Winter flying vacation to Sedona, AZ in a Grumman

Just came back from a week-long winter flying trip from Seattle to
Sedona, Arizona, exchanging freezing wet Northwest winter with
magnificent views of red rocks and the dry desert air.

My wife and I departed on Sunday 1/14, after a horrendous and
uncharacteristic winter storm that froze the Pacific Northwest and left
over an inch of ice and snow on my airplane. The temperature was about
22F when I started to clean the ice and snow off the plane. My normal
deicing method, hot water mixed with RV anti-freeze (propylene glycol,
same ingredient as type 1 deicing fluid) that normally works down to
about -2C, failed miserably when the deicing fluid refroze to a thin
red sheet of ice on the wings after melting off the existing ice/snow.
Fortunately I was able to find a heated hangar at Paine field to
melt/evaporate those remaining ice on the surface. Three hours later
at noon, we were finally off the ground into the blue frigid sky.

After a quick fuel stop at the lovely airport of Grants Pass, Oregon
(3S8), we were on our way through the Siskiyou area to central
California. Even though we started 3 hours late we were still able to
clear the mountain areas near Mount Shasta and enter the California
central valley before dark. It was completely dark when we arrived at
our overnight stop at Modesto, CA (KMOD). The friendly lineman gave us
a ride to the hotel, which happened to have a Mexican restaurant next
door.

We got up early the second morning and headed for the airport at 7:30,
because we really want to arrive at Sedona before the rental car
counter closes at 5pm. To my horror (but not to my surprise), there
was a thick layer of frost on the wings. I kicked myself for not
getting an overnight hangar, which was priced reasonably at $30/night
for a single engine. No heated hangar was available at Modesto.
Fortunately with foresight I had two more gallons of RV anti-freeze and
a bucket in the plane, and I went to work to deicing the plane. The
temperature was rising rapidly towards upper 20s Fahrenheit and I was
hoping that the deicing fluid wouldn't fail. I poured the warm fluid
over the wing, saw it melting off all the frost, and I waited. The
wings must be so cold, that the deicing fluid slowly refroze to soft
slushy red snow. My first deicing attempt failed.

I waited for 30 minutes, as the sun was coming up and the temperature
was approaching 32F. While I was waiting I saw the lineman pulled a
King Air out of their unheated hangar to prepare for its departure. To
my big surprise, a thin layer of frost appeared on its wings in a few
minutes when it was outside! So much for a hangar. I hope the pilots
of the King Air would delay their departure until those frost was
melted off by the sun light.

I pulled my plane around and into the sun so the sun can shine on both
its wings and horizontal tails. Half hour later and warmer (around
29F), I tried deicing again, and it worked this time. The fluid didn't
fail. We took off into a blinding sunrise.

Our route was to cross the Sierras Nevada mountains near Bakersfield,
and refuel at Dagget, California (KDAG) in the Mojave desert. It was
Martin Luther King day and we were cleared through R-2515 by Joshua
Approach, and we got a nice view of the gigantic shuttle runways at
Edwards air force base. At Dagget airport we were warmly greeted by
the airport folks. They showed us some gorgeous pictures of Angelina
Jolie on the Vogue magazine shot at the Dagget airport building, a
run-down but intriguing wooden building next to some WW2 era
hangars/buildings. Departing Dagget we climbed up to 11,500 feet going
direct to Sedona, skirting along side a few restricted airspaces.

Sedona airport is arguably the single most beautiful airport in the
country. Sitting on top of a high mesa in the middle of beautiful red
rock mountains, approaching it was like landing on an aircraft carrier
in a dream. The south end of the 5000 feet runway was almost 100 feet
lower than the north end, making the sight picture quite interesting
when I landed to the north.

After a memorable stay of 3 days and tons of hiking, we departed early
morning on Friday to escape a winter storm coming from the southeast,
beating it by about 3 hours. We landed at North Las Vegas airport
(KVGT) in less than an hour and half catching a big tailwind from the
east. The city run North Las Vegas airport had cheap fuel, friendly
folks, free shuttle to the strip, and WIFI Internet. We booked the
hotel using our laptop and spent the rest of the day walking the Las
Vegas strip, a make-believe bizarre creation of extravaganza and
Disneyland for the adults. It had be years since we last visited and
we were once again reminded of how unbelievably out of this world Las
Vegas is, good and bad.

Waking up to the cool desert morning we left Las Vegas and heading
towards central Oregon, flying along the east side of the Sierra Nevada
mountain range at 10,500 feet. At that altitude it was quite
comfortable to fly over the high terrain east of the mountain. The
head wind was brutal the whole way and our ground speed was never above
90 knots, and below 80 knots north of Reno. The refueling was done at
Reno Stead (4SD) airport, home of the Reno air race. The airport was
fine but it was bone chilling cold with 25 knots wind, and we had to
walk around the ramp for about 15 minutes before we found a snow
removing crew to give us the door code to the locked pilot lounge. The
weather at central Oregon was iffy west side of Cascade mountains, with
low clouds most of the morning forecasted to improve around 4pm.
Heading to Klamath Falls, Oregon my hedging plan was 1. head towards
Redmond, Oregon at the east side of Cascades and 2. head towards
Medford or Roseburg, Oregon at the west side of the Cascades and 3.
Land at Klamath Falls if I didn't have fuel to do 1 or 2 because of the
headwind, which was about 20 knots stronger than the forecast. 40
miles from Klamath Falls I was able to get a weather briefing on
Medford and Roseburg Oregon, both had opened up the last hour or so.
In this freezing temperature IFR into a mountainous area was out of the
question. Despite of the headwind I had enough fuel to reach Roseburg
(KRBG) with a safe reserve and we landed there about 30 minutes before
dark. After almost 7 hours of flight I was too tired to continue.

The last day of our flight to Seattle area was like in my backyard.
The temperature was warmer and at 6500 feet the temp was 4C. Knowing
the lower terrain along the I-5 corridor I switched to IFR at 6000 feet
abeam Portland area when I could no longer continue VFR further north
due to clouds and rain. I exited the small weather system 30 miles
from Paine and landed at my home field (KPAE).

Total flight time (wheels up to wheels down): 22 hour 22 minutes.
Distance: 2295 nautical miles (2639 miles).

Trip map: http://www.chouby.com/apps/pae2sez.html

I highly recommend visiting Sedona in a small plane. Definitely one of
our best flying trips. Also for winter flying, bring a bucket and a
few gallons of deicing fluids. Overnight hangar or formal deicing
(expensive!!!) are often not available on the road. Having even a
rudimentary deicing capability yourself can save the day.

"M" wrote in message
oups.com...
Just came back from a week-long winter flying trip from Seattle to
Sedona, Arizona, exchanging freezing wet Northwest winter with
magnificent views of red rocks and the dry desert air.

You got out just in time; last night Phoenix had it's first snow in 15 years
(according to my BIL).

Nice trip report...nice to hear about your intrepid endeavor!!
...

Trip map: http://www.chouby.com/apps/pae2sez.html

I highly recommend visiting Sedona in a small plane. Definitely one of
our best flying trips. Also for winter flying, bring a bucket and a
few gallons of deicing fluids. Overnight hangar or formal deicing
(expensive!!!) are often not available on the road. Having even a
rudimentary deicing capability yourself can save the day.