Chandler Air Service, South Western USA, Arizona
12th June 2013 - 05th July 2013
The map below displays all the airports we visited during the 3 weeks, sometimes for overnight stops, sometimes just for a couple of hours to visit somewhere and other times, just for fuel. Hmm...and sometimes for unscheduled night stops!
View Airport Hit
No matter how interesting all these airports are we paid a visit to, deep down, the only one that would completely melt the butter is always home base, in our case, Chandler. Chandler is located in a county called Maricopa, a suburb of Phoenix. It is a great location to make many more places easily accessible to fly to. Most famous, in our opinion and the wallets opinion, for its world wide known 'Hanger Cafe' which not only does great food to suit everyone's needs but is in a prime location for those wanting to watch the aircraft from spotters balcony. The airport is 14 miles South East of Phoenix Sky Harbour International and sits under the Phoenix Class B airspace by 4000ft, making it either a challenge or practically avoidable depending on what you had for lunch! I would seriously consider a day trip to the Hanger Cafe, trust me it would be well worth the visit! :-) Chandler has 2 paved, 4000ft parallel runways, with intensive training activities taking place. Helicopters operating to the South, simultaneous approaches and departures and circuit patterns, separated by 2 different tower frequencies, aerobatic area 7nm to the south East near the San Tan Mountains and on top of that, noise abatement procedures to adhere to. All of these activities are to be respected with local procedures but hats off to ATC who do a great job in making the traffic flow as smooth as possible. Everyone at Chandler is so friendly! The atmosphere at Chandler kind of reminds me of the scene from Elf where everyone is in exceptionally high spirits and ends up getting the sleigh back into the air by being positive and full of energy! Maybe that is how the unbelievable cost of hour building at Chandler, http://www.aerobatics.com/ is achieved! haha
Elevation:1200ft
One of the busiest general aviation airports in the nation! with over 203,000 flight operations annually! Located South East of Phoenix Sky Harbor.
LAS VEGAS, HENDERSON EXEC (KHND)
Elevation: 2400ft
Elevation: 2400ft
Situated 11nm South of Las Vegas, and West of Boulder City (a purpose built city for housing for the workers who built the Hoover Dam). To the North East of Henderson lies the beautiful Lake Mead area containing the Hoover Dam. Henderson is a very interesting airport to get in and out of, and doubles in interest when Vegas can't accommodate you through their class B airspace. The terminal Area Control for Vegas is like a Chandelier effect, airspace being from 8000-9000 ft, then stepping down the closer to the center you get, 6000-9000, 5000-9000 then Surface to 9000 being Vegas CTR. Surrounded to the South East and West by the Madeira Canyon Park and Sonata Park.
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| Turning final onto 17R gusting up to 25 knots 30 degrees off the runway |
SAN DIEGO, GILESPEE (KSEE)
Elevation: 388ft
Fantastic friendly GA airport in El Cajon, about 25 miles inland from San Diego International. Without this airport, my San Diego cross country would not have been possible due to the Marine Layer that engulfs the West Coast along with many other GA airports such as Montgomary and Oceanside. This airport has 3 runways, runway 17/35 not in use at the time of our visit so again, dual operations on the East/Westerly runways. We routed south, past numerous lakes including Diamond Valley Lake, before turning onto long final over Lakeside Golf Course. Also, home to the San Diego Air and Space Museum.
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| Even the camera was not risking an appearance on the approach |
15th most busiest airport in the world, with 1,232 aircraft operations a day.
