The Breakfast Club
An Affiliate of the
By Warren McIlvoy
14 Sep 02
When one thinks of Monument Valley, visions of multi colored
mesas and spires, stained with "desert varnish", dusty roads, early
John Wayne movies, hogans, and the land of the
Navajos, fill the mind's eye. The Breakfast Club
planning committee, saw it as a truly unique and fascinating place for a
breakfast fly-in. Our last visit to this area was about three years ago and it
was a weekend event with the group staying at the Gouldings Resort. As
part of that event, we enjoyed a great breakfast at the Stagecoach Restaurant and then a guided tour
of
On the morning of our event, I check DUATS for the day’s weather but
as I suspected, there was nothing of any consequence at that hour and the day
promised to be severe clear. The winds aloft showed nothing out of the ordinary
with light winds out of the northwest. At our departure time of 0700 at
Scottsdale Airport, the winds were essentially calm as we departed
straight-out on runway 3. Our final cruise altitude would be 9500' but I felt
that we would hold about 7500' until we reached the area of Payson
. Our direct course would take us about 5 miles west of Payson so
this is where I initiated the last bit of our cruise climb to 9500'. It was at
this time that I keyed-up the radio to see if there were any other Breakfast Club aircraft in the air. Up to this
point, I did not hear a thing on our "group flight following"
frequency of 123.45 and I was beginning to think that I might be the only one
going to 71V. But, low and behold, other Breakfast
Club people began to report-in. At this time, I believe that I was
in the lead to
Although I had noticed a bit of head-wind at 7500' below the Mogollon Rim, it was not until I reached our final cruise altitude of 9500' over the Rim, that the real effects of the head-winds, were now being realized. My normal ground speed would have been around 123 kts but my GPS was showing only about 93 kts over the ground. Al Feldner (BC-33) was at 11,500' and he was reporting 32 kts on the nose. This was not good. What should have been about an 1:55 flight for me, was now looming to be well past the 2 hour mark. To make matters worse, I had forgotten that the Reservations, observe daylight savings time. When I spoke with the folks at Gouldings, I told them that our group would arrive about 0900. Now, it appears that we would be arriving around 1030. As I neared Winslow, I tuned-in the AWOS to see what the conditions were at that airport. The winds on the ground were variable at less then 5 kts so it appears that our enthusiastic headwinds, were a product of altitude. I advised the rest of the group that I would be descending to 7500' to see if I could shed some of these headwinds. Well, it worked, somewhat. I picked-up about 7-8 knts of ground speed and advised our group about these conditions. The only down side to this altitude was that, as I would near Kayenta , the surrounding ridges, more commonly known as Black Mesa, in some cases, would rise to about 8200'. This was no real big deal since I could make a little bit of a northerly jog in my course and follow route 160 in from the southwest. This worked out very nicely, thank you.
From Kayenta, following the highway to the north, will take you right passed Agatha Peak, a very predominant landmark that juts straight up to about 7100' or about 1700' above the existing land elevation. Another 12 miles will get you to the north side of a 6000' mesa that shields Gouldings from any southern exposure. This same mesa is only about 1200' from the end of the runway and is a very imposing obstacle for those that are unfamiliar with this airstrip. Once you have touched-down on the runway, the outcome of a successful go-around, is problematic at best.
Three of the Breakfast Club
aircraft had already arrived so that would attest that the dirt runway was in
usable condition. The northern part of
We could have taken the short hike up to the Resort but since they had made two vans available for our transportation to the restaurant, we chose to avail ourselves of this service. Gouldings is literally constructed on the up slope of the mesa, it stands to reason that, once you get there, everything is uphill from the main office. The vans circled around the end of the lodge and continued the climb until we arrived at the foot of the stairs that would get us to the Stagecoach Restaurant. The restaurant is made-up of two tiers (hard to believe, isn't it?), with the lower tier providing a panoramic view of the valley to the northeast thanks to the large windows that dominate the north wall of the restaurant. We were all grouped together but the tables would only accommodate from 2-4 people each so that conversation was limited to another couple at your table or you had speak-up to be heard by another table across from yours. Since it was now past noon local time, our breakfast turned-out to be an early lunch for us. As such, I ordered the "breakfast" bacon and mushroom cheeseburger. It appeared that all of the portions were substantial enough to carry us through the rest of the day.
As the vans let us off at the restaurant, I had arranged to have them meet us at the office level in about an hour and a half. This would give us enough time to have our meal, and to make the mandatory trip through the souvenir/gift shop that was strategically located between the restaurant and the main office. It was also located "downhill" from the restaurant, what a surprise. While in the gift shop, I inquired if Ronnie Baird was available. Ronnie is the contact person that I have used at Gouldings for the past 3 years or so. I was informed that his office is in the lower lever of the gift shop and that I could get there by using the stairs at the end of the shop area. The lower level appeared to be the administrative area for the resort. Ronnie was in his office so we were able to talk for a little bit and catch-up on tidbits about the Breakfast Club . After dropping an appropriate amount of coin in the shop, we exited the shop via a door at the lower level that shortened the distance to the Resort office. When we got to the van, there was only one other person there as some of the group opted to take the downhill hike via the road to the airstrip.
When we arrived earlier in the morning, there was only one other aircraft
parked on the ramp. During our lunch meal, a couple of De Havilland Twin Otters
had landed and parked in the dirt area of the ramp. By the time that we got back
to the airstrip, four other aircraft had arrived including one Cessna 207 and
three Caravans. The place was getting crowded. Ronnie informed me that the
airstrip at
After departing the airstrip, our plan was to depart to the east and make a
circle tour of
Earlier this year, the restaurant on the airfield, the "Port Java
Café ", closed down. The Breakfast Club
had visited this location in the past and it had some real quirks. The
restaurant looked like something out of the 50's, moderate in size and very
plain in decor. The food was OK but the service was about as slow as three day
old lava. The "chef" could only prepare one dish at a time so it took
forever for us to finish our meal. Fifteen or twenty people could make this a
half day adventure. Last year, the City of
From where we were parked, it was only a short taxi to us runway 29 as the
winds were of no real factor. We climbed to 7500' and took a direct course to
SDL. Though the air was still a bit choppy, the ride was not to
uncomfortable for the balance of the trip. As we were traveling in a
southwesterly direction, we only got about a 15 kt
boost from the tailwind. Not counting the down time at Winslow, our trip
back was less than two hours flying time. Not to bad.
The
What's Next?
The October event for the Breakfast Club
should see us making an encore visit to
Click on the Monument Valley link to view photos of this fly-in event.