...Flying Higher...: Landing Is Always Good

They call the airport at Sedona the USS Sedona. It sits on its own plateau at about 4,000 ft. elevation with winds to boot. It seems as though you are landing on an aircraft carrier.
This is Bruce landing at Sedona, AZ with winds 170 to 230 degrees, at 09 kts., gusting 19 kts.

This is not an example of unsteady piloting, it is that pesky wind battering us around. You may hear me say while on final, "Go around?" because we are so high, not for Bruce, he pretty much dove us in. Did you see my hand holding onto the dash as though that will steady the plane? Ha! You may, also, hear me say once on the ground "Holy crap!". What is it that pilots say... at least the instructors... "The wind is our friend". Again, ha!
This is me, glad to be on the ground again!

We fully recommend the Sedona Pines Resort because it is cheaper than a pristine palace setting and the accomadations were perfect for us.

We went with our friends Randy and Cheryl. They ended up flying their RV-10 with us through the weather part of our trip and claimed to have had to "wallow" to fly as slow as our Cessna 172. Bruce, where's our RV-10?

Yes, this is what people come to Sedona to see, the red rocks. And at sunset they are a sight.

The sleepy town of Sedona.

The prickly pear cactus grows every where in the area.

We took a day trip to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. I never know what to expect when I go to a place like this, will it look like the pictures I have seen all my life? Will it live up to my expectations? So what I do is clear my mind of all that stuff and just take it in as I experience it. Lets just say, it is the biggest hole in the ground I have ever seen! Oh, yeah, it was beautiful too!

This was a pleasant surprise for us, seeing the California condors up close. There is a condor refuge between the San Jaoquin Valley and the CA coast that is marked on the navigational charts that we fly with. So one time while at the coast we went to find the condors and ended up at a fire watch tower in the hills with a lady that was tracking them with radar. We spent most the afternoon up there not knowing if what we were seeing with binoculars was really a condor. To see them this close was amazing for us. I think there are just a handful that live at the south rim that are highly protected. They have a 9 ft. wing span. The thing that is killing them is the fact that most hunters use shot that contains lead and the game that they end up losing die without being found and the condor feeds on it picking up the lead.

We visited the American Indian ruins and petroglyphs just outside of Sedona. The first markings, scratches in the rock, date way back to about 5,000 years. The second picture shows pictorial markings of 2,000 years ago.

These are indian ruins built to protect from the elements and were used for 200 years.

This was a caucasian gentleman's homestead built under a rock cleft in the 1800's. He lived here until he was able to build a house. The blackened wall to the left is where his fire burned for cooking and warmth. I am standing in the front door, yes, he actually had a door with a knob on it.