Where to fly to see grand canyon
Landing INSIDE the Canyon! - Flying the Grand Canyon
[Music]
flying into the marble canyon airstrip
was certainly one of the highlights of
our coast-to-coast journey and our
naldo's Cessna 172 this is the first of
a few extra videos I'm releasing from
that coast-to-coast series if you
haven't yet I highly suggest you watch
the seven part series after you finish
this video there were a few flights from
this series that I think deserve their
own dedicated video showing the details
of the flight from start to finish an ER
de toute raw flight video like this may
not be your cup of tea necessarily but I
think there are certain flights that are
unique enough to call for their own
in-depth video so here we are
Arnaldo and I have made our way across
the southern United States then up into
northern Arizona to Page later in the
day we're planning to cut across the
Grand Canyon through the VFR corridors
then head down to Sedona Arizona to stay
the night if you want to see that
absolutely epic footage from those
flights down over the Grand Canyon and
into Sedona definitely check out the
seven part coast-to-coast series before
heading towards the Grand Canyon though
we want to take a little side trip down
to Marble Canyon a 3700 foot strip of
pavement down below the rim of the
canyon while planning this whole
coast-to-coast strip Marble Canyon was
mostly my idea sore and Aldo has told me
that I'll be doing the landing we've
woken up to frost covering the entire
airplane which is no joke I think Frost
on the hazards that it presents deserves
its own video at a later time but the
bottom line is we must defrost the
entire airplane before flying that's
where the use of the checklist comes in
I always use a checklist now that the
airplane is defrosted and we're ready to
fly we're going to go over the game plan
one last time before starting the engine
marble canyon is a thirty seven hundred
foot paved runway that sits 36 hundred
and three feet above sea level we'll be
using a common traffic advisory
frequency of 1 to 2.9 to announce our
position and intentions to other
aircraft in the area if any this runway
does sit beneath the Grand Canyon
special use airspace so special rules do
apply generally you're not allowed to
penetrate this airspace in this area
below 8,000 feet above sea level however
the FAA thought of that the chart points
to Marble Canyon and says landing and
takeoff operations below 3,000 feet
above the airport elevation within 3
nautical miles of the airport are
authorized that gives us permission to
spiral down over the airport as long as
we stay within
three nautical miles and our intention
is to land the same goes for spiraling
up after takeoff so now we'll do our run
up on the ground at page into part
northbound we'll make a right downwind
off page and make our way over to Marble
Canyon land and grab some breakfast
page Municipal Airport automated weather
observation one seven zero Niner Zulu
wind calm visibility one zero sky
condition clear temperature zero three
Celsius dewpoint
- zero one Celsius altimeter three zero
three Niner remarks density altitude
3400 okay right now check this brakes
set breaks you're set
yeah I feel selector on both both crimes
have to take off like Charles Frank
correct
yep they are our instruments cross-check
calibrate let's check these again that's
good yeah good mixture set for best
power
and it was about here primer is in
unlocked
yes travel 1700
magnito test
if Mack
103 107 105 good
right mag at page shy big volunteer is
good help across the runway seven
function works we've got fuel oil
pressure batteries charging all right
and carpet dentists are Pete I get an
RPM drop and idle check closed throttle
friction locks edits desired when she
idols once you recover friction lock all
right
and and we'll wait on the pre-take-off
checklist yeah
it
under at 1200 I have to warm up a little
alright so pretty tick off well we're
gonna go full power
yeah pre-take-off flaps set zero to ten
zero and mix your set for best power all
right so we'll go behind you now nothing
behind ya
all right 9:20
all right that's where it's sort of drop
give us there you go perfect that's
exactly how I did her feet is as soon as
you come back to idle all right Carpy
dog Barbie design transponder is
squawking altitude our heading bug is
set lights
that was your tracking heading bug where
you want uh that's gonna be our track
out of here
three three all right landing lights on
strobes on yep and time no brakes
release a fork plan all right pork plan
I'd say if we're by the FBO and we have
it taken off I didn't for it I consider
we've got it down downhill grade here so
we should definitely be off before then
all right pre takeoff checklist is
complete okay
ready let's go ready page traffic
Skyhawk nine two three three seven Hotel
taxing onto runway three three you're
going to be right downwind departure to
the southwest page
all right finals clear and final does
look clear
all right I see a big three three three
three and the compass three three on my
chair Oh
full power
fifty-five
vixie
and we are off by the FBO alrighty good
stuff get set
look at terrain just drop in front of us
so cool page traffic skyhook just a part
of runway 2 3 3 just off the end of the
runway making a right crosswind gonna
make a right down a departure runway 3 3
page
awesome
page traffic Skyhawk 9 3 3 7 Attell
turning on a writedown and by the way 3
3 again at a part of the Southwest page
well Big Canyon down there
there are some good off-roading trails
down there
is that Horseshoe Bend right there uh
looks like it yeah I think so
all right yeah we're above pattern
altitude all right
about a mile to east of the airport page
traffic Skyhawk nine three three seven
hotel climbing through five thousand
seven hundred feet of mile about a mile
to the east of the field gonna depart
the area to the southwest climbing page
traffic turn the heat on a little bit
I'm gonna bring her up to 67 I want to
have at least a thousand but Clarence I
hear you tell me picky I won't call you
