Bogley

Hatchcanyon · Joined: 24 Oct 2008 Posts: 58 Location: Germany

For sure this is not exactly the place to post this story, but I can`t find a better place at Bogley´s.......................(please shift it to anothe place if desired).

In the 1990ies my wife asked me about a flight across the canyon country. She wanted to find out something about points we had visited on ground and how these are related to each other. Good idea!

We met Tim Martin, the so called "Flying Cowboy" of LaSal (or Moab), had a wonderful trip across the San Rafael Swell, Roobers Roost, Cataract Canyon. In 2006 we wanted to strike it big, asked Tim for a flight along the Colorado River and Lake Powell down to Page and the Coyote Buttes then back to Moab.

Tim performed a flight of a lifetime! See some pictures we took at the trip:

Tim Martin and his plane

Short after takeoff

Determination Towers

White Rim Trail

The Loop

Colorado -Green River Confluence

Castle Butte

Tapestry Wall

Forgotten Canyon

Moqui Canyon

The Rincon

Hole in the Rock

Rainbow Bridge

Page and Glen Canyon Dam

Horseshoe Bend

The Wave

Paria Canyon, Buckskin Gulch

Alstrom Point

Last Chance Bay

Twilight Canyon

Reflection Canyon

Fiftymile Creek

Stevens Arch

Waterpocket Fault

Hite

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Dirty Devil River

Hatch Canyon, Fiddler Butte, Gunsight Butte

The confluence again

Monument Basin

between Lockhart Basin and the Colorado River

The Gooseneck where the final scene of "Thelma and Louise" was taken

Back agein! Canyonlands Airfield

Lady is tired but happy after 4 hours of cross country flying.

The whole story

Reedus · Joined: 10 Jan 2006 Posts: 707

Wow! Best sequence of pictures I have seen in a long time. Love to see places from the perspective of a couple of thousand feet in the air. Thanks man!

moab mark · Joined: 23 Sep 2007 Posts: 935 Location: Kaysville, Utah

Those rocked. Thanks for sharing.
:2thumbs: Mark

Cirrus2000 · Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Posts: 2265 Location: Cascadia

Beautiful! That is a total dream to me. When I got my pilot's license current, after being lapsed for a number of years, I went out and bought all the charts to fly from home to Canyonlands field. Sadly, flying kept getting more expensive, and I just can't afford to keep current - never made the trip. Still, I'd love to overfly the area, one of these days...

Those photos are great incentive to do so, one day!

JP · Joined: 04 Jan 2007 Posts: 7656 Location: Not Sure

Love those shots :2thumbs:

Really liking this one :2thumbs:

Cirrus2000 · Joined: 26 Mar 2006 Posts: 2265 Location: Cascadia

JP wrote: Love those shots :2thumbs:

Really liking this one :2thumbs:

Seems to me I remember a geocache right there! :2thumbs:

denaliguide · Posted: Wed Mar 11, 2009 11:37 pm Post subject:

thats a great flight. awesome shots. i have done a flight similiar but started in kingman, az. it was when i was working on my long solo x-c flight for my commercial license. flew to green river that on day 1, overnighted then to canyonlands airport for fuel and back to kingman on day 2. you obviously had better weather. the days i did it it was pretty hazy.

Hatchcanyon · Joined: 24 Oct 2008 Posts: 58 Location: Germany

Thank you folks for the terribly nice comments!

A big part of the credit is due to Tim Martin!

No doubt, the flight was awesome. He´s is very experienced, flying Canyon Country for 40 years or so. He is this guy who flew through arches some decades ago, Corona Arch for example. One can find pictures of these events in several Moab places.

Knowing how to approach different features best he gave us tremendous opportunities for good shots. Often flying quite low and slow we got plentiful chances. He flew 3 complete circles over Rainbow Bridge so that we were able to shoot from different angles. It was quite impressive.

(I´m not a pilot nor having a license)

Sombeech · Posted: Thu Mar 12, 2009 2:21 pm Post subject:

very cool shots! :2thumbs:

ststephen · Joined: 17 Feb 2009 Posts: 250 Location: Felton, CA

Bravo on a fine collection of photos! :2thumbs:

My first visit to the Needles was with friends that flew me to the Outpost runway from LA. Sure brings back some great memories seeing your shots. We too flew low and slow. At one point a little too low to some boaters in Lake Powell. What can I say, my friend was a bit of a rebel :ne_nau:

Back then the runway was dirt. It made for a very interesting take off that we had to abort a few times because the fine red powder caused too much drag right at the point when the nose would lift up. The wind picked up a bit and then we made it up.

Did you loop around the confluence? It seems you are always shooting from the right side and I don't see any pictures of the Maze. I remember being very impressed with the view of the Chocolate Drops from the air.

The other impressive feature I remember that you didn't post was the Grabens in the Needles. The geology really comes to life at altitude, doesn't it? Great shot of yours, for example, of the Waterpocket.

A couple of months ago I was flying commercially cross-country, PHL to SFO. Normally, the route would be quite to the north of this area, but a big storm caused the pilot to re-route more to the south.

I was lazily staring out the window when some canyons caught my eye. I'm trying to puzzle out what I'm looking at when a second river comes in to view and I suddenly realize we're directly over Island in the Sky! The people sitting next to me thought I was nuts as I was getting so excited and calling out (to no one) the features I could recognize. OK, so maybe I am a bit nuts, but it *was* very cool to see... :ne_nau:

Hatchcanyon · Joined: 24 Oct 2008 Posts: 58 Location: Germany

Most shots are goint to the right due to the fact that I was placed in the Copilots seat. For more pictures click at "The whole Story" below the last picture. (Soyrry, story is in German!)

We looped around Rainbow Bridge but we didn´t loop around the confluence but we had it twice - one time from Moab to Page and a second time on our way back.

The Maze and Doll House is in Part 1 but we missed the Grabens. I asked Tim to fly on the way back over Buckacre Point where I looked for an old Mining Road. Then he flew us very low throug the gap at Gunsight Butte. A (mediocre) Picture of Parts of the Grabens you may find here: http://hatchcanyon.eu/Inhalt/Cross_Country_Flights/Flying_Cowboy/flying_cowboy.html (Confluence again!) I might have one in my collection of pictures.

Jaxx · Joined: 16 Jan 2007 Posts: 2641

beautiful shots. Thanks for posting them. I keep coming in to get another look. Such a cool view that you don't normally get to see.

psl53 · Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 7:46 pm Post subject:

Hatch,
Every post you've made has been outstanding. It's a pleasure to have you posting on the board. Please keep it up. Have you lived in the SW at any point in your life? Your love for the southwest and Utah is amazing, I love it!!!!!!!
Peter

Hatchcanyon · Joined: 24 Oct 2008 Posts: 58 Location: Germany

psl53 wrote: Hatch,
Every post you've made has been outstanding. It's a pleasure to have you posting on the board. Please keep it up. Have you lived in the SW at any point in your life? Your love for the southwest and Utah is amazing, I love it!!!!!!!
Peter

Thanks, Peter!

Living in the southwest? Yes and no! We were at no time permanent residents but spent a lot of time there. Everything started 28 years ago as a side effect of my career as an electronics engineer. Nowadays we are travelling for pleasure only. And yes, we love the country with all our hearts.

Rolf

Rob L · Joined: 21 Oct 2008 Posts: 92 Location: Leicester EGBG

Great photos...what an opportunity! Thanks, Rolf.

I have done a lot of flying in the States, and done many hiking trips to the southwest...but I've never flown over the southwest.

Note to self: hire a plane next trip!