Ryan, who is in her third year at the Air Force Academy, came to us to get additional hours of flight time. This will better her chance of becoming an F-16 pilot after graduation. On Christmas Eve day, after thoroughly studying the weather, we decided to do a cross-country to Grand Canyon West (1G4). The concern was that the Special Flight Rules over Grand Canyon requires flight at a minimum of 8,000 feet and the ceiling was forecast to be at 8,000 feet. However, the TAF for 1G4 called for the ceiling to lift to 12,000 later in the day. We decided to take a look and if the ceilings didn’t lift as forecast, we would divert to Kingman (KIGM).

We departed North Las Vegas (KVGT) at 0700 after contacting ground control on 121.7 and requested Flight Following. We requested 7,500 feet, thinking that would give us the required 500 feet below the clouds. As we were climbing over Nellis AFB, we were unable to climb to the assigned altitude without dipping our tail in the clouds. As we progressed the clouds started to lift and became broken at12,000 feet. We were on our way!