beautyintheuniverse's video: The Luckiest Landing Ever at the Grand Canyon

Yup I got LUCKY! If the plane had only clipped a wing or something its all but a certainty that I would have lost the plane into the canyon. Hmmm. Well this is pretty much the best way to gain experience, by the 'phew that was a close one' type moment. The place I few was really remote. Its one of those strange things at the grand canyon, it crawls with people, but you only have to go maybe 100 meters off the path, and you have the place entirely to yourself. Sunday 19th July 2009-07-19 Up before sunrise, picked up a V. expensive mcdonalds breakfast just short of the park (6.50 bux for a breakfast meal) I was in a hurry. Shocked when found the gates manned before 6am. However apparently the national parks are free for the weekend this summer as a part of the stimulus package, although the guy on the gate said it had made precious little difference to the number of guests they had seen. The first stop was the visitors center, PACKED. V. windy, didnt even go in. Headed on down the canyon to what seemed a quiet place. Got out on a little peninsula, some very exposed moments. Went back and got laptop for a timelapse. Spent a couple of hours just enjoying the scenery and reading good bits from the bible. Over this time the wind dropped to the point where I could fly the plane. Went exploring along the canyon rim and found a place that looked pretty good. Long way from anyone, and view looked good. Went back, got the plane and packed up the timelapse. Spent a long time trying to figure out how to do this. The ridge had cliffs on both sides. Great for flybys but impossible for landing and dangerous for launch. Eventually elected to fly from the canyon rim (of a sort) after deciding on a landing path. Flight went fantastically, however for the landing I ran into trouble. When bringing the plane in, I had to keep the speed up for stability and steerability (control surfaces only have a good response when there is thrust going over them). This meant the plane came in very fast. Tried a couple of loops before crashing it into a tree on the canyon rim. I got VERY lucky. Only when I got up the tree did I realize that it was only a foot or two from the cliffs on the other side. Hmmm. Well I guess thats probably the least painful way to get experience. Took a fairly leasurly drift out the east of the park and identified a couple much better places to fly. Back down towards flagstaff, stopping by Sunset crater in a thunderstorm. Too windy to fly, plus too many people. Again free entry. Back down to Flagstaff where some Indian wanted money to get back to the reservation 150 miles away I gave him a few coins. Later while I was getting the car done he asked me to buy him dinner. I refused and he seemed to leave in a temper. I went out to check my car hadnt been sabotaged. And thats where I sit now waiting for the oil change etc. (sears) Bit of a problem with the car. The serpentine belts been slipping esp. when the car is cold. Now I had that all replaced before I started the trip, but it doesnts seemed to have helped. Anyway the mechanics initially said oiling the belt would solver the problem. However after they did that the problem persisted. They then said the problem is with the tensioning pully. About 100bux to fix (although they couldnt do it till tomorrow). I decided to hang around, there is free wifi in the safeway next door. Catching up with rendering and uploading. Kipped in Sear carpark.