Grand Canyon! Yeah, that territory is at the same time feature-rich and
feature-less depending on your familiarity. Damn, I've been so lost
there! Pilotage in engineless aircraft 1500' above the terrain can be
nerve-racking - where is that damn Hornell?

I landed 'out' at Grand Canyon once in a sailplane. The PIK20b was a
2nd generation fiberglass gliders with a laminar type airfoil known to
be bug sensitive (bug smashes significantly degraded the performance).
A weak willed Citabria came to give me an aero retrieve. As he began
the takeoff roll, a rain sprinkle started. We ran down the runway and
when we reached my normal liftoff speed, I couldn't. Rain had degraded
the the performance that much. The added drag of me rolling kept him on
the ground. He got off before I did with his wheels kissing the grass.
I dragged off the end of the asphalt and found out why they call it
Grand Canyon - thank goodness. Quite a drop off as I recall... Is that
the same N38?

Interestingly I sat down at the tube last night and they were doing a
show on the Mississippi and featured Sam Clemens/Mark Twain's stories
about piloting the Mississippi. Even interviewed a river pilot about
the test they have to take and his ability to draw a detailed 100 mile
map of the river from memory.

Matt Whiting wrote:

I never have discomfort navigating, but I often have discomfort when
looking for an emergency landing site and finding absolutely nothing
hospitable, especially from west of N38 to nearly ERI! The thought of
full stalling into the trees has just never given me great comfort. :-)

Matt