Grand Canyon Air Tours

[amaineiac]

Has anyone taken an air tour of the Grand Canyon? Is it worth the time and money and do they offer any type discount for 121 pilots?

Thanks

 

[indianboy7]

the tours are pretty good if you've never seen the ditch before.........as for discounts, try scenic...they're a 121 carrier, so you might be able to get something out of them...........

 

[Lead Sled]

My first flying job was flying the canyon. It's probably something that everyone ought to do once.

'Sled

 

[ePilot22]

Off Topic...

Nevermind...





eP.

 

[Beech_boy]

Scenic

You can non-rev on scenic...call ahead to check loads and list. I think the day before was fine. We took a tour that included a flight over the canyon, a 3 hour bus tour, and a box lunch. It cost $25 for each of us.

Great trip, well worth it.

 

[LarryinTN]

Definitely take the tour and definitely go on Scenic.

I flew the tours from LAS in 1990 in the C-207 and C-402. It is really something that should not be missed. Do the tour that flies to GCN and includes lunch and a bus ride to various spots on the rim. You get an overall perspective on the Canyon that you can't get any other way.

I recommend Scenic for several reasons. They fly the twin-otter so you have two turbine engines, two pilots and TCAS. Not only is this safer than the recips but you have bleed air for A/C or heat. Scenic also has a nice multi-language tape narration system with headsets so you can hear the tour in English without it blaring over a speaker or being mixed in with other languages. Lastly their twin-otters have been modified with over-sized windows so you get a better view than in most of the other tour airplanes.

 

[00Dog]

Lastly their twin-otters have been modified with over-sized windows so you get a better view than in most of the other tour airplanes.

...Unless you get an aisle seat.

 

[DaveJ]

Good, but not as good as the old days.

The tours now aren't as much fun as they used to be. I took one back in the late 70s in a C207. We took off, leveled off at about 50 feet flew straight towards the canyon. Flying over the rim, it was a real rush to go from 50 FT AGL to 5000 FT AGL in about 2 seconds. We also flew right down to the river, very cool. Sadly, we can't do that any more.

 

[Going2Baja]

I would also reccomend Scenic. But if you do have the time once you get to the Canyon airport walk over to Grand Canyon Airlines and take their tour as well. It used to be a different part of the Canyon and the narration was given by the pilot, not on tape. Very nice to see the NE part of the Canyon.

 

[VAPOR]

go Scenic

and as for Grand Canyon Airlines they moved to Boulder City (outside of Vegas) to compete with Scenic, and Scenic is moving there in March. You can arrange a good heli tour thru Scenic once you get to the South or West rim.