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Date
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April 17, 2006
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Type
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Cessna C172S
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Origin
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Page/ Arizona
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Origin ICAO/ location identifier
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KPGA
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Destination
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Bryce Canyon
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Destination ICAO/ location identifier
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KBCE
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Approx. distance
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58 nm
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Flying time
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00:52h
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The next day greeted us with fairly strong winds out of easterly directions. Having landed into Page's runway 15 the previous day, I figured I could deal with the crosswind component and that it would give me a sufficient length for a safe takeoff at its altitude of more than 4,000ft (temperatures remained low, though, leaving at least the "hot" part out of the "hot & high" equation). But when I started the takeoff run I soon realized that I could hardly keep the aircraft straight on the runway, up to the point where I decided to abort the takeoff. Now, today, with the experience of 16 additional years of flying, I am not sure how much of that was due to a lack of experience in dealing with stronger crosswinds or if it was really that bad. In any case, I elected to switch to the significantly shorter runway 07. Now facing a solid headwind, the takeoff was without problems, with about 30% of the runway to spare.
The following short flight to Bryce Canyon was once more breathtaking in terms of scenery but otherwise fairly uneventful. I recall coming on to final from a fairly high base for runway 21 (local wind direction apparently being quite different to Page), but having no issues with the landing due to the generous runway of more than 2,000m. We parked close to the neat "Blockhouse Hangar", something I have not seen since.
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