A Morning Flight to Prescott

Last Saturday I took a quick flight with a friend of mine who’s thinking about becoming a pilot.  Some members of The Phoenix Pilot Group were headed up there that morning to have breakfast, and see some of the airplanes on display by Cessna, Cirrus, Piper, Beech, Diamond, and Mooney at the Prescott stop of the Arizona Aircraft Expo.  My friend wanted to take a flight, and since this was going on, we thought we’d head up there to check it out.

The weather was sketchy here in the usually nice Phoenix area.  For a few days we had a weather system passing through that brought a lot of moisture and unstable air.  That meant humid mornings with lots of clouds and possible scattered thunderstorms in the afternoons.  I had been following the weather, and when I woke up that morning I took a look outside, and sure enough, there was what looked like a couple of layers of clouds, some as low as 1500 feet from the ground.  My weather briefing confirmed that, but it looked broken enough to get out, and the weather in Prescott was supposed to be better, so off to the airport we went.  My youngest son, Trey, accompanied me as well.

After the pre-flight, we were off.  My usual course of action to head north is to immediately open my flight plan on departure from Stellar Airpark in Chandler, AZ, and then quickly get over to Phoenix approach to request a northbound transition through the class Bravo airspace directly over Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.  I did this, and quickly got a left 360 for spacing before being cleared into the airspace.  The approach controller cleared me to transition over Sky Harbor (KPHX) at 5000 feet MSL.  As I was climbing and approaching the transition, it became obvious that I wouldn’t be able to maintain Visual Flight Rules (VFR) and climb to 5000 feet.  I contacted the controller and let him know that I was unable to comply with the request and maintain VFR.  I told him that I could maintain 4000, and maybe go higher later, and he accepted that, and cleared me on the transition at 4000 feet.  Later, I actually had to drop down to 3,500 ft to remain clear of clouds, and the controller was kind enough to coordinate my transition of Deer Valley’s (KDVT) class D airspace.

It turned out there were several layers of clouds that day, scattered at about 4000 feet, broken at about 6000 feet, and overcast at 8000 or so.  Visibility was also terrible under those layers, which is very unusual for Phoenix.  While flying the transition I probably only had about 8-10 miles of visibility.  In contrast to what I normally fly in, which is 10 times that, this seemed rather limiting.  My passenger actually asked me if I was concerned as we dodged clouds over Phoenix in poor visibility, and I thought for a second, and realized that I wasn’t really. We had many outs, and were on radar and in contact with Phoenix approach.  Even if we couldn’t get out of the valley due to low clouds, or a thunderstorm in our way, we could have landed at half a dozen airports that were either in sight or would be in a few minutes if we flew toward them, including even PHX right below us.  Also, I was still pretty confident that we would be able to climb out of the valley toward the better weather north of us.

It turned out I was right.  After crossing over Deer Valley we were able to continue climbing and the low clouds did disperse the farther north we went, and we were able to fly between an overcast layer above us and a scattered and dispersing layer below us.  While flying at our assigned altitude (I think it was 6,500 feet) heading north, we had a Southwest Airlines 737 fly directly over us as they headed into Phoenix (approach had warned the other pilot and me, and we had each other in sight, and the controller had us separated vertically).  After traffic was behind us and no factor, the controller gave us a higher altitude after cautioning of wake turbulence from the three-seven.  At this point we were good to go and continued on toward Prescott.  The ride was cool and smooth for a summer flight in Arizona and we were cruising at about 8500 feet.

As we approached Prescott, we heard on the center frequency that we were being followed on that another airplane was cancelling their VFR approach into Prescott because of weather.  We were about 15 minutes out, so that worried me a little…but from my vantage-point, it looked like I could easily duck under a layer that was hanging around the area, and get into Prescott.  We continued on, and cancelled flight following as we turned westbound at Prescott Valley so we could get ATIS and start talking to PRC tower.  Sure enough, visibility under the 8000 foot layer that we ducked under was pretty good, and rain showers washed the plane a bit as we approached the airport.  The wind was kicking up pretty good, over 20 kts, but almost directly aligned with a smaller cross runway (runway 12) that they have at Prescott, and that’s where I was headed, so the wind would not be a big factor.  There was a bit of gusting, but I would just come in with a little extra speed to compensate.  Even this smaller runway 12 was still 4400 feet long, so I wasn’t worried about that.

Besides asking for the tower to call my base for traffic I knew was on final, but couldn’t see, the approach and landing was pretty uneventful.  With the wind coming at me, normally it would have seemed like a slow approach, but KPRC is over 5000 feet in elevation, and with the heat of the summer, density altitude is routinely over 8000 feet, the approach seemed pretty normal (the thin air compensated for the headwind, making it seem sort of normal).  The same thing happened a couple of hours later on our departure; the headwind combined with the high density altitude cancelled each other out, and it felt like a normal takeoff in the valley.  Interesting.

After landing and parking near Legend Aviation where the event was taking place.  We were a bit late to meet up with Phoenix Pilot Group members, but we ate a nice lunch at the restaurant there, and then got to browse around some nice, new airplanes from Cessna, Mooney, Beech, Piper Diamond, and Cirrus.  Man, those are all nice airplanes.  Then, it was time to go.

The weather had actually improved a bit in the valley, but was still pretty low in Prescott.  It was easy to get out, though, and on the way back my passenger snapped a few photos, which I’m including here.  When we arrived back at Stellar, the air was hot (and humid by Arizona standards), but we had enjoyed the nice cool air in Prescott for a few hours, had a nice meal, and had seen some beautiful airplanes.  A good morning of flying for sure.

