I’ve flown a great deal with Northaire, Prescott who have a fleet of 172SP’s and in-house maintenance. Prescott has it’s own airspace and is surrounded by unlimited country and fantastic natural wonders. The Canyon, Monument Valley, Vegas and Meteor Crater are all 1-2 Hrs flying. It’s a lovely little ‘hometown’ although a bit rural for some city dwellers! At 5000’ elev it’s bearable in summer but 2 people are about right in a 172 for the sort of places you’ll want to visit.
Note on Sedona: not all FBO’s allow renters to go there.
With a 61.75 my choice has been checkout and BFR. Buy 10 hours, paid in advance. FBO puts me on insurance. Pa28 or C172. After trying around the US, I settled on Grand Junction, KGJT, Colorado. Accommodation and food near the airport at good prices. Flew New Mexico, Arizona, Utah. Desert and Rockies. Flew through the Grey and Desolation Canyons of the Green River.
I did that at the following locations while visiting the West coast:
- Page, AZ (American Aviation) to fly monument valley, lake Powell…
- San Carlos, CA (WVFC) to fly Yosemite and the bay tour
- Flagstaff, AZ (Wiseman Aviation) to fly to Sedona
All with local flight schools I had called a couple of days ahead of my stay. I usually say I’m a pilot and would like to fly with a CFI to checkout the area. They usually enjoy that since it’s a nice change from teaching.
172driver wrote:
@Tango, IMHO flying with an instructor is your best option. Otherwise you have to do your BFR, potentially an additional checkout flight and carry renters’ insurance. Lots of pain for little gain and in the case of SF likely a rather stressful flight, given the airspace there.
That is what I do when I try to fly somewhere I travel to. Earlier, I was try to see how to get checked out, but in the end, that adds a lot of preparation work since you will be flying in an environment you are not familiar with, so if your travel goal is not primarily about flying, it’s a lot easier and in way better to fly with a local instructor, he might even give you some local information about what you’re overflying. I had that flying in Malta, the instructor was explaining pretty much every landmarks, that was really nice! If I had just gotten checked out and flew by myself I would probably not have known what is most interesting nor any of the relevant details about the places.
A discovery flight is not the same thing.
It can be done with any PPL who is on the club insurance to do so.
it would be easier to fly where I wanted
The US doesn’t have the same restrictions on “discovery flight” that e.g. France does. If the instructor is up for it, you can do whatever you want. That said, if you already have a piggyback PPL, you just need a BFR which is a 1 hour flight with (in theory) 1 hour of ground. I say “in theory” because if you obviously know your stuff it tends to be a fairly short hour. And the 1 hour flight can be anything at all, subject to the instructor. Chances are that if in the first 15 minutes it’s obvious you know how to fly, they’ll put you through the usual stuff of stalls, steep turns, maybe a bit of unusual attitude. It’s not like an actual checkride.
Depending on where you are, you may be able to find an FAA CFI to do this before you leave. There’s one down here at LFMD but that’s probably not much help to you.
I’ll PM you about KPAO specifically.
Thx for the feedback!
If you are going to be with an instructor, you won’t need to have a Flight Review
Understood. My thinking was that with a current FAA PPL, it would be easier to fly where I wanted (within legal boundaries of course) as opposed to a discovery flight with an instructor, but perhaps I’m mistaken.
If the Bay Area is of interest, then I would strongly recommend Advantage Aviation at KPAO. They have a great fleet, including several G1000 182s. I can put you in touch if you want – PM me.
Prescott AZ would be one place to look, to the west of Sedona. Embry Riddle is there, so lots of traffic at the airport but the scenery is really nice and the airspace is not complex. San Francisco airspace is congested and complex and while having a local instructor along would mitigate a lot of that, and the scenery is nice, the flying would be busy. Vegas will be hot although not extremely hot in May, maybe 32 C highs, and you could find something at North Las Vegas Airport.
Sorry I can’t supply more specifics on FBOs, I haven’t rented a plane in a long time.
