But I don’t think you need to worry much about helicopter pilots at the Grand Canyon. They have minimum flight time requirements of 1,000 hours PIC. Yes, it’a time-building job, and yes, these guys are young, but they’re not exactly newbies.

The big thing I noticed is that most of the guys don’t seem to care about their work. They’re going through the motions. Although this doesn’t make them dangerous, I think they’re missing the point. They got into flying helicopters to fly, right? They’re flying in some of the most incredible scenery in the world, right? Then why don’t they ever seem to be enjoying themselves?

But back to the point — at Lake Powell, the tour planes often come fast and furious. Anyone flying here who isn’t paying attention can easily get into trouble — or worse.

I convinced operations to let me fly front seat alongside pilot. He was a young guy building his time and wasn’t interested in much talk with me.

I noticed that after takeoff, we flew over the edge of canyon making a straight line for the North Rim. Pilot didn’t have his head on a swivel but just kept looking straight ahead.

The CFI II in me wanted to speak up, but didn’t have a mike, just headset.

Thought that this kid needed more training, but who was I?

In June of same year, this kid hit a fixed wing on a cross pattern flight (same altitude). Killed 20-25 people if I remember right…could be wrong on the number, tho.

I think after this, different altitudes went into effect along with no flights below the rim anymore.

When we were at Grand Canyon in March this year, went to the Grand Canyon Airport to check out a flight.

All fresh face young people with low hours so wife and I passed on a flight.