The Quest to Land at All Arizona Airports

Flying once or twice a week, one can visit the handful of $100 breakfast airports within reasonable distance of Phoenix only so many times.  Instead of repeating the same flights over and over, why not set a goal to land at airports all over Arizona?  It’s a great way to see a lot of things you’d otherwise never see.  It’s also a great way to hone pilot skills since it presents many new scenarios to the pilot – new runways, new terrain, new enroute navigation experiences.

So, Dad and I have decided to set a goal:  Starting in October 2015, we are going to visit every publicly accessible NPAIS airport in the State (there are 58 of them).  We will use the Wikipedia List of Airports in Arizona as our checklist. We’ll get a picture at each airport, with something recognizable at that airport, as proof of having been there.  Here’s our progress …

	Airport	Airport Name	City	Visited	Notes
1	KDVT	Phoenix Deer Valley	Phoenix	10/11/2015	Purchased N40MH from owner based at KDVT
2	E60	Eloy Municipal	Eloy	10/11/2015	Breakfast
3	18AZ	Skyranch Carefree	Carefree	10/11/2015	New home base for N40MH
4	KPRC	Prescott Muni – Ernest A. Love Field	Prescott	10/13/2015	Ate at Susie’s Skyway Restaurant
5	P52	Cottonwood Municipal	Cottonwood	10/31/2015
6	KPAN	Payson Municipal	Payson	10/31/2015	Good restaurant.
7	E63	Gila Bend Municipal	Gila Bend	11/2/2015	No restaurant on airport.
8	KSEZ	Sedona Airport	Sedona	11/11/2015	Great restaurant with views.
9	KFLG	Flagstaff-Pulliam	Flagstaff	11/11/2015
10	KINW	Winslow Lindbergh Regional	Winslow	11/11/2015
11	P20	Avi Suquilla	Parker	11/14/2015
12	KHII	Lake Havasu City Airport	Lake Havasu City	11/14/2015
13	KIFP	Laughlin/Bullhead Int’l	Bullhead City	11/14/2015

E60 Eloy

KPRC Prescott

P52 Cottonwood

KPAN Payson

E63 Gila Bend

KFLG Flagstaff-Pulliam

KINW Winslow

KSEZ Sedona

P20 Avi Suquilla (Parker)

KHII Lake Havasu

KIFP Laughlin/Bullhead City

Prep for the Flight Review

I just got my 3rd Class Medical (that was the easiest task on the list), and got the new hard-card version of my Private Pilot certificate from the FAA … now, the only task left is to get a Flight Review signoff.  I could immediately begin work with a flight school and a CFI, but I realize there are a number of things I can learn on my own, before I start shelling out hard-earned savings to pay for ground school.

Here are the resources I am using:

Airplane Flying Handbook – this is a basic publication from the FAA that, honestly, is pretty dry reading – but if you can endure the borderline boredom, it’s a great way to refamiliarize yourself with terminology and get your brain back into the flying groove.  This book is available in an easy-to-digest format on iTunes for $2.99.

Sporty’s Flight Review – this is a nicely assembled collection of indexed videos which review a number of Flight Review topics. It’s easy viewing, and the iPhone app version ($29.99) is well worth the money spent. 

Local Used Book Store – I found several resources for casual reading at a local used book store (in many cases, 10 year old flying books are as useful as currently published book).  One book I found for only a few dollars was a hard-bound book called “I Learned About Flying From That” – this book is a collection of articles published in Flying Magazine which discusses pilots’ brushes with near disasters – a great way to learn what not to do.  It’s well written, and a good way to heighten your awareness of potential issues and to discourage complacency in the cockpit.

Brendan’s Flight Training Video – Brendan is a CFI out of the Bay Area.  He has put together a 3-disc series of DVDs that show complete detail of a flight across busy Class-B and -C airspaces in a Cessna 172.  His video includes flight planning, weight and balance, pre-flight, and the flight itself.  In particular, listening to his communcation with ATC was a great learning and refamiliarization opportunity.  The cost of the 3-disc series is a little pricey, but I think it was worth the cost. 

Next Adventure: Air Time
Once I have sufficient self-taught ground school under my belt, I will schedule time with a CFI to begin official preparation for my Flight Review.  Hopefully, the work with the instructor will be more productive as a result of my pre-study efforts.

Where do I start?

It’s been nearly 25 years since I logged PIC (Pilot in Command) time.  This isn’t like getting onto a bicycle – there’s a lot more to reacquaint myself with.  I feel as if I’ve retained much of my pilot skills, but the more I dig through online ground school training resources, the more I realize I’ve either forgotten, or has drastically changed since I last flew.  So, where do I start?

After a fair amount of research, here’s my to-do list:

• Start Learning Now – begin preparing myself with informal ground training self-study – reading and videos. This may end up saving me some expense with formal ground school instruction later on.
• Updated Certificate – get the new plastic card version of my Private Pilot Certificate (when I was originally issued my cert years ago, it was a paper card … now the FAA uses a plastic card – similar to a credit card).  The old paper certificates are no longer useable.
• Medical Exam – obtain a 3rd Class Medical Certificate from an AME (Aviation Medical Examiner) – to prove that I’m physically fit for piloting.
• Get up in the air – schedule time with a CFI (Certified Flight Instructor) and an airplane, to begin preparing for the Flight Review that I must pass in order to act as PIC once again.
• Join the AOPA – the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is the group that supports and fights for pilot rights, and is one of the greatest sources of information available on the web to pilots.

There are some good (and not so good) resources on the web – here are the ones that I’ve found most helpful at this juncture:

http://www.askacfi.com/1512/how-do-i-renew-my-pilots-license.htm
http://www.aopa.org/Pilot-Resources/Getting-Back-into-Flying

I’m getting excited about this.

The Flying Bug Bit

As an incredibly lucky teenager whose parents owned an FBO, I grew up around aviation. I got tons of right-seat time in aircraft that many would only dream of flying … twin-Cessnas, warbirds such as a Stearman, AT-6, and a Casa Saeta, and of course the “mundane” aircraft such as 152s, 172s, and the occasional Skylane or Cherokee. Little did I know at the time that those planes being  “mundane” was merely a perspective and that someday I would truly appreciate these simpler aircraft for what they are.

I was privileged to begin flying lessons early on, and to solo on my 16th birthday. How many kids can say they flew solo even before they earned their driver’s license? Later on though, real life kicked in and flying took a back seat.

Nearly 30 years later, at age 46, I read Dr. Richard Komm’s book, Cubs to Bonanzas, and once again the flying bug bit.  It bit hard.  It’s time to start flying again – whatever it will take.

Here, I will document my return to flying in the new age of General Aviation – one in which avgas is $6.00+ per gallon and “real” pilotage seems to be a thing of the past. They say “where there’s a will, there’s a way”. With teenage children soon to be college bound, getting active in aviation will no doubt require lots of “will” – such as “Honey, will you support my flying addiction?”  I’m blessed that my fiancee supports flying.

Stay tuned for my adventure.