Friday photo: Grand Canyon wrapped in a blanket

The view: Over the Grand Canyon, the remnants of a so-called Pacific atmospheric river occluding the better known Colorado river below. 

The pilot: Peterson Conway, Stanely, ID

The airplane: Skylane 182

The mission: Our annual winter migration south

The memory: Tops were at 12,000′ which left little room for our little non-turbo C182 Skylane. We plotted not just canyon-rim airports, but also had to to pick between periods of storms.  Leaving Idaho on New Year’s Day, this was the first sun we had seen in almost a month.  And by “we”, I mean the pilot and his dog BonBon. Maximum depth of the Grand Canyon is 6,000′ while the shortest width is 600′ with an average of 10 miles in most places.  Even BonBon could do the simple math.  So we puckered up for a “scenic flight” across one of the great seven wonders,  wrapped in a blanket of white like a forgotten Christmas present on the roof of the world.

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Peterson Conway

Peterson Conway flies his X-Cub among the 800+ airstrips in the backcountry of Idaho, and during the winter, along the central coast of California. He learned to fly as a cure to heartbreak at a young age, finding the views aloft a balm to the confusion of growing up. He was turned on to aviation thanks to an influential uncle, who happened to also be the lead engineer on Boeing's 737, and who insisted that “no matter what happens, always first fly the plane.”

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