The Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the Arizona Pilots Assn
The Knife & Fork
Breakfast Club Crosses
Grand Canyon, Visits
Marble Canyon
15 Oct 05
by Warren McIlvoy
The
October Breakfast Club event was to one of the most scenic locations in the
entire state of Arizona, Marble Canyon.
Add to the mixture some great flying weather and cool fall temperatures, and
you have the all the makings for a memorable aviation adventure. I departed
northbound out of Phoenix, Deer
Valley Airport
on a course that would take us over Mingus
Mountain and just
east of Williams, direct to the south end of the Dragoon Corridor.
Ordinarily, the route taken on any
given Breakfast Club event, is a blend of some common desert scenery dotted
with countless small to medium sized mountains and high country forests that
blanket the mountainous terrain. This route had all of that and then some. Mingus Mountain
is a fair sized piece of real-estate that dominates the southwestern rim of the
Verde Valley. Continuing to the north, you
overfly the brightly colored Sycamore
Canyon Wilderness
Area. Depending on the angle of the sun, this land area can take on the
appearance of almost being on fire. Further to the north you come upon the
mountain town of Williams
and I-40 with its namesake mountain just to the south of town. Beyond
Williams the view from 11,500' is of wide expanses of broad plain mottled with
large stands of trees.
Our target waypoint is the south end of the Dragoon Corridor that is
located to the northwest of the Grand Canyon Airport. Once established
northeast bound in the corridor, it was picture taking time. There is usually
little radio chatter as we traverse the Grand Canyon
since the beauty and grandeur is so captivating that no one bothers to talk and
that is certainly understandable. The trip across the Canyon is not long but
this extravagance of God's handiwork is difficult to describe in words and
pictures are better at describing the panorama that is unfolding beneath us.
This is probably the one time that a faster aircraft is not an asset as we all to soon come upon the Kaibab Plateau. The north side
of the plateau marks the north end of the Dragoon Corridor. But once there,
you can discern the outline of the Vermillion
Cliffs to the left and the Echo Cliffs
to the right. Between these two geological formations, is a broad valley that
is split down the middle by the deep chasm created by the Colorado River.
At this point, the ceiling of the SFAR drops down to 8,000' and since we are at
11,500' with only about 35 miles to the Marble Canyon Airport,
it is power back for the long descent to the 4600' PAT at L-41. We will remain
just to the west of the river gorge to respect the experience of the river
rafters for the "natural quiet" of the canyon. I follow the highway
as it heads north along the east slope of the Vermillion Cliffs and the Cliff
Dwellers Lodge that is still south of L-41. Marble Canyon
Airport (it is
probably more appropriate to call this an airstrip rather than an airport) has
a slight uphill gradient on runway 3 so I will make a left base entry to this
runway about a mile out. This runway is only about 30' wide and 3700' long and
it does not have any runway marking of any sort. The first 500' is a little
rough that masks the "arrival" that I used for a landing and then it
starts its uphill movement to the dogleg at the end that marks the
"official" end of the runway and the designated ramp parking area.
After securing the aircraft with a "rock chock" (there are many
available around the perimeter of the ramp area), I got some group photos of
the Breakfast Club gang before we headed-out the restaurant. I had Richard
Azimov (BC-2) and my Grand-daughter Nicole Dreos (BC-1.5) with me as
we crossed the highway to the Marble
Canyon Lodge and Trading
Post. Once inside the Lodge, the pilots are requested to register their
aircraft at the "airport office" that occupies a small office space
in a corner of the gift shop. The restaurant is to your left and the first
dinning area has a small row of tables down the middle with some small booths
lining the window wall and a dinning counter replete with stools ala the
1950's. There is another room a little further in that is all tables. The menu
entrees are not overly abundant but sufficient for the clientele that would
visit this remote location. You also had a choice of a buffet but it is also
somewhat limited. We all received our orders in a reasonable amount of time and
the portions were ample and the most important issue was that the food was
reasonable good.
After breakfast, the entire group decided to take the short hike to the Navajo Bridge that is about a 1/4 mile
north of the Lodge. About 10-years ago a new, wider, and longer span was opened
to vehicle traffic for highway 89 to cross the river gorge. The old bridge was
much narrower and now serves as a pedestrian walkway to the Indian vendors that
line the east side of the bridge. Even though Page is only 20 miles by air to
the northeast, the towering canyon walls gave this place a feeling of severe
remoteness. We were informed that the bridge is 467' above the river but I am
sure that this number has a "plus/minus" factor depending
the river flow. The west side of the old bridge has a visitors center as well a the mandatory gift shop. When our visit and picture taking
missions were complete, we headed back to the airstrip for our return flight.
There is no real identifiable run-up area so the practice is to taxi just past
the end of the ramp area and aim the back of the aircraft away from any parked
or trailing aircraft, do the run-up, and than slowly power-up for take-off as
the dogleg straightens out to become the real runway. We decided to take the Zuni
Corridor for our southbound leg over the Grand Canyon thus
necessitating a left turn to cross over the river gorge and head south along
the east side of the river and along the Echo Cliffs. The southbound
crossing altitude is 10,500' and the Zuni Corridor affords a bit more of
the spectacular Canyon views. The Colorado River is visible through most of this corridor along with the
junction of the Little Colorado with its larger namesake. This junction is markedly
visible due to the drastic color change from the brilliant turquoise blue of
the Little
Colorado being swallowed-up by the muddy Colorado.
After reaching the south end of the Zuni Corridor, we headed directly
towards Williams for a fuel stop. Ordinarily I would not need to refuel
but fuel at Williams was considerably cheaper than at Deer Valley.
Paul Fortune had already arrived but had not yet started to refuel.
After refueling the aircraft, it was back into the air for our return trip to
the Valley.
The Breakfast Club Gang
- Warren McIlvoy, Richard Azimov, and Nicole Dreos in
93MB, BC-1, 1.5, and 2
- Paul Fortune in 31870, BC-201
- Joe & Diane Stockwell in 843CD, BC-22
- Larry Jensen in 14LJ, BC-65
- Glen Yoder in 31TC, BC-007
What's Next?
The November Breakfast Club
event will see us traveling southeast to Tombstone and the Longhorn Restaurant.
This will give a chance to try-out their new runway. In December, we will be
traveling west to Chiriaco Summit and its truck stop café. The Breakfast Club event committee will be meeting
on 18 Nov to put together events for the 2006 calendar. I will let every one
know when it is on line. That's all for now but remember, fly safe.
Click on the Marble
Canyon link to view photos of this fly-in event.