Whereto fly in December / January from Phoenix? Wx conditions?

[German guy]

Hi everybody,

besides of our big holidays in 2011, which we also want to spend in the US, we figured that we want to push the US economy from the 24th of December until the 8th or 15th of January.
The idea is to check out the flight school Westwind Aviation in Phoenix, AZ, maybe receive some instrument training and / or rent a plane there and fly around for up to two weeks. We would only stay for three weeks, if we would do intense instrument flying.
If we like the flight school, we want to come back later in 2011 to complete the instrument rating (if we haven't completed it here in Germany until then).

Well, I was now wondering, whereto we might fly during this time span, where we will likely find good weather conditions? Is is possible to say (roughly) which states or areas will generally be flyable then?
I heard that Arizona should be OK and that the west coast receives lots of precipitation, low clouds and low freezing levels during this time of the year, but that's about everything about I 'know' about flying in the US in winter.

I would be very happy to hear some suggestions of where we might go, as I want to start with a rough preparation of the trip.

Cheers,

Oliver

 

[Areeda]

Oliver,
Your countryman Einstein was right. Everything is relative.

Yes December and January is the rainy season in Southwest US but it will still be hot and dry compared to anywhere in Germany that I've been to.

I live in Los Angeles and here we only get 30-40 cm of rain in a normal year. That's little more than a wet weekend in Frankfurt if I remember correctly. Temperatures can get down to near 0 C but are normally 15-25 during the day in Dec & Jan.

Don't rule any thing out until you check the weather forecasts.

As for where to go, it depends on what you want to see. City life, mountain resort & skiing, beaches, wineries, desert scenery. I would put the Grand Canyon and the painted desert on my must see list. Las Vegas is well it's Las Vegas. Southern California is very nice in the winter.

Narrow down your interests a bit and we can come up with a long list for you.

Joe

 

[German guy]

Joe,

thanks for your quick reply.
So, you're saying that the chances are good that with a little bit of luck and patience we might be able to fly wherever we want in the western part of the US?

I have attached a screenshot with the rough route which we would take, if we wouldn't have to care about the weather.

This is mainly:
- Phoenix
- Las Vegas (just for some quick sightseeing)
- Grand Canyon
- Monument Valley
- Salt Lake City
- Yellowstone national park
- Washington state (we could leave this out)
- San Francisco
- Yosemite national park
- Los Angeles
- Phoenix

My wife and are are mostly interested in outdoor activities like skiing, biking, hiking, horseback riding, diving or simply enjoying beautiful sceneries.
We of course also visit cities with their museums and other cultural attractions, but this is not our focus. :wink2:

Cheers,

Oliver

 

[Let'sgoflying!]

Mmmmm! The desert SW!!
Can you see this link?
It was early May and wonderful
Zion/Monument valley/Lake Powell/Bryce/Grand Staircase/Antelope Canyon.....all fantastic!

 

[Areeda]

Joe,

thanks for your quick reply.
So, you're saying that the chances are good that with a little bit of luck and patience we might be able to fly wherever we want in the western part of the US?

I'll have to go see if I said western part or SOUTH western part.

The further north you go the more unflyable weather but people in the northwest do fly all year long.

The Washington to San Francisco route would be the most problematic. At that time of year as you said you really want to be VFR, and that is rarer. In the south the freezing levels will vary from ground level to maybe 6 or 7K feet. So without FIKI IMC is dangerous, but we have lots of VFR weather down here.

In the Salt Lake and Yellowstone areas you may get some big winter snow storms.

The southern portion is highly probable the northern portion less likely or shall we say needs more weather days planned in. I haven't seen any predictions for the winter months yet but the fall is looking like good flying weather in the south west.

Let us know when you get to Los Angeles we'll show you around.

Joe

 

[German guy]

@Dave:

For some reason I can't open the Link.


@Joe:

Thanks for clarifying this.
We will then concentrate our planning to California, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado and New Mexico. If the weather is surprisingly good further north, we can still modify the plans.

Once everything is fixed, I'll post it here. It would be really cool, if we could meet in LA.

Cheers,

Oliver