Town of Prescott Valley on our way back home
Prescott Valley, a town close to Prescott

Sky Harbor Airport
Approaching KPHX fr
om the north

KPHX Tower
A close-up of the KPHX Tower

  Crossing over KPHX at 3500 feet

Sky Harbor (KPHX) looking down the runways

Flying Over Hana

For today’s video, I’m just referencing an episode that I released yesterday for my podcast, The Student Pilot Cast.  This is a flight that Crystal and I took (separately, since it only has two seats) in Hana, Hawaii on Maui back in the summer of 2007.  It was one of the best vacations that we have ever taken, and this, at least for me, was one of the highlights of that trip.

I hope you enjoy SPC Video #4, Flying Over Hana.  Let me know what you think.

I’m including the video here, but for the original post on the podcast site, you can go here.

View in HTML5 (For iPad and iPhone, etc.)

Daily Flip 5 – SGTRI

Well, I did another triathlon last weekend, the SGTRI.  Actually, while a different race, it was the same venue from my first full tri which got cancelled due to weather after the swim.  This time wind and waves got the swim start delayed, and then cancelled as well.  I’m not having good luck at this venue.  So, the race organizers turned it into a run-bike-run event.  It turns out this was a really hard course, both the bike an the run.  They were much harder than I had expected.  I bombed on the last run, but finished, so I guess that’s something.

I did the tri with my friend, Matt, and my brother, Cory.  Matt lives here in Mesa and Cory lives in Park City, UT.  Matt and I had planned on having me fly us up to St. George, UT, where the event was.  That would turn an 8 or so hour drive into a 2 hour flight.  Then my brother asked if I could come pick him up near Park City…so of course, I agreed.  After dropping Matt and our gear off at St. George Airport (KSGU), I got back in the plane and flew up to Provo, UT (KPVU) and picked up my brother.  Then we both flew back to Hurricane, UT (1L8) where our rental home was as well as the actual triathlon (Hurricane is about a 20 minute drive from St. George).  Matt and I got to fly over the western edge of the Grand Canyon both ways.  Here are a couple of pics from that.

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We stayed in a great house that was only a couple of miles from the start of the race, so we were able to ride our bikes in on the morning of the tri…no parking or waiting in long car lines necessary.  It was great!  My friend, Jen, from high school and her husband, Marcello, drove up from their home in Las Vegas to cheer us on and take some great photos.

We had a great time.  I wasn’t happy with my performance, but that just gives me some additional motivations in my training…I’ll improve for next time.  Even so, I got to hang out with a lot of great people, got to race in a triathlon, and got to do a lot of flying!  A great weekend, indeed, despite Sandy Hill.

I dedicated a daily flip video to the experience.  It’s a little long for a daily flip, but I hope you enjoy it.

Daily Flip 4-Training

Matt and I are competing in the St. George Triathlon this Saturday, May 9th, so today’s daily flip was a nice easy training ride we took yesterday.  I’m not as prepared for this tri as I was for my last one (physically), but I think mentally I’m even more prepared.  No matter, it should be fun.

I’m flying Matt and I up to the event on Friday and flying home on Sunday in the Skylane.  We were lucky enough to be able to rent a home very close to the Tri venue and not too far from the small GA airport that we will be flying into in Hurricane, UT.  Should be pretty convenient.

Enjoy today’s daily flip of Matt and I goofing around on the bikes, enjoying the outdoors, and generally having a fun ride with very little pain.  That’s a first for a while.  Some of it is jumpy when I was doing a point of view charging down a hill in the wind…but that’s what it feels like on the bike sometimes…so I left it in.

The Blue Angels, Brian Terwilliger style

Wow.  Brian Terwilliger, the director and producer of the great aviation documentary film One Six Right, has done it again.  This time in a very high quality web vignette about his history and his media ride with the Navy jet demonstration team, the Blue Angels.  I can’t say any more that you won’t get from seeing, so just watch “Flying Full Circle”.

Feel free to watch it here if you’re pressed for time, but if not, do yourself a favor and watch (or download) a higher quality version at Brian’s site.  Enjoy.

My new flight video

As I mentioned in a previous post, I’m producing an aviation podcast at www.studentpilotcast.com.  I’ve just released a video for the video podcast feed.  It’s basically my first video episode, and is kinda cool, so I thought I would post it here as well. 

I realize there is a problem with the video when the prop is in the shot (I cover this in the video itself).  They’re getting better, though.  Stay tuned.


SPC Video #002-On My Own from Bill Williams on Vimeo.

Trent Takes the Controls

Here is a quick video from Trent’s and my flight.  My favorite part…”Do the brakes work up here?”

You can hear the ATIS for Chandler (CHD) about halfway through the clip, if you are interested.  This is the first time Trent had ever been in a small plane before…let alone fly one.  Good job, Trent.

Trent and I Go Flying

Trent and I went over to Chandler Airport today and jumped in a Cherokee 160 (with a CFI), and took a quick trip down to Casa Grande. We didn’t do this to go to Casa Grande, mind you, but for the experience itself. You see, I’m starting my training for my Private Pilot certificate, and hopefully Trent isn’t too far behind. 🙂 It was a good time…and I’m excited as all get out to finally be doing my training. Here are a couple of pics.

Trent is getting ready to take the controls (after the CFI, Brian, gets us into the air).

Here’s a shot while Trent is flying from the south of Chandler looking north. You can see I-17 running diagonally through the picture. The Cherokees are low wing aircraft, so the pesky wings seem to always get in the way.