$250 Fajita

So Tuesday was my first flight to an actual destination. A good friend of mine, Steve, his wife, Noel my wife Brittany, and I, all flew to Sedona for the day. The night before I was freaking out about the weather because we all really wanted to go, and some weather was rolling in. Luckily it all went well. We flew out of Deer Valley Airport in North Phoenix. Steve is working on his Commercial rating there with Westwind. A few more flights and a checkride and he will have it. I wish he had his CFI because then I could have made this flight and logged the time, but oh well.

So we show up at the airport and rent some headsets for the girls, and head out to the awaiting Arrow. The plane is beautiful and we can only put 20 gallons of fuel in because of the four of us in the plane. That was more than enough to get us there and back with time to spare. As soon as I stepped onto the ramp I was soaked. I sweat like a pig and the 95+ degrees just totally jacked me up. Steve preflighted the plane explaining everything that he was doing to my wife because she was scared. She doesn't like to fly in big planes, let alone tiny planes like this. Once the preflight was done we all got situated in the plane and started her up. Finally the giant fan was on and I could cool down a little bit. Brittany kind of freaked out when I told her we wouldn't shut the door until takeoff, but she quickly understood why. The taxi was great, but it was so busy there. Steve said that Deer Valley is the busiest general aviation airport in the country, and I believe it. There are 3 pilot factories on the airport and we quickly had 6 planes lined up behind us waiting for departure. After the run-up we waited about 15 min to takeoff because of all the traffic. Finally it was our turn. We lined up on the runway and away we went. It took a while to get off the ground due to the fact we had a lot of weight on board. We were well within limits but it still took a few extra feet of runway. Brittany was already starting to look sick so Steve kept everything as smooth as he could. Once we climbed up it got a little cooler and more comftorable. The view was amazing. As we got closer to Sedona you could see the terrain changing to the red rocks. It was amazing! When we got close and descended to pattern altitude we could see the runway. We entered the left downwind pattern on the 45 for runway 21. It was really funny because every time Steve called to make a position report, he would say "Sedona Tower, Arrow... turning base". I made fun of him pretty bad, but it's just because he is used to flying out of a towered airport. The runway is on the edge of a cliff. If you took a step off the end of the runway you would go tumbling. It was a little intimidating for me, but Steve is a pro and put us down very gently. We taxi'd to the parking spot and were out of the plane in time to see a Waco take off. I really want to fly in one of those. I don't have the money to do it right now through a commercial place, but if anybody is reading this and owns one... Hook me up!

Once the plane was secured we went in and rented a car. We drove around Sedona and grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican restaurant. I had fajitas, hence the title of this entry. I also had a great Margarita! Total we probably spent a couple hours on the ground in Sedona. It was fun, but I was along more for the ride than the actual destination, even though it was nice to have a destination. By this time some weather was rolling in and we had a couple rain drops. I think Steve got a little nervous about beating the weather so we headed back to the airport and got situated. This time Brit was happy to be flying and enjoyed it a lot more than the trip to Sedona. It could be due to the fact that the temperature felt like it dropped about 20 degrees.

We taxi'd to runway 21 which had a direct crosswind, but again, Steve handled it like a pro and got us up quick. On the way back we climbed pretty quick, but even at 8,000 MSL we were only about 4,000 off the ground. Was a great view. Back down at Deer Valley, we got parked and shut down, and went inside to pay. The trip was exactly 2.0, and that is pretty bad because we spent a lot of time on the ground and had to pay for it.

After that trip, I think I’ve found a place I would like to visit again. Even if I just fly there and fly back, the view is worth it. Maybe I’ll go there for a solo cross country when I get there in my training! Nothing like a 250$ fajita!