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| Cleared to Transit B to Deer Valley, West Transition 5000ft No delay |
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| 07:30MST: This is my idea of how to spend a morning! |
LAKE HAVASU CITY (KSII)
Elevation: 800ft
This idealic airport is situated 3 miles to the North East of Lake Havasu, just South of the Mohave Mountains. It is an active general aviation airport, built in June 1991 and attracts many visitors to the famous 'London Bridge' where McCulloch shipped over brick by brick to generate tourism into this once deserted area of Arizona. The myth that the bridge was bought in belief that it was Tower Bridge has been proven to be a false acquisition. This airport was once one of six emergency landing fields for bomber crews during world war 2. A nice 8000ft runway with no tower facilities, just a UNICOM, where pilots state there position and intentions on a dedicated frequency. Lake Havasu Airport was always a pleasure to fly into when on runway 14, approaching over the lake and avoiding the noise abatement procedures over the town. The handling agent I would personally recommend would be Desert Skies. World Famous Waldo's BBQ is on the doorstep and is an amazing place to grab a bite to eat! http://www.airnav.com/airport/KHII/DESERT_SKIES
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| Routing North up Lake Havasu, Thompson Bay |
SEDONA (KSEZ)
Elevation: 4830ft
America's most scenic airport! This is the nearest experience to landing on an aircraft carrier! Just like the 747 being named the 'Queen of the skies', well this beautiful airport is named 'Queen of the strips'. Located in the heart of 'Red Rock Valley'. The airport is located on top of a high plateau, overlooking a major portion of the city. It is not uncommon for tourists or locals driving around downtown Sedona to see an approaching aircraft fly overhead then suddenly disappear into the mountains without ever appearing to land! Runway 03 is uphill on a 2.3% gradient and is the preferable runway for landing in tailwinds less than 10 knots.
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| Approaching 03 over Red Rock Valley, America's most scenic airport! |
Elevation: 2600ft
Both a public and Military International Airport Serving the Southern part of Arizona. It is the 2nd busiest airport in Arizona and contains 3 runways operating 142,300 operations annually. This is the aiport we flew into to visit the famous Pima Air and Space Museum, home to the SR71 Blackbird, the B52 Stratofortress and the 'Boneyard' containing over 4000 aircraft in storage!
BLYTHE (KBLH)
Elevation: 400ft
Blythe was very often our gateway to the North and West, making it a very quite suitable airfield to carry out touch and goes or to use the Blythe VOR as a waypoint when en route to another destination. Quite often, we would drop into Blythe to be greeted by a pair of V-22 Osprey (a combination of both helicopter and Turboprop with vertical landing and Take-off capabilities). I think the US Air Force were just as surprised to find two British guys carrying out Touch and Goes at a pretty much deserted airfield which was quite clearly their 'back garden'! Just within the Californian State but the 1500 mile stretch of Colorado River just to the East of Blythe defines the boundary between California and Arizona.
PALM SPRINGS INTERNATIONAL (KPSP)
Elevation: 477ft
The aerial shot below really speaks for itself! Palm Springs, 'Hollywood's playground', sits between Joshua Tree National Park and San Jacinto, in the San Bernardino National Forest. Palm Springs was recently named one of the top ten most 'stress free' airports to fly into! Maybe from a passengers perspective but I can also see the truth in this statement. We were making our approach from the South, over the Salton Sea then heading North up the valley whilst in contact with 'Approach'. We were only handed over to 'Tower' I would say 4nm out with the last instruction from Approach being to 'expect runway 31Left' Upon contact, we were given 31Right by a very laid back voice who then asked us which handling agent we were using. With a brief look at each other in the cockpit in a state of minor confusion how that had slipped our mind when flying into a significant airport, we asked what are available options were. At this point, it was like being on a game show with 50/50 choosing between Signature and Atlantic. It would have been something to have known before departing that our handling agent would have a wide selection of drinks, cookies and cakes, popcorn, shower facilities, crew car and a free flask for completing a questionnaire waiting for us upon our arrival, but to take a gamble on a 2nm final for this place, named Signature, felt twice as good! The consequence of this, which draws this story to a conclusion was the ever so calming voice replying, 'Roger No Problem Sir, in that case cleared to land 31Left!
