Albuquerque to Mesa

dcmoser

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Goshen IN KGSH
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Doug Moser
What are suggestions for flight from Albuquerque to Mesa AZ next week. I will be flying from the midwest in a turbo Saratoga. Usually I am filing IFR but have heard suggestions to follow route 40 VFR. What have some of you flown and what can I expect whether IFR or VFR. Mainly concerned with safe altitudes of course. Just looking for a little help. Thanks
 
Altitude is less a worry than the weather right now. Jet stream is playing havoc with the southwest later this week. Watch the weather, winds aloft, file IFR if you prefer and fly in the sunshine.
 
Really windy this weekend. If winds are > 25 knots stay high even if it's a head wind to avoid mechanical TB over the ridges (trick I use is peak - field elevation as a standard ... e.g. our field is 4000 MSL and nearby mountain ridge is 7500 MSL (3500 clearance), so 12000 MSL or higher will avoid the really extreme TB except rotors). This has worked with winds aloft speeds upto 60 knots. Downstream "lee" TB may be as far as 30-50 miles from the ridge causing it if winds are high.

Better idea is fly EARLY if it's windy. Winds in our area increase after noon and reach max speeds usually around 4pm.
 
Weather is a mess over the weekend, but the forecast for the week is very fine. I'm not IFR rated, so I cannot comment on that, but for me the most annoying part was always navigating between the rocks and Class Bravo. I imagine I'd go IFR just for that, if I could. The route itself is nothing remarkable, I simply tool over St. Johns at 9.5/10.5/11.5 and fight boredom by looking at the power stations. If you're adventurous, you might step lower and fly through the heat plume, see what a real turbulence is like :) But up there it's nothing. You aren't even going to see an overcast, if the forecast holds. Closer to Phoenix you cross a few ridges and valleys with few to none emergency landing spots, which always makes me nervous, but hey... probably statistically less hazardous than IFR in a light single with no chute in Midwest.
 
Well KABQ FORPE SJN.LAVAN3 KIWA seems popular for IFR.

Personally Id just go VFR direct, hooking it a little to the north of some of the peaks, play it by ear altitude wise, after all this is AZ.

Wx and airspace wise, pretty cut and dry, just tuck down below 5k once you get near the ridge of the bravo, yeah, nothing really note worthy
 
Every time I've flown that route I've just followed V190. I personally do not file or fly IFR in the mountains, at least in light airplanes. That's a pretty easy flight to make, so with a little planning and some decent weather to work with you should be ok.
 
What are suggestions for flight from Albuquerque to Mesa AZ next week. I will be flying from the midwest in a turbo Saratoga. Usually I am filing IFR but have heard suggestions to follow route 40 VFR. What have some of you flown and what can I expect whether IFR or VFR. Mainly concerned with safe altitudes of course. Just looking for a little help. Thanks
Are you /G?

For IFR, I'm usually going into PHX or FFZ. I'm /G so I typically file and receive ABQ V190 PXR at 12k. That is plenty doable in a PA32RT
If going to Mesa, you might file ABQ V190 FORPE.

Edit….just realized that you don't need /G to do that route, although I usually get cleared direct SJN after departing ABQ.

When I want to stay low and VFR, I pretty much go the same way, direct to SJN and then direct at 10.5. After SJN, I fly past SOW and then roughly follow AZ 60 down toward the Salt River Canyon/Roosevelt Lake. Then follow Apache Lake passing south of Four Peaks descending below the Bravo.

Where in Mesa are you going? Be advised FFZ is temporarily down to one runway. It is a ZOO with all of the student traffic. If the runway is still showing closed, I'd opt for IWA or CHD. I was in there on Friday ferrying a Cherokee. It was pretty nuts.

As others said, watch the weather and adjust accordingly. I fly that route a few times a year and have never gone via I-40 to get to PHX.
 
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As far as weather, look out for low ceilings. The ceilings have been as low as 18,000 to 23,000msl......and visibility has been as low as 75 miles during the day..... But there is snow forecasted in the Gallup area for this Saturday.

I-40 to Flagstaff, turn left to Mesa is the long boring way, maybe Winslow then cut the corner. I have always filed direct from Gallup and then take the route change or vectors to Phoenix Intl.
 
We will be flying into KIWA. Some good ideas here. Will watch the weather and pick an option. Thanks to all.
 
FYI, Gateway(IWA) now has a $20 fee for parking(my understanding is that if you stop on the ramp and get out it is assessed, even if just dropping/picking up passengers).

Just started a couple months ago so might not be widely publicized.
 
FYI, Gateway(IWA) now has a $20 fee for parking(my understanding is that if you stop on the ramp and get out it is assessed, even if just dropping/picking up passengers).

Just started a couple months ago so might not be widely publicized.
Looks like there is already a couple comments on Airnav about it. But if airnav is correct, they waive it with 20 gallons of fuel purchased. I'd still consider going to IWA or even CHD over FFZ right now due to the runway issue.
 
Looks like there is already a couple comments on Airnav about it. But if airnav is correct, they waive it with 20 gallons of fuel purchased. I'd still consider going to IWA or even CHD over FFZ right now due to the runway issue.

Rumor from locals has it that FFZ is also considering imposing the fee
 
I have only been to FFZ a few times and they were abnormally high fees. Of course that was over 5 years ago and it was a 135 operation, so that could have been part of it.
 
I have only been to FFZ a few times and they were abnormally high fees. Of course that was over 5 years ago and it was a 135 operation, so that could have been part of it.
Probably. FFZ has away been a relatively cheap place to go for me (fuel/fees).

A helluva lot cheaper than SDL!
 
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