Arizona flying.. Is it good?

[Aerocadet]

Good day!

I would like to ask for anyone's opinion if it is good to fly or start flight training in Arizona. How about Tucson?

Is the weather also good? When's the best month to start private pilot training?

Thank you very much! :sad:

[Bruce Wayne]

Arizona Diary
May 15th: Now this is a state that knows how to live! Beautiful sunny days and warm balmy evenings. Mountains and deserts blended together. What a place! Watched the sunset from a park lying on a blanket. It was beautiful. I've finally found my home. I love it here.

June 14th: Really heating up. Got to 108 today. Not a problem. Live in an air-conditioned home, drive an air-conditioned car, work in an air-conditioned office. What a pleasure to see the sun every day like this. I'm turning into a real sun worshipper.

June 30th: Had the backyard landscaped with western plants today. Lots of cactus and rocks. What a breeze to maintain. No more mowing for me. Another scorcher today, but I love it here.

July 10th: The temperature hasn't been below 100 all week. How do people get used to this kind of heat? At least it's a dry heat. Getting used to it is taking longer than I expected.

July 15th: Fell asleep by the pool. Got 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body. Missed two days of work; what a dumb thing to do. I learned my lesson though: got to respect the ol' sun in a climate like this.

July 25th: Dry heat, my butt. Hot is hot! The home air-conditioner is on the fritz and the A/C repairman charged $250 just to drive by and tell me he needed to order parts.

July 30th: Been sleeping outside by the pool for three nights now. $1,600 in damn house payments and we can't even go inside. Why did I ever come here?

August 4th: 115 degrees! Finally got the air-conditioner fixed today. It cost $1,200 and gets the temperature down to about 90. I hate this [expletive deleted] state.

August 8th: If another wise a** cracks, "Hot enough for you today?" I'm going to tear his [expletive deleted] throat out. Damn heat. By the time I get to work the radiator is boiling over, my clothes are soaking wet, and no deodorant works well enough!

August 10th: The weather report might as well be a damn recording: Hot and Sunny. It's been too hot to sleep for two damn months and the weatherman says it might really warm up next week. Doesn't it ever rain in this barren damn desert? $1,700 worth of cactus just dried up and blew into the [expletive deleted] pool. Even a cactus can't live in this heat.

August 14th: Welcome to Hell! Temperature got to 120 today. Forgot to crack the window and blew the [expletive deleted] windshield out of the BMW. The installer came to fix it and said, "Hot enough for you today?" My wife had to spend the $1,600 house payment to bail me out of jail.

August 30th: Worst day of the damn summer. I'm not leaving the house. The [expletive deleted] monsoon rains finally came and all they did is to make it muggier than hell. The BMW is now floating somewhere in Mexico with its new $500 windshield. nobody told me about staying out of the washes during a "flash flood" warning. That does it. We're moving back to California and buying a house next to the freeway for some peace and quiet.

[Trolle]

Flew there for nearly 2 years. The weather is very good...and yes, it is hot, especially in Tuscon.

However, the opportunity to get time in actual IFR conditions is virtually non-existent compared to other areas.

I was grounded for nearly 2 weeks for a night flight due to monsoons in the fall; otherwise very few weather disruptions.

There are various types of airspace (B, C, D, and uncontrolled), which gives you good experience. Where you learn to fly usually makes you comfortable in that particular airspace; students from LA may feel more comfortable in complex, high density airspace and not uncontrolled, less dense areas. Arizona has, in theory, nearly all types. Depends of course on your instructor, and where you spend your time.

Have fun!

[2 Whites 2 Reds]

Arizona is very good flying. But its an even better base to fly from. Don't just stick to arizona, get the sectional charts and challenge yourself, me and a mate hour built there in Feb....not a single day we couldn't fly and had a great 5 day trip up the west coast from Las Vegas to San diego to LA to Santa Barbara to Palm Springs. That trip alone included some very character building stuff from uncontrolled airspace to being radar vectored through the VFR route into North Las Vegas Airport to navigating the VFR Shoreline Zone Transit of LAX on specific VOR radials. To sum up.....great flying.

I can seriously recommend Westwind Aviation based at Deer Valley Airport in Phoenix....they bent over backwards to makesure that the 2 172's we had block booked were always available with 50hr and 100hr checks begin done overnight especially and instructors giving us some great inspiration and advice where to go. Sorry this isnt a sales pitch and I dont work for Westwind but was thoroughly satisfied with them. If you look at them definitely block book the aircraft so its yours and yours alone while you're there. I can highly recmommend N54715 or N123GJ. Don't be afraid, they look beaten up but they're great little planes and dirt cheap to hire.

Oh, whilst we were there John Travolta flew his private fleet in which are looked after by Westwinds Maintenance partners next door so you can have a gander at what he has to play with.....any tail numbers ending JT at Deer Valley belong to him.

Hope this helps.

2W2R:ok: