Thread: Las Vegas

Hi gang,

I'm sitting in the Las Vegas Terminal waiting for a flight back to Merced, CA and was wondering if anyone has flown their CTsw into Las Vegas yet.

I flew in last Wed for a company Seminar, the wind was pretty bad and the small airliner I was in was all over the place during landing. I spoke to the Pilot afterwards, he said the wind blows a lot here and anything under 13,000 feet coming over the mountains gets pretty rough.

I think it was just a windy day, but I sure don't want to find out the hard way, (especially if I have my wife on board).

I"ve made the trip from Mammoth to North Las Vegas 5 times now. Haven't had a bumpy flight yet. I generally cruise at 10,000'

ED,

I figured you would have made it to Las Vegas by now, I will have to talk to you in person some time about how to make the trip.

Alan,

Look here http://www.ctflyer.com/viewtopic.php?t=27 some en route photos are included.

Living 125 miles NE, I don't think that Las Vegas or the mountains nearby have conditions any better or worse than up here in UT or the rest of the desert or sagebrush western states. When planning flights anytime of the year in UT, NV, AZ, NM, etc., you should be very aware of the wind forecasts. The fact is that there are times NOT to go on cross countries in a LSA out here. Spring and summer winds in desert areas can be wicked. I mean for example surface winds with gusts of 40 or more knots on a perfectly clear day. I do not know of any long range forecast source for surface winds. The TAF's are good for 24 hours ahead.

A common winter condition has very high winds at altitudes above the nearby mountains and calm conditions down in the valleys at the airports. Check both the TAF's and the winds aloft which may severely affect ground speed and time enroute in our relatively slow LSA's.

Don't be discouraged, but be careful.

Y'all come, y'hear.

Just to get you thinking, Columbia to Vegas is a 3 leg flight each taking about an hour.

1) Columbia to Mammoth Yosemite or Eastern Sierra Regional (Bishop) Victor 230 from Friant to Mammoth Mountain is the smooth route in prevailing winds as well as being the low altitude crossing. If conditions are favorable quite a bit of short cutting can be done while still avoiding high terrain.

2)Bishop to Beatty fly a direct heading while deveating a little to cross between the south end of the white mountains and the north end of the inyo mountains. After crossing the first and highest ridge you will have a couple more to cross before it the country becomes lower and open into Beatty.

3)Beatty to Vegas flying a direct heading and deveiating for terrain only slightly puts you east of the high terrain and probably lower than the lee side turbulence. This is the kind of flight where I consult my gps wind data especially the arrow a lot. The terrain west of Vegas is 12,000 feet and coming from the north west with a vertical navigation profile to land in north las vegas will keep you far from the rotor that east bound traffic has to descend through.