Gallery: FlyingUtah05 Part 2

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Flying Utah

A month prior I scheduled some canyon flying lessons with an instructor in Moab for Friday and Saturday. Friday turned out to be too windy and, uncertain that I would actually show up, he planned to attend a wedding on Saturday. Friday I lounged around and watched the wind. Saturday dawned clear and I took the opportunity to zip over to Hanksville where I was to meet Marshal and Megan.

	I spotted this slot canyon from the air, somewhere north of Canyonlands Park.		The more complex east fork.
	Rain clouds over the Dirty Devil.		The plane at Angle Point, one of the more straight forward back country strips
	After successfully arriving at Hanksville I took off again for some local touch-and-go landing practice. Then I went into town. Then I though - Why am I hanging out at Hanksville? I have an airplane, I could be hanging out at Angel Point. I took off again but was blocked from Angel Point by rain clouds so toured south to the canyons that we would be doing in the next couple days. Made it back to Hanksville just before the rains.

Flying Lesson

Sunday I flew up to Price to pick up Larry Newby for some back country flying lessons. He emphasized lateral alignment because the strips were often very narrow. We landed at Mexican Mountain then Hidden Splendor, then spent some time surveying roads for possible landing sites near were the group would later camp. I ended up never landing on a road as I my insurance would not cover any such accident.

The approach to Hidden Splendor is interesting. Two cliff bands come together to form a V with a narrow canyon running out the bottom, to the south. The landing strip is in the throat of that V. You can approach from the north, which is open land. However, there are two difficulties with this approach: the landing is down hill and the go-around requires a turn in the confines of the V. Approaching from the south involves flying downwind leg over a cliff, base leg down a gully which leads into the narrow canyon, and final in the canyon, finishing hard left to line up with the runway. More intimidating but the landing is uphill and the go-around easier.

When we fly this approach there is a strong wind from the north causing lots of turbulence. As a result I don't get right down in the gully. On final, in the canyon, the north wind is turned into an updraft and I have to do everything to get the plane to descend. The final alignment is perfect and I roll to a stop at the mid point.

	At Mexican Mountain.		At Hidden Splendor.
	With Larry.		The east side of the San Rafael Swell.

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Page last modified:  Sep 05 19:07 2010  by  Tom Unger