Red Rock Fly-In: April 8-10, 2005
Click here for pictures
Destinations: Grand Canyon, Valle and Sedona
Attendees: Sam & Elena Bishop (Soquel, CA); Bert & Greta Vos (Banning, CA); Peter & Shirley More (Los Angeles, CA); Lee, Marti, Brady & Barrett Dunayer (Burbank, CA); Chip & Pat Rollins (Chandler, AZ); John Dillon (Grand Canyon, AZ); Fred Newman (Midland, TX); Dan Pitts(Alaska). We had fifteen participants.
Coordinators: John Dillon organized activities for Grand Canyon. Chip Rollins and his wife Pat organized activities for Sedona.
Day 1: The group arrived between 10-11AM on Friday April 8 at Grand Canyon Airport (GCN), met by John Dillon who briefed us on activities during our stay in Grand Canyon. Wasting no time, the group was immediately driven to the south rim of the Grand Canyon National Park to enjoy this Wonder of the World. Our guide Gene, explained to us the route and schedule of the Canyon shuttle buses, gave us some suggestions for restaurants and scenic spots, (although almost everywhere you stand is as spectacular as the next) and left us to take in this majestic place at our own pace. It was a beautiful day, blue sky, a bit chilly and windy, but everyone had a great time hopping on and off the shuttle bus and hiking along the rim and enjoying the magnificent canyon. At 6PM, we all met in front of Bright Angel Lodge where our guide and his bus was waiting to take us to Yavapai Observation Station to watch the sunset. By this time, temperature has dropped to the 30s and with the wind chill, it was cold, but the spectacular sunset casting beautiful colors and shadows on the canyon was definitely worth the stop.
We returned to our hotel, the beautiful Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Inn, checked in and rejoined John Dillon. It was a delight to have Brad & Sue Wallis from the Grand Canyon Rotary Club joined us for dinner. We were treated to a delicious appetizer compliments of hotel general manager Greg Bryan, a Rotarian from the Grand Canyon Club. (One of the many wonderful things organized by John Dillon). Following dinner, John gave us a most interesting presentation on the history of aviation in the area and Grand Canyon Airline.
While we were all having a fabulous time, Chip Rollins unfortunately was suffering from gastric pain and was taken to a hospital in Flagstaff, 80 miles south, for examination and treatment. We were relieved to hear the next day from Pat that he was fine and they were rejoining the group.
Day 2: Scheduled to be in Sedona after an IMAX film of Grand Canyon, and a visit to famous Planes of Fame museum in Valle, AZ. Surprise! Surprise! Looking out our hotel windows we saw the most unexpected but gorgeous sight, a winter wonderland. Everything was covered in snow! Just like John Dillon had told Peter a week ago, weather in the canyon “changes by the minute and you can’t loose sleep over it”. As scheduled, we went to watch an IMAX film on the Grand Canyon. It’s the highest grossing and one of the best IMAX film made, showing the formation, the history, the discovery of this natural wonder, its early inhabitants, and many of the places inaccessible to visitors.
After the film, John drove us to Valle, 35 miles south to visit the Air Museum Planes of Fame. It has an exotic collection of vintage aircraft and automobiles. We were greeted by Norm Gobeil Valle Airport (40G) manager. The museum curator and general manager Bob Reed also arranged a barbeque feast for us, followed by a tour. For all these flying Rotarians, who are all airplanes buffs, it was a real treat.
By the time we got back to Grand Canyon at 2:30pm, it was still snowing on and off and quite breezy. We were snowed in! Sedona hotels and prearranged jeep tours had to be cancelled. Fortunately, with some sweet talking on our side, and understanding and kindness on Sedona’s side, we were able to cancel at no charge. Spending the rest of our fly-in time in Grand Canyon, with a group of Rotarian friends was equally enjoyable and relaxing. We gathered again for dinner and fellowship that evening.
Day 3: Blue sky and sunshine, a good day to fly. Our shuttle van picked us up at 9AM bound for the airport. We had our group photo, brushed off the remaining snow on the plane, said goodbye to our old and new friends and headed our separate ways home.
A huge thank you to John Dillon who planned out our whole stay in Grand Canyon, including hotel accommodation at discounted rate, tour bus and guide, all the transportation, visit to IMAX, the museum, the FBO at the airport and fuel at a deep discount, his presentation of the Grand Canyon Airline. Our deep gratitude for his time spent with us on Saturday away from his family.
We also appreciated all the planning and work done by Pat and Chip Rollins for Sedona, and for their thoughtfulness and generosity in preparing a name tag and fly-in gift for all of us, yet were not able to enjoy most of the fly-in due to Chip’s illness.
We look forward to our next fly-in, especially in seeing everyone at the Centennial celebration and post convention fly-in in Chicago this June.