Day 9 Part 1 - Page, AZ to Tucson, AZ
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| Another early morning takeoff out of Page. My destination today was Tucson and I wanted to get there early enough to thoroughly see the Pima Air and Space Museum and Boneyard. I was a little surprised by how small the town of Page is given the airport infrastructure. But I guess a lot of tourists fly in because Page is centrally located. |
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Looking north at Lake Powell; the two big marinas are visible. I tried driving to one of them yesterday but they wanted $15 just to get in.
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| Looking down at Horseshoe Bend. It doesn't look as good this morning from the air as it did from the ground yesterday afternoon. |
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Marble Canyon Airport just southwest of Page and in the Grand Canyon special restricted airspace.
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| Looking west as I fly down the Marble Canyon area. |
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| Now I'm over the eastern end of the Grand Canyon. They are real tight on the airspace here -- there is a special Grand Canyon aeronautical chart you need to have. I was required to stay above 10,000 feet. But the view was still pretty good, as you can see. |
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| I flew the Grand Canyon three years ago, so when I reached the southern rim, I just kept heading south. The terrain got real uninteresting; especially compared to what I have been flying over the last three days. |
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| The scenery improved when I reached the Sedona "Red Rocks" area. |
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| Sedona, the aircraft carrier in the sky. |
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Passing down the east side of Phoenix.
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| I passed by Pinal airport and was amazed to see all these big jet airliners down below. Apparently this is the commercial airliner "Boneyard". Look at all the big 747s. |
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My destination for today was Marana Regional Airport, which is on the northwest outskirts of Tucson. When planning the trip, this seemed like the best general aviation airport for me.
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| Marana has a mini-boneyard of its own. There is even an old P-2 Neptune maritime-patrol plane down there. |
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| I had arranged for a rental car, and sure enough, it was waiting for me at the FBO. Marana also has that most valuable airport institution -- the on-field restaurant! The past few days my breakfast has consisted of a stale danish from the motel continental breakfast. But today I enjoyed some Huevos Rancheros. (When in Rome ....) |
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| We're not in Maryland anymore ... Notice how the path looks like a runway. |
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