritas. There are many nice motels with a couple miles. You can easily spend a week or two seeing each airport or fly the whole thing in a day from breakfast at Granby to supper at Yuma.

The Start file was sent as of 9:30pm CDT. Let me know if you don't get it. I may not have your latest email address.

[Allen Peterson]

I just flew the first leg (again) from GNB to GWS in my Piper PA-23 Apache. I forgot to record the time but it was about .8 hrs, including parking. I flew pretty much the same course as the first time, but at 8500 feet. Because I kept encountering puffy clouds I flew with the AP on ALT. I flew the heading by hand, navigating with the GPS map, at times on the 5 mile range setting.
Tom, I selected the Colorado Fling flight and then changed from the Mooney to the Apache. Did that affect my Apache fds? It seemed that I needed a longer takeoff run from GNB than I remembered from the first flight.
I intend to land at each airport, I need the practice landing with Real Weather.