The
Breakfast Club
The
Knife & Fork
Breakfast
Club Visits Valle, Grand Canyon Inn
11 Sept 04
by Warren McIlvoy
The September Breakfast Club
event saw the group travel a bit further north this time to a place
called Valle. Valle is about 20 miles or so south
of Tusyan the "gateway to the Grand
Canyon". The town, if you can call it that, is about 120 miles
northwest of the Phoenix metro area and just a
tad over a one hour flight.
We departed Scottsdale to the northwest and climbed to our cruise
altitude of 8500' where the air
was cool the ride was smooth as glass. I heard chatter on our group
flight following frequency
that indicated that we would have a sizable turn-out for this event.
Our route took us right over
the Cottonwood airport and
eventually over the Sycamore Canyon
Wilderness Area that is on the
northern edge of the Verde Valley. After that, the terrain turns into
dense forest land dotted with
stock ponds until you reach I-40 just east of Williams. Once past Sitgraves Peak the geographic
scene turns into a high plateau panorama with few large trees.
The traffic pattern of the day was right downwind for runway 19 and
after turning-off at the mid
field taxiway, I parked in one of the few remaining spaces that was
available. The Breakfast Club
folks were gathering in small groups waiting for the last of the masses
to arrive. The Grand
Canyon Inn was about a half mile hike down the road and in all, there
were about three waves of
Breakfast Club
folks making the short trek.
Valle is somewhat of an
enigmatic place in that I could not really discern why it exists. I
could
not find any printed history in any of the web search engines and other
than the fact that it is
located at the highway junctions of US 180 and Arizona 64, why would
someone choose to settle
here. The only items of note is the airport and a branch of the Planes of Fame Aircraft Museum
which in itself would make the trip worthwhile. Just north of the
airport is Bed Rock City which
is fashioned after the TV series the
Flintstones and offers "dinosaur burgers"
(I believe that the
odds favor them being made from beef). There are also two motels and at
least one trading post. And, oh yeah, there was a place where one could
buy rocks (must be one of those unlisted tourist
attractions).
Meanwhile back at the Grand Canyon Inn,
the size of the Breakfast
Club group dictated that we
would be seated at a number of different tables. This allowed for a
wide variety of hangar flying
and swapping of tall tales and lies. The food was typical of a motel
dinning room and acceptable
for a fly-in but remember, it is the journey not the destination. We
had in attendance some folks
that I had not seen for some time and then there were some who have
been on the email list for a
while but this was their first experience with a group fly-in.
After our breakfast and the mandatory tour of the motel gift shop, it
was back to the airport to
take a gander at some of the old fighter aircraft that are part of the Planes of Fame Museum. Since our
last visit several years ago, the Museum had constructed a new building
to the south of
the terminal. From the outside, it looked larger than the old facility
that is north of the terminal. Outside of the new building stands the Lockheed Constellation that was used by General Douglas
MacArthur during his Pacific campaign when it had the military
designation of C-121. We took
the tour through it the last time that we were here but not this time.
Another interesting change
from our last visit was the antique car collection that is housed in
the terminal building. They are
all Fords ranging in vintage from the mid teens to the early 30's. All
are in excellent condition
rivaling those on the showroom floor in their day. I have included a
few of the pictures at the end
of this story.
Fuel at Valle was listed at $3.10 and more than we pay at Scottsdale
(that's almost unbelievable)
but Williams is a mere 25
miles to the south and virtually right on our way home. So with that in
mind, we departed Valle runway
19 and headed due south. I called Williams UNICOM about 10
miles out and several times after that but could not get a response. As
I rounded a hill that is
about 5-miles north of Williams,
I could clearly see the runway at
Clark Memorial and lined-up
for a straight-in on runway 18. As I rolled-out and exited the runway,
I could see one of the
windsocks and the winds were light out of the southwest. Fuel at Williams is $2.65 a gallon and
since we would be light even with full fuel, I topped-off for our
return trip.
After fueling-up, we walked over to the new terminal building to check
into transportation on the
24th when we will take the
Grand Canyon Railroad up to the Canyon for the weekend. There
was
not a soul in sight and only the office door was open. After "casing
the joint" looking for a card
with the office phone number on it, and finding none, we exited the
office and began the short
walk back to our aircraft. But just then a truck pulled-up and an
elderly gentleman greeted us. He said that he was the airport manager
and I inquired of him about getting a ride into town on
the 24th. He said that they have two "airport limos"
for our use. I told him that we would need it
for the three days that we would be up there and he said that would not
be a problem. He said to
"just leave the keys over the sun
visor and if they need the car, that they would know where to
find it". That works for me. So, with everything all squared
away in Williams, it was back
into
the air for the ride home. A great day for aviating, meeting new
friends and some old ones, and a
plan coming together, what more could you ask for?
The
Valle Gang
Warren & Jeri-Ann McIlvoy in 4544X, BC-1
Richard Azimov and Jordan Ross in 6864Q, BC-2 & 11
Roger and Travis Whittier with Ashley & Blair Martinez in 706CD,
BC-122
Bob Jackson and George Hemminger in 66CW
Joe & Diane Stockwell in 843CD
Richard Spiegel and Sam Foote in 901KA, BC-3
Bob & Bobbie Sternfels in 8100P
Chuck & Irene Graves in 944G
Asa & Cheryl Dean in 48803, BC-52
George Wilen in 5734B, BC-34
Don Graminski in 9064V, BC-16
Glen & Judy Yoder and Rick & Becky in 31TC, BC-007
Larry & Sandy Jensen
What's Next?
The October Breakfast
Club event will see us making an encore visit to Page and the Wahweep
Marina. In November, we will be returning to Douglas, Arizona and the Gadsden Hotel. If you
like old, historic places, then our November event is just right.
That's all for now but remember,
fly safe.
Below are links to some photos of the Breakfast Club
event to Valle. Just click on the link and
enjoy.
1. Beach T-34
2. Chuck & Irene Graves, Richard
Azimov, and Jordan Ross
3. Breakfast Club Planes
4. More Breakfast Club Planes
5. Valle Terminal Building
6. Grand Canyon Inn
7. Breakfast Club Folks
8. More Breakfast Club Folks
9. MacArther's C-121
10. Antique Ford
11. Antique Ford
12. Antique Ford
