Arizona Trip Planning Suggestions

Lndwarrior

Lndwarrior

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Gary
I'm planning a trip for (hopefully) this summer to see Arizona for the first time. My wife and I will be flying our light sport plane from central California.

We have no desire to visit urban areas. We are outdoors people and neither of us have any desire to visit any cities, no matter the attractions.

Ideally we would land at a small airport with a motel/Airbnb/Bed & Breakfast/Glamping nearby. Location in a remote area would be ideal. This would be our base for 3 or 4 days while we explored Az from the air. Also hiking and swimming nearby would be ideal.

I would appreciate any suggestions.
 
I just flew over Paige AZ. I'd definitely look into that! Sedona is also a favorite. You mentioned wanting to avoid cities. Yes it can be crowded, but you can do a little planning and find some incredible scenery and gorgeous hikes.
 
Man, after talking to some locals about flying into AZ this summer, They made me seriously reconsider my plans. In a light sport, I’d plan to fly only before 9am.
 
Salty said:
Man, after talking to some locals about flying into AZ this summer, They made me seriously reconsider my plans. In a light sport, I’d plan to fly only before 9am.
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I flew in that area. Always took off around sunrise, and was on the ground by 11. I’ve heard even jets are grounded at times.
 
There are several Grand Canyon area airports, from West across GC/Tusayan to Marble Canyon and Page. Also Bar Ten, with a B&B. I visited Sedona 5 months ago, it’s absolutely stunning. Study the sectional, and search the forum. There’s been discussion about many of the airports, and videos posted.

But carefully consider your aircraft’s capability. We’re talking serious density altitude concerns.
 
Lndwarrior said:
I'm planning a trip for (hopefully) this summer to see Arizona for the first time. My wife and I will be flying our light sport plane from central California.

We have no desire to visit urban areas. We are outdoors people and neither of us have any desire to visit any cities, no matter the attractions.

Ideally we would land at a small airport with a motel/Airbnb/Bed & Breakfast/Glamping nearby. Location in a remote area would be ideal. This would be our base for 3 or 4 days while we explored Az from the air. Also hiking and swimming nearby would be ideal.

I would appreciate any suggestions.
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w/o knowing the budget, I’d suggest flying into Marana and staying at the Ritz Dove Mountain (in middle of nowhere, great golf, hiking, etc) and also flying to Sedona and staying at Enchantment (also middle of nowhere, LOTS of hiking, right near an “energy vortex”...if you believe :)
 
Sedona, Grand Canyon are my two picks. Study the Pheonix airspace before you go.
 
MooneyDriver78 said:
I flew in that area. Always took off around sunrise, and was on the ground by 11. I’ve heard even jets are grounded at times.
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There have been times the airlines called back to Boeing engineers because the docs didn’t account for Phoenix temps. Also consider the dust storms.

There’s a reason I left Phoenix a week after HS graduation...and why my parents would spend the summers with me in Denver. I’ll take the month or so of 90-95 in Denver vs the 115-120 of Phoenix for 3-5 months.

But back to the original question....Payson is very welcoming to glampers, various GA orgs have flyins there. Also checkout Prescott as a base of ops. Pretty much in the middle of the northern part of the state.
 
Second on the suggesed Payson, Sedona... and even Prescott (even though sub-urban, it's got a small town feel and Whiskey Row and the antique shops are fun.) But if it's the outdoors, Norther part of the state I would imagine would offer the most appeal.

Beware of monsoon season and fly early in the day!
 
Agreed with the Sedona suggestion; beautiful airstrip on top of a mesa. Suggest to add Grapevine airstrip 88AZ on the shore of Lake Roosevelt (a unique remote paved strip redone by some recreational pilots assoc); the Barringer Meteor Crater.
My friend and I flew over/into these locations and I made a video of our flight which you can view here. In addition you can see some of the remote strips we landed at in Utah (beautiful country).
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRuQ2_YHvPPRoCkXt-9f-mw
Enjoy your trip,
Rick
 
Payson, Sedona, marble canyon, monument valley, and grapevine would be a great start. Could do an Airbnb out of Sedona for home base or camp at Payson like Kath mentioned. If the Grand Canyon opens up add that to the list.
 
Sedona has a very nice motel on top of the mesa within walking distance of the airport. You can get a room with a view out over the city and to rock formations. Monument Valley is technically in Utah but has the lodge within walking distance. The Grand Canyon Bar 10 ranch on the north side has its own strip and is challenging for landing. I understand the lodge accommodations are quite nice.

For all of this in Arizona in the summer, density altitude will be a key consideration. At Flagstaff, Springerville, and other high fields the DA will often be over 10k during the day. Early flights are key. Also the summer monsoon storms will build by early afternoon so again early flight and some days will just not be good for flying because of these.

There is this article - https://airfactsjournal.com/2019/10/eight-things-i-know-about-flying-in-arizona/

My son flew a Skycatcher out of Prescott for a while. Definitely needed to be mindful of performance and load.
 
