No , Although on either end (east or West) there are airports that are some
where in between the top of the rim and the colorado river, landing
"down" in the canyon would be next to impossible without major damage or
a water landing in to a pretty fast current and slim chance of surviving
the incident. I ALWAYS have enough altitude to make the rims and at least
a rough field landing. And most of the time am pushing the 17999' so that
I don't decend into the 14 K ceiling of the current SFR area. And yes
there are corridors below that but until now you had to use a paper chart
to navigate through them!

CH Ventus B



At 22:28 15 February 2011, Whiskey Delta wrote:
On Feb 15, 4:46=A0pm, Cliff Hilty
wrote:
Ive made the crossing both ways 2 times a year for the last several
years
and have had to go around it (via vegas and page) a few times when I
havent been able to get above 12k for a glide from the middle to
either
side. And I am just one of a bunch of pilots that try each year. After
al=
l
it is the biggest hole in the world It was and is designed for
noise
abatement so maybe we could/should get an Exemption Letter for
gliders.

At 05:57 14 February 2011, Paul Cordell wrote:

We are there on a fairly regular basis. =A0 Top of lift this day last
fall was 12.5K =A0 We don't need a higher fence.

http://tinypic.com/r/98alci/7

Has anyone ever had to land in the canyon? Suddenly can't get back to
either side.... That would be a story I would love to hear (assuming
no one was hurt). I'm not talking about Evil Knievel either...

WD