“Time to turn off your avionics, toss out your GPS, disable your moving map, forget about flight following, abandon ATC, and Get Back to Basics!”
This is how the description on the official post of the Grand Canyon Rotor Run starts and it immediately tells you what to expect. Sounds fun? You bet.
This is an offline event, meaning that you can fly it at anytime your schedule allows you. There are a few rules that you should follow. Being an offline event, these are obviously not going to be enforced but it doesn’t matter as you won’t be hurting anyone’s flying, of course. Following these rules always gives me a sense of progress and even of fulfilment for following the intentions of the organizer.
One of the rules indicates you should not fly more than one segment every day and these are shorter than normal on purpose as they are “designed to allow the sim pilot to take the necessary time to slow down or hover for map/chart review”. Very thoughtful and it removes any pressure from pilots. I love to be able to do these flights quickly. Well, as quickly as possible. It makes it actually possible for me to fit them into my (very) tight schedule.
Check out the official forum post about it. All sims are welcome, and you won’t need anything special. Bring your sense of adventure, your favorite helicopter and have a blast!