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| On way home from San Diego, South Transit |
BANNING (KBNG)
Elevation: 2220ft
Who goes to Banning apart from two Brits who don't know any different...Once we landed, we were met by a guy who greeted us by saying:
'You would be lucky to survive coming into here usually'!Susceptible to very strong winds with being in a valley and next to a very large wind farm, with mountains to the North and South up to 11500ft! Our first trip into this remote but very inviting place (due to fuel price $5.4/g) was also our last. Located just 11nm South of Big Bear City, in the San Gorgonio Pass, (Banning Pass), 30nm West of Palm Springs.
PAGE (KPGE)
Elevation: 4316ft
On the Northern Tip of Arizona, bordering Lake Powell and to the North East, the Grand Canyon. It has 2 runways, 6000ft in length and is quite a straight forward approach. Bryce Canyon is also located roughly 30nm North.
PHOENIX GOODYEAR (KGYR)
Elevation: 971ft
One of the most accommodating airports for touch and goes. Goodyear, nestled just under the Phoenix Class B, starting at 4000ft, and home to Oxford Aviation Acadamy. Constructed during World War 2 as a naval air facility known as NAS Litchfield Park and is now a general aviation reliever airport for Phoenix Sky Harbor.
BIG BEAR (L35)*
Elevation: 6800ft
Density Altitude during our visit: 9200ft
Big Bear lies in the heart of the San Bernardino Mountain Range, Southern California. It has one, 5850ft runway, runway 08 having a standard right hand traffic pattern and 26 having a standard Left traffic pattern. Anyone who has made these procedures non-standard in the past I would assume to be sadly no longer with us. It is class E airspace, so in this 'busy goldfish bowl', radio and transponder is not mandatory. To the West is Big Bear lake and to the East is Baldwin Lake. Big Bear is in a valley with rapid rising terrain that soon on the approach and departure makes you feel like an insignificant blip on the radar. Our planned and only option of arrival was to route to the North East of the mountains and fly in between the 11500ft and 8336ft peaks.'Aviation is proof that given, the will, we have the capacity to achieve the impossible' - E.V.Rickenbacker
Myself and Pas's last memories before we left for Big Bear early in the morning, 0730MST, where the temperature and associated density altitude is not to impeding, were that of John's words:
'Guys, make sure your the lightest that is practically possible, do everything right the first time because you won't get a second chance'
Back in 2006, the airport published a log, that recorded 47 crash fatalities in 25 years.
"At Big Bear, any doubt is no doubt"
TWENTY NINE PALMS (KTNP)
For those who have seen the movie Quantum of Solace, (Daniel Craig as Bond), recall the ending, where Bond drives Greene out into the middle of the desert and throws him out the trunk and drives off leaving him with just a canister of oil to survive on! Without the 'being held captive' part, this airfield is just that. With just a fuel pump and a VOR navigational aid, this airport has not much more use other than those with a Cayote log book!
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| Twenty Nine Palms aka: 'The Poor Man's Palm Springs' |
Elevation: 1478ft
Located 15nm North of Phoenix downtown and to the West of Scottsdale and Falcon Field. This airport again sits under the Phoenix class B starting at 6000ft. I choose to flew into this lovely airport for my last flight as it is the busiest airport in the world without a scheduled airline service! In 2009, it recorded 402,335 aircraft movements making it the the 22nd busiest airport in the world! The airport has two parallel runways, being 7/25.
WINSLOW (KINW)
What was intentionally just a fuel stop, returning from Page, turned out to be an unscheduled night stop. Not far from Meteor crater, in the center of Arizona.
YUMA INTERNATIONAL (KNYL)
South Arizona, near the border of Mexico, this airport having 4 runways, is mainly used by military.
TUSCON, RYAN FIELD (KRYN)
Ryan Field was created in 1940 as a training camp for the army air corps. Used as a reliever airport for Tuscon International and is another one of many friendly and pleasant airfields to fly into just outside of the main district of Tuscon.
By PianoPilot
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