reccomendations in Phoenix?

[driftingtrack]

Hello. i just passed my PP ASEL checkride Saturday and find myself on a
business trip to beautiful Phoenix. Would anyone care to reccomend a
friendly flight school with a(some) decent/nice 172(s) where i might take
either a checkout and some solo time or a dual sight-seeing flight?

[Blanche]

driftingtrack > wrote:
>Hello. i just passed my PP ASEL checkride Saturday and find myself on a
>business trip to beautiful Phoenix. Would anyone care to reccomend a
>friendly flight school with a(some) decent/nice 172(s) where i might take
>either a checkout and some solo time or a dual sight-seeing flight?

Which side of town? On the west side, Glendale. On the east side,
drive down to Chandler (CHD) or FFZ. North side is Deer Valley (DVT).
Warning about DVT - lots, and I mean *LOTS* of training.

Check out avweb.com and make sure you call in advance to set up
a time and CFI no matter where you decide to go.

[driftingtrack]

Blanche > wrote in
:
>
> Which side of town? On the west side, Glendale. On the east side,
> drive down to Chandler (CHD) or FFZ. North side is Deer Valley (DVT).
> Warning about DVT - lots, and I mean *LOTS* of training.

Thanks so much for the suggestions. i'm not sure exactly where we'll be
and it's only the one time so i don't mind driving a bit. Sounds like
DVT will be a little too busy. i'll check the others out. Which of them
would be your favorite?

>
> Check out avweb.com and make sure you call in advance to set up
> a time and CFI no matter where you decide to go.

Avweb: Good idea. Thanks. Wilco.

Call in advance: Obviously. Unfortunately, i'm not sure yet if/when i'll
be able to go. It all depends on the work schedule while we are out
there. I've been to Phoenix several times and have always liked it (but
that might be because i've never been during the summer ;) ) so if this
doesn't work out, i'm sure i will get back soon.

[Thomas Borchert]

Driftingtrack,

> Would anyone care to reccomend a
> friendly flight school with a(some) decent/nice 172(s) where i might take
> either a checkout and some solo time or a dual sight-seeing flight?
>

On the Scottsdale side, I'd recommend http://www.arizonaflightworks.com/

--
Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

[Timmay]

Thomas Borchert wrote:
> Driftingtrack,
>
> > Would anyone care to reccomend a
> > friendly flight school with a(some) decent/nice 172(s) where i might take
> > either a checkout and some solo time or a dual sight-seeing flight?
> >
>
> On the Scottsdale side, I'd recommend http://www.arizonaflightworks.com/
>
> --
> Thomas Borchert (EDDH)

Come on up to PRC, it's a half-hour flight to Sedona, an hour up to the
Grand Canyon, a 1:15 drive up from the valley. There are two FBO's here
that rent aircraft. Can't go wrong!

[Mike Adams[_2_]]

Blanche > wrote:

> driftingtrack > wrote:
>>Hello. i just passed my PP ASEL checkride Saturday and find myself on
>>a business trip to beautiful Phoenix. Would anyone care to reccomend
>>a friendly flight school with a(some) decent/nice 172(s) where i might
>>take either a checkout and some solo time or a dual sight-seeing
>>flight?
>
> Which side of town? On the west side, Glendale. On the east side,
> drive down to Chandler (CHD) or FFZ. North side is Deer Valley (DVT).
> Warning about DVT - lots, and I mean *LOTS* of training.

Yes, these are all good suggestions. I fly out of DVT and it does get busy occasionally, but all these
airports are very GA-friendly, and are all towered, so if you're comfortable with the communications, it's
no big deal. Our weather has been beautiful, so you're coming at the right time of the year. The valley is
very spread out and lots of road traffic, so I would second Blanche's recommendation to just go with
whichever airport is convenient. Otherwise you're spending all your time getting to the airport!

Have a good visit!

Mike

[driftingtrack]

> Come on up to PRC, it's a half-hour flight to Sedona, an hour up to
> the Grand Canyon, a 1:15 drive up from the valley. There are two FBO's
> here that rent aircraft. Can't go wrong!
>
>

THANK YOU all for some great reccomendations. We chose to take the drive
up to Prescott (PRC) and had a GREAT flight. I called the fbo number
listed on airnav and they gave us numbers for 2 of the 3 flight schools
there (1 is an Embry Riddle location.) Called North Aire and got a very
friendly response to all my questions from James. Because of the length
of the checkride, we decided to just take a dual flight up to the grand
canyon. Ash, our flight instructor couldn't have been nicer. After some
discussion of the differences in density altitude and their nice new
fuel-injected 180HP 172 from our 500ft elevation and 150HP carbeurated
airplane at home, we took off. I have read and can recite all of the
relevant information about a high and hot airport, but when we added full
power for a short field style T/O, i was shocked at just HOW DRAMATIC the
difference was. I considered for a brief second aborting the T/O after i
released the brakes because of how little acceleration we had. Of course
this was just newbie/lowlander paranoia and everything went off just
fine. Then we flew up to the grand canyon for a literally breathtaking
view. I had never seen it and i am thankful for the ability to see it
from the air.

THANK YOU James and especially Ash for a great experiance, some amazing
views, and some good lesons in the real world effects of density
altitude. Ash even threw in a discussion of an ILS approach just for the
fun of it. I guess i'll have to take another commercial flight out there
when i don't have so much work to do and try to take advantage of some of
the other suggestions here.

peace
DT