Maule Driver wrote:

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?

Yes, it is feature-rich, but I don't think feature-less. Then again, I
was born here... :-)


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?


Yep, it is the same Grand Canyon airport, but not for long. It will
soon be renamed to something like the Wellsboro Johnston airport in
honor of Dick and Ada Johnston who operated the airport for many decades
and just retired a few years ago when the state sold the airport to a
local airport authority.


Matt