picky I think you do that's okay little
dwelling of pagers and
like a mini Hoover Dam over there they
right off the right wing down there I
guess that's what makes Lake Powell yeah
that's crazy that we were standing right
down there yesterday
about 1/2 to 9 so we help Bryce Canyon
on the radio
arbol cane or Brice
okay mr. know-it-all I'm just reading
the chart
I thought that was a runway right there
it's a paved road right along the river
uh-huh
but it was long and straight then had it
looked like it had a turn around at the
end I was like holy crap that's not
marble canyon is it we can't do that
all right we're here enter angle
boundary I believe that's it
I agree how hot do you that is epic
all right so they just want to do one
over in light you know we'll make a
pattern you can kind of go out a little
wide stay within three miles and then
come in if you want
well that's left traffic I mean left
traffic or three
[Applause]
and watch my cooling here I have to
circle or
yeah just watch your gaff coming up we
can spiral down it's no big deal when we
get over the airport Marble Canyon trap
you got a sky Hawk about a mile to the
east of the field we're gonna wear 6,000
feet we're gonna spiral down and enter a
left downwind for a northbound runway
while we can
that's our runway right down there
this is some gnarly terrain take a quick
look at the windsock just in case
windsock is calm alright so we are 1,500
above the field
I'll keep it at 1500 above the field
here
all right pre landing checklist brake
pedal test best it cleaning I hardly
test years cuz you're doing the landing
there good lighting Heights on bite on
autopilot off it's all deep-felt
shoulder harnesses Justin locked
yep mixer set yep bar peed on
I repeat odd you'll select your own boat
both and fuel is required earth flux is
required rather yeah we gotta hold off
on that
all right presenting check Marble Canyon
Skywalk turning a left downwind zero
three you gonna be a full stop hopefully
tomorrow will Canyon hopefully I mean
hey our pattern pattern altitude
he's our power back and a trim it out ap
is off flight directors off
all right watch your knees yep all right
hit my knees loose pump cow flaps car
Pete gas on full tank undercarriage down
and Phillips's mixture is set drop power
set trim straps flaps you're strapped in
I'm strapped in gonna be a beam here in
just a second so I'm gonna ease the
power
out holding the nose up waiting for the
wide arc there's the wide arc one one
thousand two one thousand three one
thousand there's 10 degrees flaps and
what the nose start coming down
red blue green the runway is clean
it's gonna shoot for a nice stabilized
approach here 75 knots is what I want
Marvel Canyon Skywalk left face to 0-3
Marble Canyon
about 74 knots it's pretty good nice and
stabilized nice and stabilized it's
notifying us we're leaving altitude or
on a left base our final looks clear the
runway looks clear one one thousand two
one thousand three one thousand twenty
degrees flaps marble canyon sky Hawk
turning final zero three marble canyon
cars coming out
a little high it's hard to tell because
there's non-standard markings and it's a
skinny runway - it is a skinny runway
put into a little bit of a slip here
went this calm so that's good about
sixty six knots when I put it into a
slip I gotta be sure to get that nose
down and keep that speed up
of an it too fast I'm gonna see if I can
arrest this speed
I'm gonna hold on pull her up
older on the pole
there she is hold on those left pavement
yeah babe my nose
treating it kind of like a soft field
landing
Marvel Canyon Skywalk rolling out 0-3
marble canyon
that was a rough runway for being paved
all right where are we parking
I guess we go anywhere just kind of
along the pavement here huh
chalk it with a couple rocks
we're gonna have to push it up he'll
push it up he'll alright
we are parked strokes off landing light
off and just check everything circuit
breakers or and flash up flaps coming up
front through the after landing
checklist car P is off strobes landing
line pitot heat is off mixtures required
trim and transponder squawkin VFR okay
avionics
that
absolutely epic down in this deep canyon
right was that not like the coolest
approach but it's left traffic and this
plateau is kind of in the way but when
you're up at pattern altitude you're
like 300 feet above it just absolutely
amazing so beautiful here this is by far
the coolest airport in the coolest
approach that I've done probably that
you've done too it's awesome
[Music]
so we're gonna try and catch the the
restaurant here and grab some food
supposedly it's pretty good it's the
marble canyon trading post I just can't
get over how awesome it looks here the
food was absolutely fantastic
I got what was called the belt bacon egg
lettuce and tomato and it was the best
BLT I've ever had for the rest of the
day this trip down here remained in my
head is one of the coolest parts of the
day but of course the day had several
other epic moments and to see those you
can go watch the seven part
coast-to-coast series I felt this video
was important to go into detail about
because there were a lot of things that
went into planning for this landing
given the airspace weight and balance
and performance requirements for this
little runway etc we taxied out and I
performed a soft field takeoff technique
given the rough runway conditions so he
could keep the nose gear off the ground
we departed the opposite way we landed
so we wouldn't climb out right over the
village the wind was calm so we were
fine with departing the opposite
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the next video will also be a sidebar
from the coast to coast series as I show
the full length flight from French
Valley to Santa Monica California
through the LAX Bravo also the next
series will be kicked off in February so
keep your eyes peeled for part 1 until
next time I want you to stay happy stay
healthy stay current and of course stay
proficient we'll see you in the next one
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