I second Marana and the Ritz. Beautiful country out there. I’ve done Page and the Grand Canyon too.
 
Let us know! Second what others have said about density altitude considerations, depending on your airplane -- it's enough of a real thing that it changed what airplane I chose to buy (a 172 was not going to work).
 
I highly recommend Sedona, AZ if you like hiking. Definitely pay attention to DA for anywhere you go in AZ.
I made a video about our trip there last Thanksgiving and the description has timestamps with the names of the places we went so you can jump to see what the different trails and areas look like

If you are up for adventure and your plane meets the performance, I recommend Bar 10 ranch. It is a private working ranch on the north edge of the grand canyon that has a little airstrip. It can be a little tricky getting in and out so do some research and call them up for their advice. They offer day trips there, overnights, and many activities including ATV'ing to the canyon edge. It is beautiful there and obviously totally uncrowded. We had a great time visiting for a few hours last spring. In the summer I would definitely leave a large margin of error off that strip for performance calcs. You can really only depart to the south I think....


 
I've made the trip a few times from California. You'll want to fly past or over Victorville KVCV and see the desert fleet of mothballed planes. The entire SWA fleet of 737 Max's are parked there too. Despite it's size, KVCV isn't very busy and permission to fly through that Delta airspace is easy.

You will also get a clear view of Edwards AFB. Often you can get permission to over fly Edwards.

If going to Phoenix, if possible might want to avoid Deer Valley KDVT airport with it's high volume of foreign student pilots; the tower crew is pretty cranky dealing with it all - just my experience/observation the few times I've been there. Goodyear KGYR or better yet Glendale KGEU are nice GA alternatives to KDVT.
 
Gary, I always stop in Sedona for fuel when flying from NorCal to Albuquerque to visit my sister and her family. In the summer months, be very careful about density altitude. Page is also great with Lake Powell nearby.

If you're interested in aviation museums, a visit to Pima Air&Space Museum in Tucson is really worthwhile.

A group of us flew into Sedona last November for some air-to-air photos by Jack Fleetwood. The local scenery is awesome!

JF2_3905tu 1_1k.jpg
 
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Arizona Trip Planning Suggestions
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Go in winter. Sights are still the same, but density altitudes are slightly lower. And temperatures won't cause you to suddenly burst into flames....:lol:
 
FlyingMonkey said:
If you are up for adventure and your plane meets the performance, I recommend Bar 10 ranch. It is a private working ranch on the north edge of the grand canyon that has a little airstrip. It can be a little tricky getting in and out so do some research and call them up for their advice. They offer day trips there, overnights, and many activities including ATV'ing to the canyon edge. It is beautiful there and obviously totally uncrowded. We had a great time visiting for a few hours last spring. In the summer I would definitely leave a large margin of error off that strip for performance calcs. You can really only depart to the south I think....
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Yes, I consider the Grand Canyon Bar 10 the most challenging paved public use airport in AZ. It is normally land to the north and depart to the south. There is basically no go around on landing to the north once you are just a few hundred above the threshold due to rising terrain to the north.
 
If u like golf Scottsdale is a must. Sedona has tons of hiking as was said already. Sunrise and set r awesome there. Would have loved to cruise around the rock formations there...Flagstaff has some great forest/Mountain View’s. I would add for Antelope Canyon there r a lot of quick storms in that areas that lead to flash floods and they close down when that happens. Horseshoe bend will still be open though. Happened to us when we visited. Bring a dlsr and GoPro too. Plenty of good shots. There’s a good amount of hot air balloons right outside Phoenix too FYI.
 
Get a contour map of Arizona and trace out the 4000' contour with a green marker. Stay within the green. As a 3rd generation Arizonan I can tell you that Arizona is not especially hot in a normal summer if you fly after mid-July. Why? Because he summer monsoon should have started and highs will usually be in the eighties. The WX will be great if you fly mornings since the monsoon rains are mostly late afternoon but the monsoon causes temperatures to plummet. But stay away from the low desert such as Scottsdale at 1100' in summer. It is hotter than Hades. One place I especially recommend is Bisbee. It has won many awards for beauty and uniqueness and is a walking (and climbing) town. Take a taxi to Old Bisbee and forget renting a car. Google it.
 
43944393-5553-492E-AFAA-1FDB4AB8DE1B.jpeg Monument Valley is a must. There are nice rooms at Goulding’s lodge near the runway
 
Snowmass said:
One place I especially recommend is Bisbee. It has won many awards for beauty and uniqueness and is a walking (and climbing) town. Take a taxi to Old Bisbee and forget renting a car. Google it.
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Bisbee is cool, but pay attention to where you are in the pattern as you land. That big iron fence to the south is the Mexican border -- do not overfly it. :)

Also, no staffed FBO or crew car on the field, you will need to call a taxi in from town to pick you up.
 
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